Existing but totally forgotten: Challenges faced by people with disabilities in sustaining health equity in urban environments

Abstract

This study seeks to explore the challenges that are faced by people with disabilities to live a sustainable life in urban environments. The study was qualitative and employed case study design. It employed observation and semi-structured interviews for data generation. Purposive sampling was used to select the participants who were information rich. The study found out that people with disabilities are homeless and live close to public toilets with their bags of clothes close by. The toilets are not adjusted to suit the needs of people with physical disabilities and they end up messing themselves. This has severe negative impact to people with disabilities since they become associated with dirt all the time. Some users including people with physical disabilities and the blind end up crawling into the public toilets and such practices are leading to disease spread. They drink water from public tapes and sometimes go without it due to water shortages experienced in urban environments. Due to lack of decent shelter, their children engage in early marriages and this is causing high rate of infant mortality, the spread of infectious diseases including the spread of HIV and AIDS. The study recommends that urban councils should craft policies that redeem people with disabilities from the bondages of poor sanitary facilities and upgrade their status.

Key terms: sustainable urban environment, people with disabilities, sanitary facilities, health living conditions, forgotten tribe