Determinants of Disability Mainstreaming Among Public Infrastructure Project Designs in Kisumu Municipality-kenya

Abstract

This research project was a study on Determinants of disability mainstreaming among public infrastructure project designs in Kisumu Municipality Kenya. Factors hindering accessibility are of concern all over the world. Improvement of accessibility may make persons with disability to be active participants in the economy. The study was guided by research objectives and questions. The objectives of the study included; To establish the extent to which the level of awareness determines the integration of disability mainstreaming among public infrastructure projects in Kisumu Municipality, To examine how the status of physical accessibility to support infrastructure determines the integration of disability mainstreaming in Kisumu Municipality, to assess the extent to which information dissemination determines the integration of disability mainstreaming among public infrastructure projects in Kisumu Municipality, to establish the extent to which appropriate technology transfer determines the integration of disability mainstreaming among public infrastructure projects in Kisumu Municipality. The researcher reviewed literature from Developed and Developing countries in order to obtain the global, regional and National perspective to the Kenyan situation with specific focus on kisumu municipality. The study was conducted through the use of both quantitative and qualitative research designs guided by cross sectional survey design, where the researcher investigated the population of Kisumu Municipality by selecting samples to discover and analyze the factors influencing disability mainstreaming among public infrastructure projects/facilities in the area. The study included the Municipal technocrats, the disabled persons and civil engineers. The study sample consisted of 108 respondents selected from the people living in Kisumu Municipality. Out of the 108 respondents, 30 were municipal technocrats, 38 disabled persons and 40 civil engineers concerned with the construction of infrastructures. The study used the questionnaire, interview and observation to collect the data, for reliability of study, a pilot study was adequately conducted in two field stations whose data formed part of the final study analysis. All the completed questionnaires and interview guides were edited for completeness and consistency. The data collected were both quantitative and qualitative in nature. Quantitative data were analyzed according to the research questions by the use of descriptive statistics. This involved coding of data, for responses to the closed-ended questions and analyzing the data using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) program to yield frequencies and percentages. SPSS program further assisted in organizing and summarizing the data by the use of tables. The data generated from open-ended questions were then analyzed by comparing and combining the responses from interview guide and the questionnaire. Correlation analysis was done on both dependent and independent variables. Summary of the main findings revealed that Awareness and disability mainstreaming in Extension Services,74.1% of the respondents sampled did do not understand meaning of the term “disability mainstreaming”. Implying that it would be challenging to implement policies by the staff given that a majority of them did not understand its basis or foundation, observations made for Physical Accessibility and Disability Mainstreaming during the study showed that none of the service provision charters had entitlements for persons with disability as confirmed by a cumulative 94.3% of respondents, Most respondents (91.7%) confirmed that the disabled did not enjoy equal opportunity to access technical guidance like all other able bodied people. The Information packaging and Dissemination towards Disability Mainstreaming was very poor as 100% of respondents confirmed that there is no provision for disseminating information to their clients in Braille or sign language. For Technology Development and Transfer, the development of appropriate technologies by the constructors of public infrastructures in Kisumu Municipality as confirmed by the 96.3% of the respondents is low. The findings indicate that people with disability may not immediately benefit from specific appropriate technologies, since none of these had already been developed specifically targeting them. The ministry of public works in Kenya should therefore look at different ways of ensuring that awareness, physical access, information dissemination and information transfer is improved to ensure commendable integration of disability mainstreaming in all infrastructure project designs