Special Education Association of Zambia (SEAZ) Secretary General Dr. Cornelius Chitukwa says there is urgent need to digitalize content for the visually impaired learners to have equitable access to education and advance their ambitions.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with the Zambian Business Times (ZBT) Chitukwa said aside from braille the learners can utilize the technological tools if they are made available.
“The best thing that can be done is to digitalize content, so that they can access content in a digital content, and for us to achieve that we need to fix the Computers with a JAWS Soft ware, which learners can use to access sound, this is a device which will make the Computer can have some sound, without these facilities it is practically impossible for the learners to be fully accommodated in the education space, they need a lot of access to information, through digital content”he said.
Dr. Chitukwa said braille has been of hep in helping the learners to access Information but there is need for other facilities that would enhance teaching and learning.
“For instance when one wants to go to grade 8 for an ordinary learner they just need books and uniforms which will cost less than K500 but for a learner who is visually impaired they need a writing frame and the two of them are K1000 and for him or her to learn mathematics they need a Taylor frame which is also K1500, and these things are not provided for by the Government, and they are not locally available, these are things that cannot be bought from ShopRite, but they can be sourced from abroad, so depending on the people that import them, ” he said.
