Many youths with disabilities face several challenges as they transition to adulthood particularly when it comes to finding a successful job and living an independent life.
In July 2014, the United Nations General Assembly declared 15th July as World’s Youth Skills Day as a day to celebrate the strategic importance of equipping young people with skills for employment, decent work, and entrepreneurship.
When we talk of young people it includes Persons with disabilities too, in a recent study by Sight Savers Organisation on youths with disabilities’ life experiences, aspirations, and current engagements in their livelihoods, shows there are no reliable statistics on the employment status of the youths with disabilities.
It is a clear indication that society needs to go beyond when it comes to imparting the right skills to young persons with disabilities as well as the other population which also has a low number.
This year’s theme for the world youth skills celebration is, transforming youth skills for the future, where this day gives a unique opportunity for policy partners, employers, development partners, and vocational and training educational programs to dialogue with young people about the skills needed as the world transitions into a sustainable development model.
How do we ensure youths with and without disabilities acquire the right skills which can help them rise and be independent?
- Realize that youths with disabilities are humans too, do not just focus on the disability side of a person, see different sides, they are just human beings with desires, talents, skills, heartache, and loss like everybody else.
- Promote social inclusion in schools, if children can be taught at a young age about disabilities, then less discrimination and more social inclusion will occur. Having kids with and without disabilities learn together will help everybody appreciate the talents and gifts all kids bring with them.
- The media should employ more actors with disabilities in the mainstream, why should an abled person play a character of a disabled person if a disabled person can be hired? media portrays disability as an imperfection instead of accepting it as a human condition.
- College Scholarships to Athletes with Disabilities should be provided, when enrolling persons with disabilities who have certain talents institutions often see the disability as an inspiration rather than just acknowledging their hard work as everyone else who contributed to their success.
- Disability history should be included in the school curriculums so that learners with disabilities can identify themselves with it and the community also be fully acknowledged.
- Employers should also be supported by the government so as they create employment spaces for youths with disabilities, this can be achieved by coming up with policies that will favor them.
BY JOY WAMBOI