Mistreating a disabled person’s personal assistant is equal to discriminating against the person themselves. Many disabled people require someone to help them perform daily tasks, cope in academia or function in employment. However, in Africa such people are mostly volunteers who sacrifice their own other interests and careers to support someone else’s.
Unfortunately, African society often victimizes such people. This stems from a perception that they are trying to feed on the charity that other people give to the persons with disability. It is then concluded that, as mere appendix to a person with disability, they do not deserve respect or equal benefits as other people. Ultimately, they are ignored during programme planning resulting in extra emotional and financial burdens on them and the person for whom they provide support.
As a blind person, I usually travel with my sighted wife who is a co-founder of our company, a trained professional in human-centred design and has an MBA. Recently, we attended a conference in Kenya at which each of us was a paper presenter. We both paid full registration dues as attendees (there was no provision for personal assistants even though it was an international event for visually impaired persons).
We shared a room as a married couple, my wife being identified as my personal assistant. When we received the bill indicating that each of us had to pay a full room charge, we consulted the contact person for the conference. Instead of explaining that this was a normal condition in Kenyan hotels, he told us that he would resolve it with the hotel. This he kept saying each day until the last night. Then, he rudely dismissed us, accusing us of trying to cheat the system.
From my above experience, both non-disabled and persons with disabilities who are organizing programmes at which disabled persons are expected, should plan personal assistants into their events and communicate any unusual conditions to attendees. We also need to advocate against business and cultural practices that put persons with disability at an unnecessary disadvantage.