The Federation of Disability Organizations in Malawi (FEDOMA) has expressed dismay over the country’s lack of technologically advanced equipment to assist people with disabilities in crucial aspects of life such as transport and education.
FEDOMA’s Acting Executive Director, Simon Munde was speaking on Monday in Blantyre where they joined virtually the Inclusion Africa Conference hosted by Enable Africa taking place in Namibia.
“We are quite behind; our colleagues in other countries are ahead of us. Am saying this because there is evidence that there are other technologies that other countries started using in 2005 but in Malawi those technologies are not yet in; and that is one of the unfortunate part of our situation,” said Munde.
He added that issues of mobility are a problem for persons that use wheelchairs in the county citing that there is not even a single public bus that accommodates wheelchair users.
One of the participants at the conference, Hendrina Mposola, said policy makers need to take action to ensure that persons with disabilities are accommodated and included in terms of technological advancements.
“We already have good policies, what we want is to have them implemented to make sure that persons with disabilities are able to access various technologies be it ICT ,transport and educational innovations with ease, ” said Mposola.
Since the first Inclusive Africa Conference in 2020, the purpose of this annual event is to promote the advancement of digital accessibility and assistive technology for persons with disabilities in Africa.
According to inclusiveafrica.org, over the last three years this Inclusive Africa Conference has created a platform for disability and assistive technology for persons with disabilities in Africa.
FEDOMA was founded in 1999, as an umbrella organization of Persons with Disabilities (OPDs) in Malawi to provide a unified voice for allOPDs.
