Challenges of being disabled in campus

Collins Mwiti pushes back for space. There is a dash among students to get better seats in the lecture hall.

He uses his white cane to get try and get a way through, tapping on a few fellow students in the process. Others notice and let him through. Some hurl insults at him.

Collins became blind in 1999 after an illness in the eye. That never killed his spirit to continue with school. His ambition is to become a professor some day.

By the time he gets there, he will have confronted severe challenges of pursuing university education in Kenya while blind. The problems affecting blind or partially blind university students in Kenya are many, but a basic yet very crucial one is the overwhelming mass of printed material.

Just how are they expected to read? Ever wondered if universities provide Braille?

“It’s not easy to learn here as a blind student,” the fourth-year Bachelor of Education student complains. “We are never equal competitors.”

In Kenya, there is no specialised university for the blind like there are schools.

Few universities have made serious attempts to provide facilities for accommodating students who can’t read the ordinary study material or whatever the lecturer has written on the black or white board.

An argument from some education professionals is that blind students must learn to live among people who can see.

According to the Kenya Integrated Education Programme (KIEP) that aims to integrate visually impaired and sighted children in an ordinary school system where the same educational facilities are shared, there are 389 totally blind and 4104 low vision learners in all institutions of learning in Kenya.

There are several blind students in Moi University, University of Nairobi, Kenyatta University, Machakos Teachers Training College, Mosoriot Teachers Training College, and Asumbi Teacher’s Training College.

Blind students struggle with the same curriculum and reading hours despite the fact that their physical disadvantage reduces their pace of work and if rushed, can affect their overall performance.

At times they get reprieve, as explained by a lecturer at KU, James Juma.

He says: “With understanding of their examiners, such undergraduate students get a little more time when doing their exams.”

Students on Masters programmes “can get an extension to finish their degree if they need to,” he adds.

In many instances, blind students require extra time for someone trusted to read lecture notes to them loudly and to help them choose the appropriate books.

The challenge is to get a person who can consistently provide such assistance. They call them readers.

Often, the students who volunteer to read books and handouts for their blind colleagues also get busy with their own work. Some just get bored.

Janet Wakupe, a master’s student in Special Education, says that when she was teaching at a regular school in Kisii, she would secure the services of a reader, but they would change every now and then.

Apart from the difficulty of securing a permanent reader, it is also expensive to maintain one.

Even computer speech programmes such as Jaw, Dolphin, Pen and Thunder, which convert text to speech, sometimes fail to read everything. The students have to beg for extra help.

Kenyatta University has put in place some systems. It runs a Students Disability Services Centre, which prints Braille material, de-Braille exam papers for lecturers to mark  and chase volunteer readers to ensure that they serve blind students consistently.

The centre also maintains thermoforming machines for reproducing Braille material for students.

A special needs expert, Dr Michael Njoroge, says that sponsors need to come in and provide resources for blind learners.

“In the past, sponsors such as DFID and Sight Savers have helped in provision of resources,” he says.

A special education PhD student Lubna Mazrui adds that improved technology for blind learners will go a long way in making their academic dreams achievable with fewer challenges.

She says: “I did my masters in the US and I had access to technologically advanced material, which unfortunately is not available in local universities.

According to her, “Electronic books on CD, electronic database and journals and readers who can (consistently) help such students work effectively with the Internet will help greatly.”

The challenges go beyond academics and include structures, which hardly cater for blind students.

Despite the challenges, Mary Karisa, a second year Bachelor of Education blind student maintains a positive attitude. First she clarifies that sympathy is not what they need, but genuine support.

“We don’t need sympathy because we are as good as the sighted,” she says adamantly. “We only need to be more creative. Mastering the environment is the key. I cook, wash my clothes, clean my own room, and maintain my beautiful body. What sympathy do I need?” she wonders.