REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA COMBINED SECOND PERIODIC REPORT UNDER THE AFRICAN CHARTER ON HUMAN AND PEOPLE`S RIGHTS and INITIAL REPORT UNDER THE PROTOCOL TO THE AFRICAN CHARTER ON THE RIGHTS OF WOMEN IN AFRICA 231 440. It should be noted that disability was measured differently since 2009, in order to align better with international standards on data.231 The percentage of persons over the age of four years with disabilities increased from 5,6% in 2009 to 6,2% in 2010 before declining to 5,4% in 2013. 441. South Africa has adopted a number of measures to ensure that persons with disabilities enjoy fundamental rights and freedoms. As was reported in the two previous reports, South Africa adopted the Integrated National Disability Strategy White Paper (INDS) in 1997 which seeks to ensure that government departments consciously make their policies, procedures, practices and programmes disability integrative and inclusive. It also seeks to radically transform attitudes, perceptions and behaviour towards people with disabilities, thus creating a work environment in which disability issues and the needs of the people of disabilities are fully integrated. A recent development at provincial level has been the establishment of provincial versions of the INDS, termed in some provinces as the Integrated Provincial Disability Strategies (IPDS). 442. These have been established to facilitate the implementation of the INDS at provincial level. Provincial legislatures have a responsibility to ensure that these strategies are implemented with adequate resources. At the local level, the Disability Framework for Local Government 2009-2014 was adopted to serve as a framework that will support and facilitate the mainstreaming of disability issues into all policies, plans, programmes and activities of the local government. South Africa ratified the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities on 30 November 2007. At the national level, government departments have stepped up their efforts to mainstream disability issues into their activities. 443. The Job Access Strategy 2006-2010 adopted by Cabinet in 2007 refined and expanded the operational definition of disability in South Africa. The Strategy defines disability as ‘the loss or elimination of opportunities to take part in the life of the community equitably with others that is encountered by persons having physical, sensory, psychological, developmental, learning, neurological, or other impairments, which may be permanent, temporary, or episodic in nature, thereby causing activity limitations and participation restriction with the mainstream society. These barriers may be due to economic, physical, social, attitudinal and/or cultural factors’. The Job Access Strategy’s main objective is to transform the public sector to be inclusive of persons with disabilities. 444. In an effort to fast track the realisation of the priorities of the Job Access Strategy, the Department of Public Service and Administration developed a Handbook on Reasonable Accommodation for Persons with Disabilities in the Public Service. The handbook is an integral part of the Job Access Resource Kit for the recruitment, employment and retention of persons with disabilities in the Public Service and serves as a tool that would enable government departments to create conducive environments for persons with disabilities both as employees of the State and as clients of Government’s services. Social Profile of South Africa, 2002- 2009, StatsSA 121