The denial of these opportunities is complicated through the lack of appropriate resources, which is the result of uninformed development planning. This in turn, is due to the denial of self-representation in matters concerning us. This denial is evident in the way in which no effort is made by development agents to communicate with disabled people who cannot access traditional forms of communication. All the barriers that I have mentioned deny disabled people access to employment. Contrary to the general belief that disability is the individual's problem, it is the view of the disability rights movement that it affects the whole society.
Society has therefore an obligation to remove barriers and become an agent of change.
For the first time in the history of South Africa we have a constitution that outlaws discrimination on the basis of disability, amongst others. Our constitution will be rather useless if we don't have measures to protect our constitutional rights. To this end South Africa is in the process of developing policies on various issues, and one such issue is that of equitable employment. The draft discussion document of the Department of Labour states that affirmative action includes disability. It describes disability as a persistent physical, mental, psychiatric, sensory or learning impairment and it includes people socially disabled through Aids.