When Covid-19 broke out in Rwanda, different businesses halted operations consequently affecting sources of income for many people who had jobs including Visually Impaired people.

Massage therapy business is among the most affected businesses as it was restricted severally yet the business has been increasingly viable for visually impaired people.

Beth Gatonye, founder of Seeing Hands Rwanda- an organization aimed to improve the social and economic wellbeing of people with visual impairments-said that she runs a massage therapy centre that employs visually impaired people but where operations were severely affected following the Covid-19 pandemic times.

"I am a massage therapist by profession and therefore  I started with a centre to train visually impaired people so that they get income and also create their own jobs or even get jobs in other massage centres,” she said.

At least 18 especially young visually impaired people  were trained in assistive technology. Photos: Courtesy.

 She said that she has trained over 50 visually impaired people in massage therapy and employed them explaining that they earn money depending on the number of clients they have served.

However, she said that the source of income was highly affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.

"Up to now massage therapy has yet to fully resume and this affected the people we serve. It is not easy to get clients amid the pandemic and therefore they were affected by lack of source of income,” she said.

Massage therapy business is among the most affected businesses as it was restricted many times yet the business was viable and doable for visually impaired people.

She said that besides Covid-19 effects, stigma on the labour market affects employment chances for people with disabilities.

"At first it was hard to place them in employment because of stigma. Because of advocacy people are realizing their ability. Now many are working in hotels and other centres,” she said.

Assistive Technology for source income diversification

"Because massage therapy was restricted several times and that is not fully opened due to the pandemic spreading we opened a program to train visually impaired on Assistive technology to improve their chances of employment,” Gatonye said.

Some of the trainees were also trained in massage therapy before.

Assistive technology (AT) is assistive, adaptive, and rehabilitative devices for people with disabilities. People with disabilities often have difficulty performing activities of daily living (ADLs) independently, or even with assistance. 

Assistive technology can ameliorate the effects of disabilities that limit the ability to perform ADLs.

Assistive technology promotes greater independence by enabling people to perform tasks they were formerly unable to accomplish or had great difficulty accomplishing, by providing enhancements to, or changing methods of interacting with, the technology needed to accomplish such tasks, she explained.

"During the pandemic, some had to go back to rural areas because massage therapy centres were not allowed to operate but if they had some technology knowledge, the only thing they would have needed is internet and computer, even a phone to try to do some other businesses,” she said.

She said they have trained at least 18 especially young visually impaired people including eight females to improve their chances of employment.

 "Our objective is not only to provide training to visually impaired people but also help them transition from training to employment because this is a big challenge,” she said.

Visually impaired people with Assistive technology skills were employed and we trained others. We did the same in massage therapy training and then employed them. It is something we have to continue and we are working with the Digital Umuganda project, a local artificial intelligence startup that democratizes access to voice technology, she noted.

She said three Young visually impaired people managed to benefit from the project.

"For those who we have trained we will make an effort to get jobs for them and do all to improve their chances of employment. We are working to empower them to become entrepreneurs. We have to partner with different organizations to create employment for visually impaired people,” Gatonye said.

Emmanuel Izere, a University of Rwanda graduate who is visually impaired said that training in Assistive technology will enable them to meet demanded skills on the labour market.

"I studied development studies and graduated in August this year. As a fresh graduate, Computer skills are highly needed in the labour market. What we learn will enable us to better use computers and smartphones in our daily activities,” he said.

Call for intensified fight against stigma

Izere said that there should be a mechanism that can promote the employment of people with disabilities in different institutions by recommending a number of jobs each institution should have for people with disabilities.

Activists are saying that there is a pressing need for the Government to put in place a ‘quota system’ whereby employers should be required to dedicate at least 5 per cent of positions to persons living with disability, activists have said.

 The quota system is a method whereby a regulator sets a limit on how much of something a country or company is allowed to have, produce etc.

The move, they say, could reduce the unemployment rate among disabled people

"Even during job exams people with disabilities are not shortlisted despite government policy to avoid discrimination against them. We need jobs and we are able to perform better. For instance, in my class at university I was always among the first five students who performed well with upper-division,” he said.

Sandrine Umutesi , a graduate of the school of journalism and communication at the University of Rwanda, who is also visually impaired said that assistive technology skills for journalists and communicators with visual impairments are highly needed.

"With such skills, the chances of employability for us could improve,” she said.

In Rwanda, there are over 400,000 persons with visual impairment including 2, 236 students in all levels of education