‘Train health personnel on handling women with disabilities’

Women with disabilities have called for the special training of health personnel particularly those who work in hospitals on how to relate and handle female patients with disabilities.

National coordinator of Advocacy for Women with a Disability Initiative (AWWDI) Patience Ogolo-Dickson made the call while fielding questions from the Daily Trust health desk in Abuja.

She said it is important for the receptionists at hospitals, nurses , doctors and other personnel to receive the trainings so that they can do away with stereotypes, wrong perceptions and denying women with disabilities access to health care.

“It is about a human being not about a disability. Because I have a disability does not mean I should not be pregnant, or marry. These are wrong notions that we are supposed to change. We should also ensure that hospitals are accessible and available to women with disabilities,” she said.

She said a lot of women with disabilities suffer sexual violence and no one is held accountable for it because of unavailable laws to protect them.

While urging women with disabilities to develop themselves, she called on government and other stakeholders to pass the disability bill into law saying, “that is freedom for all people with disabilities. If it is not passed into law we are slaves and will forever be slaves.”

Earlier, Second Secretary, Australian High Commission, Mathew Mechan said the key now is to change people’s mindsets so that they no longer see these women as a group of persons with disability but rather as persons with ability, adding that all countries should address stigmas attached to disability to enable people realised their potential.