After years of conflict and armed violence, many citizens have been left with a long-term impairment. The last national census, conducted in 2008 before the country’s independence, estimated that 5.1 per cent of the South Sudanese population had a disability. However, the humanitarian community and OPDs question the quality of that data and believe that the actual figures have always been significantly higher, reaching, at the very least, the global average of 15 per cent (IOM and HI, 2018, p.13; OCHA, 2021a, p.5).6 The proliferation of mines, unexploded ordinance, physical trauma and abuse, insufficient access to essential health and medical services, lack of protection, and general poverty increase the risk of acquiring long-term and preventable impairments (IOM and HI, 2018, p.13).
While the validity of the disability prevalence is questionable, evidence exists on the many types of barriers that persons with disabilities face in their daily lives. Some of these barriers affect certain groups more than others. Persons with physical impairments have difficulties accessing services and participating in livelihood opportunities because they have no access to assistive devices that would enable them to reach service points and meaningfully engage in community life. Some of them make their own devices from the material they can buy on the market or find on the streets, but these cannot replace quality assistive devices, such as crutches, wheelchairs and hearing aids (Focus group discussions [FGDs] Yambio and Yei, May/June 2021).
Moreover, persons with disabilities are discriminated against in the job market and lack job opportunities either because they have difficulty pursuing an education that would give them the necessary skills and qualifications to compete with other potential employees or because employers regard them as ‘incomplete’ or incapable of working. Some persons with disabilities do volunteer work, but they hardly ever engage in income-generating activities that would help them to sustain their families or contribute to their household income. Employment opportunities for persons with disabilities are scarce because environmental, institutional and attitudinal barriers exclude them from the job market, vocational skill development and from education in general (FGD Yei, June 2021). Consequently, they also have more difficulties in securing loans or support from financial institutions as well as legal services (ibid.).
In addition, inaccessible buildings, the lack of public transport possibilities and a poor road network prevent many persons with a physical impairment from reaching service points, as well as health and education facilities, which are often located far from the community. In particular, persons with a visual impairment struggle to locate services and service points (FGD Yambio, May 2021) and when they can access these facilities, the lack of tactile signals, railings, Braille markings, contrasting signage and other design features hamper their free movement (FGD Yei, June 2021). In addition, the negative attitudes of the service providers lead to discrimination and even harassment. Respondents reported that, in some health facilities, persons without disabilities were served first. Barriers and facilitators assessments in the health sector found that attitudes among health personnel varied according to the type of disability; persons with physical impairments faced less discrimination than persons with hearing or intellectual impairments (HI, 2017a, p.4).
The radio is the medium most commonly used to share information. However, households with persons with disabilities often do not possess a radio, which means that information does not reach them. Regular interaction between service providers and persons with disabilities is limited and persons with disabilities are rarely involved in decision-making, particularly in humanitarian coordination clusters and at the national policy level (FGDs in Yei and Yambio, May/June 2021).
Furthermore, even during needs assessments and registration exercises by the humanitarian community, persons with disabilities are not systematically identified or asked about their needs. Thus, in most cases, humanitarian operations do not meet the needs of persons with disabilities, and they may even impede persons with disabilities from receiving urgently needed health supplies (ibid.).
Women with disabilities are at a high risk of gender-based violence and other forms of abuse. In particular, single mothers, whose husbands have died or have left them after childbirth, are at a high risk of harassment and extreme poverty. Many of them have no access to income and can hardly provide for their children (ibid.).
Children with disabilities face many obstacles in relation to attending school due to physical barriers, a lack of understanding of inclusive education and the absence of tailored teaching methods, all of which prevent them from reaching their full potential and creating a better future for themselves. Where children do have access to inclusive education, this is often by chance, a result of the engagement of individual teachers, families and other pupils or students with disabilities (HI, 2017b, p.6). OPDs therefore suggest reforming the national teaching curriculum to make it inclusive for persons with disabilities, offering means of transport to schools for children with disabilities, and setting up a scholarship programme (FGDs in Yambio and Yei, May/June 2021).7
Persons with intellectual and psychosocial disabilities are widely excluded from society and have no OPDs or self-help groups to voice their concerns. The interviews show that attitudinal and institutional barriers in particular prevent their meaningful participation in society and the humanitarian response. This will be discussed in further detail below.
To sum up, persons with disabilities are more at risk of exclusion than those without disabilities. While there are some commonly shared barriers for all persons with disabilities, for example, discrimination in the job market, some barriers affect certain groups more than others. In particular, children, women and persons with intellectual and psychosocial disabilities are exposed to high risks, which increase their vulnerabilities.