To help its members get jobs, Uganda’s deaf community has called for amendments to the Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) Act.
According to Ambrose Murangira, the executive director of Uganda National Association for the Deaf (Unad), employers should be obliged to give affirmative consideration to people with hearing and other impairments.
“The chances of deaf people getting employed are very limited. We are not employed in the public service plus mainstream organisations and have been relegated to working in disabled people’s organisations (DPOs) and in the informal sector,” Murangira told a media conference at National theatre in Kampala, Monday.
Under the proposals, private sector employers would have to reserve five per cent of their jobs for people with hearing impairments, while the public service would have to employs 10 per cent.
Murangira said Unad has 55 members with bachelor’s degrees and diplomas but can’t find employment. Murangira observed that even when the graduates opt for the informal sector for employment, they still face a challenge of competing for the market.
Asked if Unad members had benefited from government programmes aimed at improving livelihoods, Murangira said they had not.
“The lack of a deliberate policy by the public service to promote employment of the marginalised groups has made it difficult for PWDs to get and retain employment. We are often the last to be hired and the first to be fired,” Murangira added.
Unad’s gender and vulnerable groups coordinator, Doreen Sandra Kauma, asked for more affirmative action by government to ensure PWDs are employed. Kauma added that if government doesn’t promote the rights of PWDs, employers will not feel obliged to employ them.
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