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People living with disabilities bemoan lack of relevant info in public institutions

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PEOPLE living with disabilities yesterday called on institutions administering HIV and Aids programmes to provide them with relevant information in pictorial, audio and braille formats, as they were being left out on HIV testing, treatment and condom use.

PEOPLE living with disabilities yesterday called on institutions administering HIV and Aids programmes to provide them with relevant information in pictorial, audio and braille formats, as they were being left out on HIV testing, treatment and condom use.

BY VENERANDA LANGA

Officials from Zimbabwe National Network of People Living with HIV (ZNNP+) and the Disability HIV/Aids Trust yesterday told the Parliamentary Thematic Committee on HIV and Aids, led by Midlands Senator Lillian Timveous, that they were faced with a lot of discrimination at most public health institutions.

Edwin Ndlovu, who represented the Disability HIV/Aids Trust, bemoaned the lack of disability friendly policies as well as statistics on the number of HIV-positive people living with disabilities.

“The ministry of Environment has policies for snakes and frogs, but there are no policies for people with disabilities, yet disability was there from the time when Jesus Christ walked this earth,” he said.

“There is a lot of information on HIV out there, but it is not user-friendly to persons with disabilities, as there is lack of dissemination in sign language for the hearing-impaired or in pictorial format, as well as in braille for the visually-impaired.”

Ndlovu said, as a result, people with disabilities were failing to get adequate pre- and post-counselling information, adding several people with disabilities did not understand how to use condoms.

He said the challenge were threefold for HIV-positive women with disabilities, as they dealt with marginalisation firstly as women, then secondly as women with disabilities and as disabled women with HIV.

“When condoms are placed at public toilets, the blind may not see them, and if they find them, they may not be able to know if they have expired. When hearing-impaired women are raped, they might not be able to give evidence in court because their homegrown sign language is different from the one taught at schools, which they might not have attended,” he said.

ZNNP+ acting executive director, Rumbidzai Matewe said: “There is need to come up with HIV service delivery strategies and policies that are reflective of people with disabilities. We need data on how many disabled people are affected and infected by HIV and are on treatment, and people with disabilities must be engaged when coming up with strategies or policies on HIV.”