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disABILITY FOCUS

Welcome to (dis)ABILITY FOCUS, a blog by George Mwika Kayange. He is the Director of Programmes at the Southern Africa Federation of the Disabled (SAFOD - www.safod.net), based in Botswana. Previously, he worked as an Inclusive Education Coordinator at the Federation of Disabled Organisations in Malawi and as a Director at Child Rights Information and Documentation Centre (www.cridoc.net). The aim of this blog is to raise awareness about critical issues affecting people with disabilities

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- January 29, 2012

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Understanding key Concepts: Medical Model versus Social Model

- February 10, 2011

The definition and classification of disabled persons have gone through a number of changes over the centuries. Specialists have grouped disability approaches into two models, namely “social model” and “medical model”. The distinctions between the “social model” and the “medical model” of disability can initially seem remote from the concerns of someone unfamiliar with disabilities struggling to ensure that persons with disabilities have equal access to the mainstream social life, such as their ability to enjoy their right to access transportation infrastructure, or access to the HIV/AIDS education. The theory of Medical Model Approach uses traditional approaches which states that the inability to carry out activities is caused by impairment or impairments. For example, you are not mobile because you have a spinal injury. This understanding of disability is said to be a medical model of disability because the causes of disability are attributed only to medical conditions. In contras...

Welcome to the “disABILTY FOCUS”

- November 28, 2010

We would like to take this opportunity to welcome you, readers, to this new blog, The disABILTY FOCUS which tackles issues affecting persons with disabilities in Malawi and beyond. As you may be aware, while most of us have been reading a number of blogs on the Internet and columns in newspapers and other publications focusing on a thematic issue like gender, most of you will however testify that this is probably the first time you will be reading, and following, a blog that specifically tackles issues on disabilities in Malawi. It is in this context why the authors – Mussa Chiwaula of Federation of Disability Organisations in Malawi (FEDOMA) and George Mwika Kayange of Child Rights Information & Documentation Centre (CRIDOC) – have initiated the blog. Through this blog, we intend to help raise awareness and encourage debate on key issues that affect persons with disabilities in Malawi. We also aim to assess the role of various stakeholders in the promotion of rights ...

Examples of Adaptive Technologies for the Disabled

- April 12, 2011

There is no denying the fact in this age of technology, there is a steady increase of people who use computers and Internet frequently in their workplaces, public places, or homes, but there are still many individuals who do no have access to these technologies. Some may not access them because they cannot afford to do so financially. But others have failed because of disability, in spite of having access to computer. This is why adaptive technologies have been developed. Many computers in libraries, public information centres, government institution, still do have the adaptive technologies because they are still new in Malawi. We must, therefore, list down some examples of these technologies. However, before we do so, we must first describe different categories of disabilities that make it difficult for people to access information. The major categories of disability types are as follows: • Visual blindness: This may include blindness, low...