It is the dream of every child to go to school without any hindrances or difficulties but unfortunately, the dreams and ambitions of many of these children become shattered for reasons they have no control over. Children with disability – the hearing impaired, visually impaired, autism, cerebral palsy and many others tend to suffer such predicament, and this is because there are limited schools for them, inadequate trained teachers, lack of special equipment or assistive devices to aid their learning. Moreover, most children with disability come from poor families, their parents and guardians struggle to provide them with their basic needs as well as the needed materials such as hearing aids, wheel chairs, crutches, transportation etc. The net effect is that their desire to enjoy quality life in the future become an illusion.
A raft of legal instruments – the 1992 constitution of Ghana, the Children’s Act, the Disability Act and The UN Convention on the Right of Persons with Disability, all consider education as a fundamental human right for every child in Ghana. Despite this, children with disabilities do not have equal access, opportunities and privileges like their counterparts who are without disability. This is because, majority of children with disability do not go to school, and even with those who are in school, a significant proportion is unable to attain the highest education they hope for.
My educational experiences as a lady with low vision whilst growing up.
I was born in a village called Trede, in the Ashanti Region of Ghana, into a family of ten of which I was the youngest. Five of us were blind. Only two of us had the opportunity to go to school. Yes, we were born with visual impairment which was not something we wished for. We had no choice but to accept our condition and move on with life. My parents tried their best to provide me with all my needs, growing up, but things were not easy since they were not well-to-do. Besides, age was not on their side.
I started school at the age of eight and this was because there was no special school for visually impaired children in the Ashanti Region. Aside that my parents could not afford my transportation to and from the nearest available school. There were only two special schools for the blind in the country at that time – the Wa Methodist school for the blind and the Akropong school for the blind. My parents could also not afford the required learning materials including braille sheet perkins, etc which are vital for students with blindness and other provisions to cater for my three months of stay in the boarding school. I was therefore at home for eight good years whilst my age mates were busy learning. Other educational needs of children with disabilities include hearing aids, laptop computers, wheel-chairs, crutches and callipers.
Luckily for me, I was admitted at Wa Methodist School for the blind due to the benevolence of my elder sister who was already a student there. However, the journey was tough since I had to sit on her laps from Kumasi to Wa and back when school was on vacation. I also had to share her provisions and materials with her. As time went by the Marist brothers came in to support with my transportation and other expenses. I successfully completed and gained admission into Okuapemman Senior High School in the Eastern Region of Ghana, which was one of the three integrated schools in the country at that time. I could not report on time because there was no money for me to buy the items which were required by the school and payment of school fees. I was so devastated and confused and did not know what to do so I kept praying and trusted God for a breakthrough since academic work had already started. I used to cry every day until my family members borrowed money to buy the things I needed.
I was very excited when I arrived in the school. This was because I thought that things were going to get better with regards to teaching and learning but alas, it was not so. Rather, life became more cumbersome in the sense that the environment was not friendly for persons with disability; moreover, the learning materials were not in braille or soft copy which persons with blindness can easily access. Furthermore, most of the students discriminated against those of us who were persons with disabilities in one way or the other. Not only that, some of the teaching staff lacked adequate knowledge, skills and experience on how to teach or deal with person’s with disability and for that matter they treated us like persons without disabilities. As a student with disability, I had no laptop, recorder and a Perkins brailler. The only tool I had was my hand frame and stylus which I used for writing. The difficulties, notwithstanding, I remained unswervingly determined to live my dreams. Combining hard work with dedication, perseverance and prayers, I made it and proceeded to the University of Ghana for my degree.
University education was one of my aspirations and so receiving my admission letter brought more joy and hope to me because I knew I was closer to my destination. I took my studies seriously and worked extremely hard to reach my goal. Though there were a lot of challenges in the university which included financial constraints and others, which greatly affected our movements and studies as persons with disability, I still managed to graduate with a first class. I did not end there, I have had my second degree and I am now working, contributing my quota to the growth of the country.
I was fortunate to have overcome all the obstacles and fears, to achieve my dreams and visions in life but there are many others who could not make it. The truth is that we cannot blame them in the sense that the resources and facilities they needed to progress in life were not available to them. Moreover, there are some of them who did not get the necessary care and support they needed from their families and the society at large hence they did not go to school or learn a trade to earn a living. I know that there are many children with disability going through similar situations like I did and there are others whose problems are even more severe than what I endured. It is for this reason that I will plead with the government, stakeholders, non-governmental organizations and other individual philanthropists to give strong support to persons with disability especially, the children, to help them to realize their ambitions. Educating children with disability is very expensive and needs a lot of time, commitment, resources and attention, which the family alone cannot afford.
GNA