Inclusion should never be an afterthought, it must be built in from the start.
Across Nigeria, digital and social protection systems are expanding rapidly. But when accessibility is not considered at the design stage, persons with disabilities are left outside the room, waiting to be included in decisions that directly affect them.
This contradicts the commitment of Nigeria’s National Social Protection Policy (NSPP), which emphasizes equity, inclusion, and the prioritization of vulnerable groups in the design and delivery of social protection programmes.
It also falls short of Nigeria’s obligations under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), particularly Article 9 on Accessibility and Article 4(3), which requires the active involvement of persons with disabilities in decision-making processes affecting them.
True inclusion is:
- Engaging persons with disabilities from the planning phase
- Designing accessible registration and login systems
- Embedding accessibility into payment and grievance platforms
- Prioritizing lived experience in policy conversations
When systems are built without accessibility, barriers become coded into the solution.
Let’s move from intention to implementation and ensure no one is locked out before the first line of code is written.
