The June 2007 Workshop organized by Twaweza Communications on disability, culture, and human rights, and supported by the Ford Foundation Office of Eastern Africa, was a demonstration of the kinds of collaboration and networks of knowledge and practices without which a holistic understanding of crucial issues regarding disability cannot emerge. On the one hand, there were academics and, on the other, practitioners who daily engage with the intricacies about which others are left to theorize and ask questions. This particular workshop thus drew from and combined the insights of the academy with the unique experiences from the field — experiences developed by those, whether in the Civil Society Organizations or elsewhere, who work with and alongside persons with disabilities (PWD) — in addition, crucially, to the insights of persons with disabilities themselves, who were eminently represented. Quite significantly, it was not incidental that culture and human rights were yoked together in the conference theme to point to the profound fact that a discourse on disability matters cannot be useful without enjoining, and fully understanding, their intersections. Thus, the conference aimed at, amongst other things:

• Exploring the rights of PWD with regard to education, employment, access, gender, language, and social life.
• Reviewing the strengths and weaknesses of existing disability laws.
• Identifying cultural and social values that perpetuate the stigmatization and discrimination of PWD.

These questions are relevant not just for the local Kenyan context but are also pertinent to global concerns. The participation of The Ohio State University faculty was opportune. Their experience with legal, institutional, social-cultural, economic, and political and policy issues related to the United States was useful in enabling an understanding of the nature of challenges related to the implementation of disability laws in Kenya. Their contribution also allowed one to see that the questions raised in the forum are universal; they just happen to be asked in a different way, or in other terms, in diverse regions of the world. In a sense, whenever we speak to the core of our common humanity, we will inevitably find an issue related to disability. Bringing the lessons learnt about disability in the United States into dialogue with those derived from the Kenyan context can only lead to the mutual enrichment of knowledge in both directions. This workshop was also the culmination of an engagement made by the Ford Foundation when it funded an initial trip to The Ohio State University for Kimani Njogu and Mbugua wa-Mungai.

At another level, the workshop was a landmark event, coming as it did towards the end of the Africa Decade of Persons With Disabilities (1999-2009). It was an important stock-taking moment. What have we achieved so far in that direction? What has been learned from our failures? These questions were discussed at length.

The workshop also noted the critical role played by laws and policies that are intended to address disability-related issues. Questions of the implementation of these laws were deliberated, as was the role that government needs to play to guarantee the enjoyment by PWD of the rights and privileges spelled out in these laws. Further, it was noted that in order for laws, especially positive ones, to make good sense, they must incorporate and begin from a human rights perspective. Whether one is thinking about PWD in relation to areas such as education, economics, culture, the media, design, folklore, religion, or sports, amongst others, it was emphasized that thinking about these areas must be done from a human rights perspective. In the final analysis, this is the foundation from which everyone (governments, individuals, policy-makers, and implementers) can be brought to account in relation to PWD. Indeed, it was noted that disability questions entail "collective responsibility"; ultimately, people need to make individual efforts towards the realization of such human rights, fully aware of the potential for anyone at any moment to become disabled.

Disability both as experience and as a field of study is complex; new issues keep emerging either as aspects of already known forms of disability or as entirely "new" conditions. This fact then speaks to the need for everyone — whether community leaders, scholars, civil society groups, PWD, or government — to remain engaged with issues related to PWD, each in the best way they know how. It is necessary that scholars see the issue from a multi-disciplinary perspective, just as civil society groups and governments must be open-minded about the interventions they make in this regard. Taken from whatever perspective, such involvement must of necessity ensure that society is continuously sensitized about what the real issues are in order to avoid expending valuable resources (intellectual and material) in unproductive directions. Most crucially, PWD must not be left out of the awareness campaigns since the question of attitude relates to them as much as it does to the rest of society. Disability issues ought to be taken from the stage of "talk" to action; the former is necessary, but only to the extent that it leads to tangible advances for the causes of PWD. Thought ought to concretize in action. The Ford Foundation is pleased to have worked with the organizers to facilitate this Workshop.