National School of Government and Department of Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities highlight disability awareness training
The National School of Government (NSG) and the Department of Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities (DWYPD) have signed an agreement to roll out Disability Inclusion Training Programme.
The NSG will present and facilitate training workshops to improve the capacity of government departments to implement the policy directives and deliverables of the White Paper on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
The agreement was signed by the two Departments on 03 November 2022, the eve of the start of the Disability Rights Awareness Month (DRAM), which culminates in the observance of the International Day of Persons with Disabilities commemorated annually on the 3rd of December.
DRAM 2022 is being observed under the theme: Empowering Persons with Disabilities through resourceful, sustainable and safe environments.
The agreement is hailed as a step in the right direction to empower government departments to implement the policy directives and deliverables of the White Paper on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
The NSG will offer workshops covering equality, disability inclusiveness, universal design, universal access, planning and budgeting, awareness raising, self-representation and reasonable accommodation in the Public Sector. The NSG will also host conversations with disability focal points to continue capacitating the government’s disability rights machinery.
The NSG’s workshops responds to the challenges facing persons with disabilities who experience marginalisation and exclusion and risk to their safety and well-being due to not having access to appropriate, affordable and timeous reasonable accommodation support measures. It offers practical guidance on creating equal opportunities and universal access for a diverse group of persons with ill-health and disabilities at work.
“The NSG programme is designed to build the capacity of a range of stakeholders to create and maintain a barrier-free and accessible public sector workplace, focusing on employees and service users with disabilities. It will assist government in improving the knowledge and capacity of disability focal persons and managers in the public sector responsible for disability inclusivity”, pointed out by Minister TW Nxesi, the Acting Minister for the Public Service and Administration.
The Minister in the Presidency for Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities, Ms Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, welcomed the agreement. She stated that, “Persons with disabilities continue to face marginalisation due, in part, to government departments not mainstreaming disability rights within the planning, monitoring and evaluation, as well as budgeting phases of development of annual performance plans. This capacity-building initiative will go a long way in giving disability rights machinery, tools to drive the disability rights agenda within implementing departments.”
Participants will be able to explain the concepts of equality, disability inclusiveness, universal design, universal access, and reasonable accommodation at work. They will understand the legislative requirements regarding incapacity due to ill-health, disability, equality, universal design, universal access, and reasonable accommodation at work.
The agreement is in line with Pillar 1 of the White Paper on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which is Removing Barriers to Access and Participation. The White Paper (2015) focuses on the following six dimensions to remove barriers to access and participation, which informed the content of the NSG training workshop:
- Changing attitudes and behaviour;
- Access to the built environment;
- Access to transport;
- Access to information and communication;
- Universal design and access; and
- Reasonable accommodation measures.
The training workshops will be conducted over three days through face-to-face sessions starting early next year.
The NSG subscribes to the Policy on Reasonable Accommodation and Assistive Devices for Employees with Disabilities in the Public Service which makes provision for employers to ensure inclusion and enable employees to fully participate in activities which include training.
The Technical Assistance Guidelines on the Employment of People with Disabilities issued by the Department of Labour and Employment, make specific reference to the employer’s role in relation to training and career advancement.
For training enquiries, contact: Craig Jansen at 012 441 6013 Craig.Jansen@thensg.gov.za
Media enquiries:
Dikeledi Mokgokolo
Cell: 082 888 2355
E-mail: Dikeledi.Mokgokolo@thensg.gov.za
