Hurdles PWDs face in employment

Everyone gets excited about their accomplishments. This is, especially so when one has completed their training and they are ready to exercise their knowledge and skills through attaining employment. However, persons living with disabilities (PWDs) have a different feel of the employment industry. Inequality in employment is one of the main stumbling blocks to social and economic development for PWDs in Uganda.

As much as Article 23 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) 1948 states that “everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment; everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work” there are still grey areas in the industry. 

Experts and employers have revealed that hiring PWDs comes at an additional cost, and this has largely contributed to their low employment rates.

Testimonies from some PWDs, confirmed by employers from different government service commissions, revealed a glaring gap in their employment, which they agreed needs urgent intervention.

During a two-day workshop dubbed Reasonable Accommodation for PWDs in the Workplace for Districts Service Commission hosted by Cyber School Technology Solutions in Kampala recently, PWDs interrogated government officials for discriminating against them during employment. 

The latter, especially representatives from different district service commissions, defended themselves, saying they were helpless.

Kyambogo University guild minister in charge of Disability Affairs, Mr Hudson Wabuya, openly criticised the discriminatory recruitment process in both government and private entities.

“You enter an interview room but the panel instead of asking you about your ability, decides to concentrate on your disability. What did we do dear members? Government and private employers why do you discriminate against us?” he asked.

He added, “One day I applied for a job and was successfully shortlisted but when I reached the oral interviews, they turned me down because of my disability….this is bad and must stop if you mean good to us.”

The numbers

The 2016/2017 Manpower Survey that was released by the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (Ubos) indicated that only 1.3 percent of the formal sector workforce in Uganda was made up of PWDs.

The final December 2024 National Population and Housing Census Report released by Ubos indicated that there are 1.4 million PWDs in the country. This is part of the 45.9 million country’s total population.

Of these; 78,876 are living with albinism, 41,431 persons are deaf, 273,167 persons, 28,843 persons are blind and 329,489 persons have low vision, 6,314 persons are deaf-blind, 478,462 have multiple disabilities while 437,819 persons aged five years and above had multiple disabilities.

Unlike in Universities where PWDs are provided with these required guides, during employment, the PWDs are required to hire their own who charge Shs15,000 per day.

“As a student, I face the challenge of inaccessible roads as you can see, in my wheelchair, bathrooms are not accommodative,” said Ms Victoria Nakafeero, a student of Bachelor of Community Development and Social Justice.

Ms Editor Tumuhaire, who lives with albinism and studies at Nkumba University, said: “The major challenge I face at school is that some leaders do not understand me and treat me like other normal people and this affects my schooling.”

Need for intervention

The workshop which attracted more than 500 delegates including PWDS, officials from district service commissions, academia, government ministries, departments and agencies, and Cyber School Technology Solutions, the host, who agreed that there must be an immediate intervention to end this issue.

Mr John Mukibi Katende, the project manager at Cyber School Technology Solutions, said the essence of these regional workshops that have been conducted in various areas is to ensure that employers from government and private sector interact with PWDs and solve the challenges affecting the latter.

“You find that most PWDs are qualified but because of these limitations, they face unemployment challenges. These are the problems we want to solve because we at Cyber School Technology Solutions, advocate for inclusion for all,” Mr Katende said.

What stakeholders say

A physically impaired Stuart Tamale, who represents PWDs on Buvuma District Service Commission, said the law is limited in addressing issues affecting PWDS such as getting them helpers since they need them to work effectively.

“For example, it is not easy to employ a deaf person and at the same time include a sign language interpreter for them. There is no payment for that because the government does not consider the helper’s payment,” said Mr Tamale.

He added commenting on the infrastructure, “Most facilities in government are still inaccessible like one small office cannot accommodate many people and there are no ramps. The other challenge could be topography of the areas such as we in the islands, few PWDs apply to come and work with us.”

Ms Angella Nyandela, the principal human resource officer at Masindi District Service Commission did not differ from Tamale on the limitations noting that local governments are helpless unless a policy is revised to accommodate helpers of PWDs.

“PWDs also have that stigma because, during the application process, the PWDs do not disclose their status. So, we pre-shortlist, and shortlist when we are not aware that they have a disability until the time of interviews. This becomes a challenge because you cannot plan for someone abruptly,”Ms Nyandela explained.

Mr Bruce Kalinzi, a human resource officer at Bukomansimbi Local Government, said that “Some of the challenges we face while recruiting PWDs are, they need a lot of support that we may not be able to achieve such as screen reading technologies, also, there is need for building modifications, However, some positions require PWDS and for us if one applies and they can do the job, we take them on.”

Mr Kalinzi believes that everyone deserves a chance only that resources could be very tight to afford the most conducive environment for persons with special needs.

For, Mr Owen Amutuhaire, a human resource officer from Kazo District local government, he did not differ so much from the previous stakeholder concerns, saying majority of PWDS do not access job adverts and if they come through, they lack helpers.

Speaking at the workshop, Mr Julius Kamya, a commissioner from the Equal Opportunities Commission, reminded district representatives about the law which mandates them to have a certain percentage of PWDs in their workforce.