‘Support students with disabilities’ (26/03/09)BP

Story: Jennifer Dornoo
THE Programme Officer of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Ghana, Ms Regina Dennis, has advised the management of academic institutions in the country not to see students with disability as a burden.
This is because such students have unique qualities and experiences that will help in the development of the country.
"By helping the students, you are contributing to the development of Ghana and helping to make the Disability Law that was passed in 2006 meaningful," she stated.
Speaking at the inauguration of an office for students with special needs at the University of Ghana, Legon, Ms Dennis said teaching persons with various forms of disability was an opportunity to learn new skills from them.
She said the office, which would address the various needs of students with disability, would also serve as a resource centre to ensure that tertiary education was accessible to all.
She commended the university for realising the need to address the special needs of students with disability and setting the example for other institutions to follow.
"By recognising the need for this room, the university is telling the students to come and seek additional support that they may need to achieve their academic goals and prepare for the future," she said.
The Pro-Vice Chancellor of the university, Professor Kwesi Yankah, stressed the need for academic institutions to gear themselves up to make education accessible and easy for persons with disability.
He said as much as Ghana was interested in making life easy for people with disability, it was also important to take measures to wipe out disability from the country.
The Registrar of the university, Mr A.T. Konu, recalled a regrettable incident in which a visually impaired student had not been given the opportunity to read Law at the university some years ago, adding that he was very happy that the school had realised that students with special needs needed attention.
A representative of the Campus Association of Students with Disability, Mr Albert Frimpong, thanked the school for the office, as well as the friends who helped them to move about on campus.
He appealed to the university to provide them with the facilities they could have easy access to, such as a washroom, a friendly stairway and safely sealed gutters on campus.
The Executive Director of the Centre for Democratic Development (CCD), Professor E. Gyimah-Boadi, said the university still had a long way to go in trying to catch up with the reality of the society.
He said it was important for the university to work hard towards helping more people with disability to access tertiary education.
Currently, there are only 60 students with disability in the university.