Jane Wamugu, a Senior Disabilities Services Officer at NCPWD, shared with us what the council is doing to promote diversity and inclusion in workspaces.
You’ve been at NCPWD for over 10 years now. Tell us about your experience working at the National Council for Persons with Disabilities and how you’ve seen the organization grow and change.
I have been at the Council since November 2005 and I have seen the changes, resistance, and acceptance. We started as a small organization established when His Excellency President Mwai Kibaki came into power. At the time, he was using a wheelchair because he had been involved in an accident. That gave people advocating for disability inclusion the opportunity for dialogue. The president assented The Persons With Disabilities Act, No. 14 of 2003 in June of 2004. The Act formed the National Council for Persons with Disabilities with a mandate to fight for the rights of persons with disabilities.
The first task was to create awareness about the Council and the provisions of the Act and the importance of inclusion for persons with disabilities. The workplaces were and still are not accessible to persons with disabilities, thus the need for inclusive and diverse workplaces and homes. We also sensitized both the public and private sectors on not discriminating against PWDs and giving them equal opportunities.
At first, people were sceptical because their mindsets were focused on the people themselves and not the environment. Yet for us to move forward, we need to remove the obstacles present. The biggest obstacle hindering PWDs was the lack of accessibility. For example, someone would ask you, “If someone is in a wheelchair and I want them to work on the third floor, how are they going to get there?” The thoughts were not about adjusting the building to make it more accessible for them, but how they would get there.
With time, we’ve managed to make disability mainstreaming an indicator in the performance contracting guidelines which gives the Ministries, Departments and Agencies implement the indicator alongside other indicators. This makes it the employer’s duty to implement the Act and ensure PWDs have access to everything non-PWDs have.
How does the NCPWD measure the success of its diversity and inclusion efforts? Please paint us a picture of NCPWD’s impact.
As a government institution, the NCPWD is mandated to implement the Persons With Disabilities Act. The Act under section 21 provides a barrier-free and disability-friendly environment for persons with disabilities. Accessibility to information, physical structures, jobs, and all services offered.
To ensure jobs for persons with disabilities, the Council together with a consortium of partners under the i2i project created the NCPWD career portal that gives employers and persons with disabilities a meeting point to offer them jobs. The portal is doing well and has been recognized within and out of the country. In March 2022 the portal won Disability and inclusion awards on the Best Innovative and Inclusive Deployment of Technology Award.
In February 2023, NCPWD, Safaricom, and i2i were also nominated and won an award under ICT and Innovation for the Independent Leading Online job platform for persons with disabilities in a Sub-Saharan country under the ZERO Project Awards in Vienna, Austria.
How does the NCPWD ensure that diverse perspectives are heard and valued in decision-making processes within organizations and institutions you work with?
First, you must realize that diversity and inclusion fall within a broader picture that also looks into policies and programs. According to WHO statistics, an estimated 15% of the world’s population are PWDs, translating to about 1 billion people. This is not a number we can ignore even if we’d want to because it’s a huge population. When thinking about diversity, we must look at all perspectives, whether physical, informational, or even societal norms. First, we have to include that person with a disability in society in order to uplift them.
Disability is visual and you will find that persons with disabilities are not really regarded as if they belong. This is due to the diversity of the impairments that they may have. Only certain communities thought getting a child with a disability was a blessing and that they should be nurtured and taken care of. However, the majority of the population looked at PWDs as misfits, so they were excluded from opportunities. By excluding persons with disabilities, we’re ignoring so much untapped talent out there.
What is NCPWD’s approach to supporting the career growth of persons living with disabilities?
The council is mandated with a reservation of 5% employment for persons with disabilities in the private and public sectors. The Persons With Disabilities Act also mandates us to collect data on PWDs with employable skills.
We started by sensitizing people and encouraging PWDs with skills to come on board. We also teach them about career development and train them on how to be more employable. In the year 2018, a Global disability summit was held and was co-hosted by Kenya and England. The member countries came up with commitments that they would implement over a four-year period. Out of one of the commitments, the i2i project was launched and the NCPWD Career Portal was one of the programmes.
The i2i - NCPWD career portal came about in 2020 and its essence is to collect data on PWDs who have employable skills and bring employers on board. It is a meeting point for both parties whereby employers upload jobs and employees access the job opportunities through the portal. The NCPWD career portal is for job seekers who are PWDs and is connected to our registration system. One must be registered with the NCPWD to access it.
In your opinion and experience, what would you say holds back employers from hiring persons with disabilities, and how can this be solved to promote an inclusive and diverse workplace?
First, it’s necessary to start with an interpretation of what a disability entails as per the texts that have power.
Section 260 of the Persons With Disabilities Act in the constitution defines a disability as:
“A physical, mental, psychological, or any other impairment, condition, or illness, that is perceived by significant sectors of the community to have a substantial or long-term effect on an individual’s ability to carry out ordinary day-to-day activities.”
The UNCRPD states that:
“Persons with disabilities include those who have long-term physical, mental, intellectual, or sensory impairments, which in interaction with various barriers, may hinder their full and effective participation in society on an equal basis with others.”
The UNCRPD’s definition of disability ensures that any disability which may not have been mentioned will be brought on board as many conditions are being recognized as disabilities.
The current education system in Kenya is not cut out for persons with disabilities. A person with a disability may not experience as good an education as someone without a disability meaning they’ll have poor education outcomes. A lot needs to be done to ensure it accommodates persons with disabilities.
In the past, people with certain types of disabilities, like the deaf, never used to go beyond primary school level education because there was no transition to secondary school. Thus, regardless of whether that person was very bright, they were relegated to TVET institutions or what we used to be called village polytechnics. At the end of the day, it was hard to find graduates, diploma holders, and certificate holders who were PWDs.
Also, disability is very visual for most people. When you look at something, it’s either you’ll like it or not. Thus, you’re going to look at a person with an impairment or a disability and start thinking about how they will affect the people within your institution. When you think like that, you’ve already started discriminating against this person before even considering what accommodations they may need. The employer then starts looking at what you can’t do instead of what you can do as a person with a disability.
A lot of awareness creation to employers needs to be undertaken so that the employers can start tapping the potential of a person with a disability. Under the Act, there are incentives for that employer who employs a person with a disability.
Have you faced any challenging situations dealing with an inclusive and diverse workplace? How did you handle it?
The employer has to stop putting the burden of proof on the person with a disability on how capable they are and start thinking about accessibility and inclusion. There have been instances where a person is qualified for a job but when they arrive, the employer thinks that they are not capable due to their disability.
It’s a lot of work trying to convince others that you are a human being who can do anything that anyone else can do, given the right circumstances and conditions. If the barriers were removed, persons with disabilities can work as well as anyone else.
Also, when you tell someone, “we need you to do this before employing you,” it may be a subtle way of discriminating against this person so you can’t see that you’re doing it. if it’s not part of the interview then you shouldn’t subject that person to do that to prove themselves.
In some instances, I’ve advised employers to give persons with disabilities a chance to see what they can do and then make their own conclusions. Then at the end of the day, there’s that awakening moment where someone realizes they made an incorrect initial assumption and it becomes awkward.
On that note, how would you approach a workplace whose employees don’t understand the importance of inclusion and diversity?
First, I’d approach it by sensitizing the people on what disability really is.
When sensitizing people on issues of disability, I like to use real-life examples of people who have experienced both sides of the coin, for example, if someone who did not have a disability for the first 40 years of their life suddenly gets a stroke. It’s easier to visualize the realities of the situation if a loved one had a disability. I usually say persons with disabilities could be you, me, or a family member - it’s only that you may not have experienced it at that particular moment.
From your extensive experience in job placement at NCPWD. What’s your take on using recruitment technology to promote inclusion and diversity?
We are evolving and the use of technology is something we should start thinking about. Of course, tech should be supplemented with other things so it can also be felt in rural areas where you’ll find most persons with disabilities. For example, we usually encourage persons with disabilities to look at the jobs posted on the NCPWD Career portal and supplement this by sending texts and emails for the same. This is why I would like to encourage employers to embrace the digital way of posting jobs.
What initiatives, partnerships, collaborations, or programs by NCPWD are you most proud of?
First, I am most proud to be associated with Fuzu. The artificial intelligence it brought on board is so advanced that you don’t have to do much. Our collaboration with them was more of a partnership than that of a client.
Second, I’m proud to be associated with the consulting partners, the founders and the movers that pushed the NCPWD career portal project forward. Before, we used to go through applications and collect data on Persons with Disabilities manually, but the portal made that easier. Without the partners and the funding from the FCDO, we would not have been able to move forward. It has taken a lot of people to come on board and make it a reality.
We have other collaborating organizations like the Leonard Cheshire, CBM, Sightsavers, and Association for the Physically Disabled of Kenya (APDK) among others who are ensuring persons with disabilities are reached far and wide. Even those who aren’t registered with NCPWD can do that on the career portal.
Tell us about the NCPWD-i2i-Fuzu project. How has it been so far, and how many PWD have you been able to place?
As of a few weeks ago, we have registered 5726 skilled persons with disabilities and 437 employers on the career portal. So far, 1560 positions have been posted by employers and out of that, we’ve had direct recruitment through the portal of about 311 positions. Others who have also applied externally have also managed to get recruited out of the portal but have gotten the advertisements from within the portal. The numbers keep increasing but we are trying to encourage as many people as possible to register.
Currently, the public service commission which is mandated to employ civil servants around the country requires every government agency to be registered within the NCPWD career portal to help them bridge the gap. We want each organization to have 5% of its employees as persons with disabilities.
What plans or future initiatives does your organization have to further promote an inclusive and diverse workplace?
First, we have to sensitize employers and the public on issues concerning disability and inclusion so everyone is aware that these issues are human rights-based. PWDs should also enjoy the same rights as those who are without a disability. If employers don’t understand disability, then they can’t see how inclusion will be about them.
Second, since the NCPWD is a government agency, we also need to ensure there is accessibility to persons with disabilities. We have an extensive accessibility standard that guides on how to make every place accessible, whether it’s an existing or upcoming building. Even though the document was done in 2012, it’s still a living document that’s continuously being updated. The architects we’ve spoken to have said that if applied to the Kenyan building code, it would make all buildings accessible.
Third, each organization should review its inclusive and diverse workplace to see if there is accessibility and look at the jobs they are getting for persons with disabilities. They should also look at every aspect of these jobs. Sometimes we only see the technical bit of a job and ignore the other factors that make it whole. For example, some people think nursing only involves caring for patients, but there are other areas to consider. If a person with a disability wants to do nursing, what would it entail? Look at other areas where they can enter to still make the role complete. So consider your job descriptions and the entry points for persons with disabilities to open your mind to how to embrace them.
Fourth, we will look into how we talk to persons with disabilities. Do we encourage them to apply for jobs? Depending on an institution, a person with a disability might tell you they don’t want to apply for a certain position. Therefore, let’s demystify disability in such a way that it becomes easier for persons with disabilities to apply for jobs anywhere.
Lastly, currently what a lot of people are doing especially in the government sector is employing persons with disabilities just to tick a box, because as per the performance contract, 5% of employees in an organization should be PWDs. So if they want to attain that number, they might just get anybody without considering the quality. To combat that, let’s look for persons with disabilities who qualify for these jobs and can undertake the work then ensure we reasonably accommodate them.
