People With Disabilities(PWDs) have welcomed the move by the government to translate the National Development Strategy 1(NDS1) into 13 national languages including braille and sign language in line with the government’s commitment to give all citizens access to the document.
In an interivew with 263Chat, the board member for Deaf Women Included also the founder for Signs of Hope, Samantha Sibanda said making the NDS1 accessible in all formats is a very welcome move although they want more to be done in terms of empowerment and participating in the country’s development programs.
“They found it necessary and is greatly appreciated. However the contents of the strategy are worrisome because it only mentions disability once under social security. We the government to include people with disabilities in all pillars because we want to contribute programmes like poverty reduction and food security programmes too,”
“Disability is a cross cutting issue and equal opportunities should be given to young people with disabilities. We want Pwds to be part of the strategic pillars they mentioned in the NDS1,” she added.
Sibanda said with the Disability policy now in place their hope is that the human rights approach to Disability will be upheld.
Briefing the media yesterday, Minister of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services, Monica Mutsvangwa said the NDS1 document was now available in Shona, Tonga, Nambya, Venda, Xhosa, Kalanga, Chewa, Shangani, Tswana, Sotho, Ndebele, Chibarwe and Ndau, Braille and Sign Language.
“Cabinet wishes to inform the public that the NDS1 document is now available in 15 languages, including the English version, which is already in the public domain, and the Braille version, which is part of the recent publications. DVDs on Sign Language are also available, essentially leaving no one behind in terms of access to information on NDS1,” Minister Mutsvangwa said.
NDS1 is the Government’s economic blueprint running from 2021 to 2025 and is anchored on devolution, decentralization and prudent use of national resources for the benefit of all citizens.
