The South African National Deaf Association (Sanda) has urged G20 leaders to prioritise disability-responsive budgeting, equitable participation, and meaningful representation of Deaf people in all policy development processes.

Sanda spoke to SABC News ahead of the G20 Leaders’ Summit, which commences in Nasrec, Johannesburg, on Saturday.

The association’s South African Sign Language (SASL) Facilitator Qiniso Skosana says, “We would like to emphasise the urgent need for full accessibility across all public services, including education, healthcare, employment, and governance….South African Sign Language must be recognised and embedded as a fundamental enabler of inclusion.”

Skosana says Sanda welcomes and is encouraged by the country hosting the G20 Summit.

“This platform presents an important opportunity to highlight inclusive development and reinforce that deaf people and persons with disabilities are essential contributors to both national and global progress.”

He says the summit must leave a legacy of strengthened commitments to human rights, universal accessibility, and inclusive economic development.

“Disability inclusion cannot be an afterthought; it must be a central pillar in all discussions. We also call for the formal recognition of the Disability 20 (D20) Conference as an integral part of the G20 structure.”

INCLUSIVE EDUCATION

KG Maluleke Memorial Disability Integration Organisation’s Kgomano)Valentina Senwamadi says schools have to embrace the issue of inclusive education for children with disabilities in the public sector.

The organisation assists learners who are physically disabled and integrates them into mainstream schools.

Senwamadi says, “When they get intergrated late is where they have the challenges of not used to the environment with the other pupil in the whole society and they will feel somehow excluded and segregated as we integrate them very early in life, we find they adapt easier when they going forward in their life, the schooling, the working and just living life like any other person.”

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