Contextualising information services for people with disabilities in Malawi

This paper seeks to establish the extent to which the Malawi Government has contextualised the United Nations Convention on the Rights of People with
Disabilities (UNCRPD) with regards to provision of information for people with disabilities, with a special focus on public university libraries. The role of
academic libraries in students’ academic achievement cannot be overemphasized. The UNCRPD emphasises on legal and human rights for people with disabilities. Malawi Government ratified the UNCRPD in 2009, thereby guaranteeing people with disabilities their fundamental human rights, one of which is access to information. By ratifying the UNCRP, Malawi recognizes that it is a legal requirement to make information accessible to people with disabilities. This requirement applies to all public institutions too. Thus by their nature, public universities in Malawi are required to offer inclusive information services for students with disabilities. However, searching through literature, it is evident that people with disabilities are excluded in most information services. This paper gives an overview of the UNCRPD and what it provides for people with disabilities in terms of access to information. By reviewing literature on disability studies and disability related policies in Malawi, the gap between the UNCRPD framework and the actual practice is established and recommendations on how to narrow the gap are drawn, by referring to international best practices. These recommendations provide a bedrock for designing information services for people with disabilities in all types of libraries in Malawi that will ensure adherence to the UNCRPD framework. The paper focuses on information provision alone, leaving out other provisions outlined in the UNCRPD whose pursuance may give different results.
Key words: People with disabilities, United Nations Convention on Rights for People with Disabilities (UNCRPD), academic libraries