According to a recent UNICEF statistical demographic survey (2013), there is an estimated 800 000plus people with disabilities in Zimbabwe. Sadly, it is a group that has practically been marginalised and deprived of inclusion in the mainstream economy.

In the Zimbabwean society disability is largely seen as a curse and naturally people keep their distance. Also, the disabled are generally considered to be cases of pure charity wherever they are seen, yet some of them can actually perform better than people without disabilities in employment settings.  While most employers generally have a condescending attitude towards people with disabilities, and harbour thoughts that they won’t really measure up in their jobs, others completely shun the idea of ever employing someone with a form of disability.

As a result, the majority have succumbed to horrendous consequences of unbearable poverty and destitution, and in many street corners of the central business districts of Harare and other metropolitan towns, is the ever-manifest presence of people with disabilities, stretching out begging bowls as if its’ the only thing that they can do. Thus the future looks bleak and overcast for this demographic group.

Children with disabilities are denied access to mainstream educational content in one way or another, and in fact many hopeful students with disabilities would not have failed to progress in school if only somebody out there had cared just a little to render only a little material assistance!

It is clear that the economic injustices arising from such socio-economic exclusion are dire and too ghastly to contemplate, and the size of the demographic group is certainly too significant to overlook! The population group of people with disabilities merits inclusion and positive engagement in the socio-economic landscape!