Establishments urged to provide reasonable accommodation to PWDs

MANILA – The National Council on Disability Affairs (NCDA), an attached agency of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), has called on all stakeholders, including business establishments, to ensure that they provide reasonable and proper treatment to persons with disabilities (PWDs).

“We are reminding all establishments that you have to be considerate and to provide reasonable accommodations to persons with disabilities because it is their right as a person with disability,” NCDA spokesperson Walter Alava said during a media forum at the DSWD Central Office in Quezon City on Thursday.

The NCDA official made the statement amid a reported case of a child with autism who was asked to eat lunch outside a popular coffee chain in a Pampanga mall due to the store’s “no outside food” policy.

Photos of the child with autism became viral after a TV station posted them online and prompted concerns from netizens on social media.

Alava explained that under Republic Act 7277 or the Magna Carta for Disabled Persons, reasonable accommodations include the necessary and appropriate adjustments and modifications in facilities, workplaces, schedules, assistive technologies, or policies that will help PWDs to uphold their rights.

“Nakalagay talaga doon na dapat maging considerate tayo, at dapat maglalagay tayo ng (It is explicitly provided there that we be more considerate and provide an) avenue for persons with disabilities. So, we are calling for the review po of the 'no outside food' policy, and then, we will be taking with the different member agencies din natin kasi NCDA is a council,” he told reporters.

Aside from reviewing the policy, he said the NCDA has been working with Persons with Disability Affairs Offices, private partners and organizations to conduct disability-sensitivity training across the country through their online learning system.

The DSWD, together with the NCDA, is committed to ensuring that the vulnerabilities of PWDs and other sectors are considered and provided with utmost respect inherent to their rights. (PNA)