By Aline Nyampinga

ICT is the way forward on a global stage, and it’s in this regard that Rwandan women with disabilities too weren’t left behind. Maria is the case in point, her business is evolving, as a result of having embraced is the application of information and communication technology (ICT)

Maria, a business woman with a hearing impairment in Remera, she is a businesswoman; who applies technology while paying her clients.

"I have a disability, but I work as a technician, using a text message to write down what I need, and then they reply to me by through the message submitted on the phone through the use technology," she said.

Esther, who has a disability in the Bumbogo Sector, says that technology facilitates to access various places, which she wouldn’t be accessing.

She said, ”Technology facilitates my work as a person with physical disability, as a result, I can’t easily move, it’s in this context that I apply mobile phone to engage in my business ”.

Nkundimfura Rosette, from Impuzamiryango Profemme Twese Hamwe in charge of capacity building, also Gender specialist. She had this to say, " technology is the key of development and with women disabilities shouldn’t stay away from technology”

Jean Damascene Nsengiyumva Mr. Jean Damascene NSENGIYUMVA, Executive Secretary National Union of Disability Organizations of Rwanda (NUDOR), He said “women with disabilities have the ability to use technology, but the disabilities that they have sometimes can be barriers due to the way some tools are made. For example Electronic Billing Machine (EBM) it is not easy for them to apply the technology, when it comes to more advanced technologies, so these are the challenges they do encounter.

He reiterated that the manufacturers of the digital tools to consider persons with disabilities so as to enable them easy application of digital tools, as a way of keeping with the modernity by applying so that they can be able to apply technology”.

In 2010, there were 3 million and 500 thousand mobile phone lines in Rwanda, in 2015, the number increased to 8 million, whereas in 2018, the number increased to 9 million and seven hundred thousand (700,000).

According to the Figures which were released by the Regulatory Authority (RURA) for the last quarter in April this year show that the number of telephone lines used in Rwanda has increased from 9,862,992 million as of March to 10,317,279 million by the end of April.