The Ghana Blind Union has appealed to government to pay special attention to blind students as school reopens amidst increasing COVID-19 figures.
In a press statement, the group is asking government to provide blind students with face masks and sanitizers since their movement depends largely on touching people and surfaces.
“GBU wishes to highlight some concerns, and appeal to the government to ensure that blind students are provided with extra safety kits of face masks and hand sanitizers. This is because blind students do a lot of touching for the sake of mobility and identification of objects. For instance, to navigate indoors, a blind person is likely to touch furniture and objects than his/her sighted counterpart. Again, when walking, blind persons who need guides are likely to hold on to their sighted guides. The implication here is, the blind person is to ensure sanitation of his hands as well as his/her guide. Both situations require more use of hand sanitizer.”
The statement also called on government to provide the needed technology for blind students to enable them to participate in the ongoing electronic learning.
“Most blind persons do not have adequate ICT equipment. GBU wishes to request that government should kindly provide all blind students with personal laptops so that they can take part in the entire educational process.”
The group also appealed to school authorities to “provide conducive environment to aid movement and general mobility of the blind students.”
“Technically, each blind person should have a white cane, but not all blind students can afford, so we call on government to provide white canes for all blind students,” the statement said.
Click here for full details of the press release
Universities in Ghana resumed on-campus academic activities on Monday, June 15, 2020, to only final year students to enable them prepare and write their exit examinations.
Senior High Schools and Junior High Schools will subsequently reopen on June 22 and 29 respectively to only final year students as well to enable them to prepare and write their final examinations.
This is in accordance with directives given by President Addo Dankwah Akufo-Addo in his 10th televised address to the nation on May 31, 2020.