A Journal of Disability Conversation, an initiative of Rights of Youth & Disability (RYD) International, Kufuor Foundation and Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (KAS) was yesterday launched in Accra.
It is the first publication of the maiden Disability Conservations held on September 17, 2024.
The objective of the journal is to serve as a platform for disability research, documentation, and advocacy.
It is also to demystify disability in all types, kinds, forms, shapes and stereotype; to reorient prejudiced minds and thoughts against disability; and to expose the widespread misconception and misappreciation of disability as a taboo with sacred empirical records-disability is not a taboo among others.
The Journal contains speeches of former President John Agyekum Kufuor as Special Guest of Honour and Justice Gabriel Scott Pwamang, a Supreme Court Judge as Keynote Speaker and other participant discussants.
In his presentation, the Executive Director of Rights of Youth & Disability (RYD) International, Dr James Kwabena Bomfeh also known as Kabila paid glowing tribute to some individuals and institutions.
He said ‘Disability Conversations,’ according to Audre Lorde, a disability scholar and activist in 1982, “there is no such thing as single-issue struggle because we do not live single-issues lives.”
According to Dr. Bomfeh, “to understand that we do not live single issue lives is to appreciate disability and which it stands for.
He explained that the Disability Conservations is to demystify the erroneous impressions and mysticisms of disability, often in some parlance misconceived as a taboo.
“Fortunately, some researches have taken place and we can say with all pride and certainty that one of the revered chiefs in the country, the third Asantehene, Otumfuo Kusi Obuadum was with blindness around 1754 when he was just four years on the golden stool up to about 1764,” Dr Bomfeh pointed out.
Sponsorship
The journal is solely sponsored by Konrad Adenauer Stiftung and launched in partnership with the University of Professional Studies, Accra, (UPSA) as part of its institutional devotion to disability inclusivity and advocacy.
Sponsors for the maiden Conversations include the Accra Metropolitan Assembly and Mrs Elizabeth Sackey, Ghana Legal Information Institute, GHALII (Founded by Mr. O. B. Amoah), Africa Regent Hotel, Ms Eva E. Mends, Dr. James O. Lindsay of JL Properties, Mrs Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, Mr. Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, Arc. Tony Yeboah Asare of Avangarde Designs, and Alhaji Sualisu English Maude.
