I entered an electrical store in central Freetown in Sierra Leone with a colleague who wanted to buy an appliance. I had tagged along just for company, but almost immediately the store assistants started addressing me, instead of my colleague who had a visible disability. He had a doctorate from the UK, and served on a number of state councils, but was almost instantly dismissed from being a prospective customer. “Anyone disabled is automatically assumed as being there for handouts,” he said.
Current state of disabilities in Sierra Leone
International attention to disability in Sierra Leone has frequently focused on the civil war and the use of blinding and amputations as a weapon of war. Extreme poverty and a lack of healthcare has meant that Sierra Leone has a high incidence of preventable or curable blindness and disabilities related to diseases such as polio, for which there was no nationwide eradication plan till as recently as 1998. The interruption of medical facilities during the war recently has meant that Sierra Leone is among the countries with the highest number of young people disabled by polio. Continue reading A Screen Reader in Sierra Leone
