Exploring the Current State of Accessible Infrastructure

When I was doing my internship at the University of Zambia in the summer of 2022, I was introduced to the world of disability inclusion. One of my supervisors, Dr Mtonga, had a lot of experience with the current state of affairs of people living with disabilities in Zambia being visually impaired himself. He was more than happy to share with me.

Through interaction with other people with disabilities, I quickly realized that infrastructure was a huge factor in accessibility. Most people complained of not being able to access learning institutions due to a lack of accessible infrastructure. 

One of the people who was interviewed at the "Voices to be heard" workshop held in Lusaka on the 6th of June 2022, narrated how he had to move a long distance back to his residence just to access the washroom during class. This was because there were no accessible washrooms within the school premise. He uses a wheelchair to get around. This is not an isolated experience and it seems to be a pandemic, a structured one at that.

I got to thinking, how did we get here? Was it that there were no people with disabilities when the structures were being constructed? Certainly not. People with disabilities have been around since time immemorial.

The answer I found was in the attitude of people towards people with disabilities. The ability of people with disabilities to contribute positively to society has always been questioned. Remembering a conversation I had with an employee of the Leonard Cheshire foundation, he explained how some parents hide their children with disabilities because they associate them with shame or see them as a burden.

If this kind of attitude is still alive today, I can only imagine how it was in the past when these structures were being constructed.

So, this explains part of the reason, how would anyone build infrastructure for someone they do not consider an active member of society?

This image is changing, people with disabilities have shown us that disability does not mean inability. It is important to have an inclusive society, and most specifically we need engineers who are disability-inclusive savvy to accelerate this change towards accessible infrastructure.