In our country, we believe everyone should have a say in how things are run. But for people with disabilities, voting can be hard. That’s why teaching them about voting is so important. Let’s see why voters’ education is vital for people with disabilities and how it helps make our democracy fairer for everyone.
Understanding Your Rights and How to Vote
Learning about voting rights is like shining a light in the dark for people with disabilities. They might not know they have the same right to vote as everyone else, or they might not know how to actually do it. By teaching them about voting, we help them understand what they’re allowed to do and how to do it.
Making Sure Voting Places are Easy to Use
Imagine going to vote, but the place isn’t easy to get into if you’re in a wheelchair, or you can’t see where to mark your ballot. That’s a problem for many people with disabilities. By teaching them about voting and asking for changes to make voting places easier to use, we make sure everyone can vote without feeling left out.
Including Everyone’s Voice
Voting is something everyone should be able to do. By teaching people with disabilities about voting and making sure voting places are easy to use, we can make sure everyone gets a chance to have their say in how things are done. It doesn’t matter if you have a disability – your voice still matters.
Joining Together for a Fairer Democracy
In the end, educating people with disabilities about voting helps make our democracy fairer for everyone. When everyone can understand their rights and how to vote, it means everyone’s voice can be heard. Let’s work together to make sure everyone gets the chance to vote and have their say in how our country is run.
In Nigeria, antagonism from family and community members, taunting, and misconceptions about the causes of disability emerge as forms of stigma and discrimination towards persons with disabilities. These result in low self-esteem, depression, and social isolation. The negative views and perceptions among family and community members lead to teasing, name calling and spreading false ideas about the causes of disability. This has resulted in reduced access to inclusive healthcare and education.
Finding a nexus between the aforementioned and climate change is not difficult because these factors are directly threatening the lives of people with disabilities, especially their right to health, due to already underlying health challenges and the increased air pollution, higher ambient temperatures, and increased exposure to extreme weather events like heat waves, floods, hurricanes, wildfires, and other natural disasters.
Increases in temperature, unpredictable rainfall, rising sea levels and flooding, drought and desertification, land degradation, increase in the frequency of extreme weather events, a decline in freshwater resources, and loss of biodiversity are all signs that Nigeria’s climate is changing. Rainfall has become more frequent and intense, resulting in huge runoffs and flooding in many parts of Nigeria. No one is immune from becoming entangled in any of the above webs, even people with impairments.
People with disabilities continue to be the most vulnerable to the effects of climate change, and they need the most attention, RHOWI has been at the forefront in raising awareness about the effects of climate change on people with disabilities, thereby advocating for inclusive climate justice.
Persons with disabilities have one or more underlying health conditions which make them more impacted for example the increase of temperature especially on people with spinal cord injuries, people with Albinism and so on.
