Disabled people are large minority groups, starved of services and mostly ignored by society, live in isolation, segregation, poverty, charity, and even pity.  Disability includes blindness, low vision, leprosy-cured, hearing impairment, locomotor disability, mental retardation, and mental illness.  Due to discrimination, they do not go to public places and not free to get those rights that a non-disabled person gets.  They are deprived of education and employment.

Persons with disabilities in South Africa continue to face barriers that prevent them from enjoying their full civil, political, economic, social, cultural, and developmental rights.  This is largely due to a lack of awareness, ignorance and prejudice in our society. It is also because some legislation fails to protect the rights of persons with disabilities.

Mainstreaming and universal access for persons with disabilities are the ultimate goals of the disability movement.  This means the removal of all cultural, physical, social, and other barriers that prevent persons with disabilities from equally accessing opportunities and participating fully in all aspects of life in South Africa.  Persons with disabilities lack access to employment opportunities and even if they are able to get employment they face problems such as reasonable accommodation at work, accessible public transportation to get them to work and back, and discrimination and ignorance about their potential at work.