The Lagos State Chapter of the Nigeria Association of the Blind, NAB has called on government at all levels to adopt inclusive education for Persons with disabilities.
Chairman of the Lagos NAB Chapter, Tunde Muhammed made the call while addressing journalists ahead of the International World Sight Day and International White Cane and Safety Day 2019.
Muhammed stressed the need to have inclusive schools saying it would avail persons with disabilities especially the blind and partially sighted the opportunity to be relevant in their community.
He noted that the government has a key role to play and can ensure that schools in the state and federal level integrate inclusive education and also make available assistive aids effective learning.
Muhammed thereafter called on the present administration in Lagos State to be disability sensitive and help in the reduction of the challenges of the blinds and advocate for acceptance by members of the society and corporate bodies.
The NAB Lagos Chair said, “all citizens are affected by certain shortcomings in the country including the blinds, being visually impaired is a disability an individual have to deal with but it is not the end of life.
“The previous regime in Lagos showered us love, we need the present government to adopt developed countries approach by providing materials for our students in their respective schools, help us with inclusive education so that we can achieve our aims.
“As a result, people will have access to education in their vicinity. A lot of us are in need of job; we have many professionals among us who are reliable and diligent in their works but are denied due to their disability” he said.
Speaking on the State Congress International World Sight Day and International White Cane & Safety Day scheduled for 14th and 15th of October 2019, Chairman planning committee, Barr Abolarinwa Salami said the focus of this year’s conference would be to alert members of the public on the issues of the blind and the partially sighted.
Salami added that, “we are alerting the public and governments about our activities and to adopt inclusive education so that education can be accessible for visually impaired persons. To have inclusive education, what schools need do is to provide resource tutors who can understand our plights as well as provide materials for use. The available schools are not quite accessible for all, due to distance which extracts a lot of resources from us such as time, money and transporting ourselves to the locations”, he added.
The conference would feature activities ranging from enlightenment on productivity and leadership, distributions of Cane to all visually impaired persons present and advocacy for inclusive education in schools; most importantly primary schools.