Don’t discriminate

ANEWSPAPER cartoon published in a certain African country triggered bitter reaction from people who condemned it for being cynical and insensitive to human beings with a disability.

It depicted a visually impaired person helping a similarly fated friend to cross a busy road in a major city. It implied that it was illogical for one sightless person to seem to help another person similarly fated in such difficult circumstances.

The barrage of criticism compelled the newspaper to issue an apology, because the cartoon had cast people with visual impairment in a very bad light. On the contrary, many disabled individuals are very sharp people.

Fourteen-year-old Ramadhan Idd is one of the latest cases on that score. He has no hands, but through exemplary determination Ramadhan programmed his legs into tools for writing at a very tender age.

On passing the Standard 7 exams, he was among the handful who merited enrolment in institutions for gifted students.

The sky is the limit, too, for many other Ramadhans out there, some of whom are victims of stereotypical notions and aren’t helped to exploit their full potential.

Initiatives to neutralise these notions should be stepped up – the clarion call being that physical disability is not in any way synonymous with helplessness or a failure to excel in intellectual and other endeavours.