From charity to rights:'We have rights, we are not asking for favours'
Disability advocacy groups in Nigeria are launching a campaign to demand that public facilities comply with accessibility laws. They argue that access to infrastructure is a constitutional right rather than a matter of charity.
Why it matters
It underscores the ongoing struggle for disability rights and infrastructure reform in developing nations, shifting the narrative from welfare to legal entitlement.
Layer 1 *How persons with disabilities are redefining Nigeria’s accessibility movement
*Challenges confronting the National Commission for Persons with Disabilities
*Only about 22.4 per cent of assessed public buildings have functional ramps
*17 states are on board against discrimination
*11 states yet to domesticate anti-descrimination laws
For millions of Nigerians living with disabilities, the greatest obstacle is not blindness, paralysis, deafness or intellectual disability.
It is a staircase without an accompanying ramp. A bank counter that is too high. An elevator too narrow for a wheelchair. A hospital without tactile signs. A government office with no trained personnel to assist someone with an intellectual disability – ot any form of disability for that matter.
Every day, these barriers quietly deny millions of people access to education, healthcare, employment and justice, not because they lack ability, but because society was never designed with them in mind.
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