The upcoming national census for people with disabilities, which officials say will help set up a digital registry, will succeed only if previous challenges are fixed, beneficiaries have noted.

Results of the census expected to start next month, will be used to roll out a disability management and information system (DMIS) – the first digital registry of disabled people in sub-Saharan Africa.

The $1 million project, (equivalent to over Rwf1 billion), will facilitate inclusive national planning and support programmes for the disabled people, according to officials.

The National Council of Persons with Disabilities (NCPD) says with the new system, every person with disability will get a digital profile, detailing their disability status and the challenges they face due to their living standards.

Though welcomed by researchers and organisations of disabled people, the digital census could face hurdles.

Its beneficiaries say issues of family stigma and mobility in remote areas – which bogged down the previous counts – still exist.

"In 2016, the NCPD carried out a physical census, but it failed because the enumerators could not reach every person with disabilities,” Jean-Pierre Nizeyimana, a journalist with physical disability, told The New Times. "So, with this new digital census, have they solved the issues which undermined the previous attempts?”

Some people with disabilities who live in remote areas were not facilitated to move from their places of residence to designated locations to meet enumerators.

The NCPD says that unlike the previous census where beneficiaries were called to go to the nearest health centre, in the upcoming exercise, the enumerators will go house to house.

But in some cases the problem is more than just mobility.

"Due to stigma, some families hide disabled children and even adults from other people or keep them isolated in a room for years,” said Clemence Mukarugwiza, a lawyer with visual impairment.

"Think of a child who is deaf-blind and has a physical disability and the family can’t allow him to go outdoors. It is the job of the NCPD to make sure that such families are first mobilised to take part in the enumeration.”

Nevertheless, Nizeyimana and Mukarugwiza agree the digital registry could help people with disabilities to seek services in different institutions as well as the government in planning.