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Research Journal in Organizational Psychology & Educational Studies 3(4) 239-244
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© Emerging Academy Resources (2014) (ISSN: 2276-8475)
www.emergingresource.org
PROMOTING ACCESS FOR PERSONS WITH SPECIAL NEEDS IN NIGERIA
Jikukka, Jurmang Lenegnen and Ojo, Moses Kayode
Department Of Special Education and Rehabilitation Sciences University of Jos
Otana Hearing and Edu-Health Services, Jos
Corresponding Author: Ojo, Moses Kayode
___________________________________________________________________________
ABSTRACT
This paper discusses access under the following sub-headings: access for people with disabilities (PWDs);
majority of people with disabilities are excluded from participating in meaningful activities such as educational,
economic, and cultural life of their community, ensuring access for persons with disabilities; guaranteeing full
participation in all aspect of human endeavour, physical access, access to communication and information,
programme accessibility, community access, visual accessibility and lighting. The need to ensure access for
PWDs, when to ensure access for PWDs and who is to ensure access for PWDs were also discussed in this
paper. Access is looked at in the paper as the opportunity or means to use something (say a facility/service) or
enter a place with little or no restriction. General provision for PDWs should be based on equal opportunity. All
this groups of children, youth and adult should have access to all programms, facilities including quality
services. The significance of the study therefore, is to bring about a change in the attitude of the society towards
access for persons with disabilities. it will also go a long way in assisting the society to develop positive attitude
towards programms and services for PWDs. The paper will also serve as a guide to other researcher who may
be interested in special needs services
©Emerging Academy Resources
KEYWORDS: Graduate Unemployment, Open University, Labour Market, Economic Depression, Challenges.
__________________________________________________________________________________________
a particular disability e.g. visual impairment or
INTRODUCTION
“Access” today, is a very broad term that can refer to
hearing impairment and the child is to live for 75
many areas. Access in the field of disabilities touches
years in this world, it means that the child will be
on transport, employment, buildings, and public
blind or deaf for 75 years in his life. The implication
spaces. Others are human rights; poverty alleviation,
is that the indirect cost of living with the disability
technology, natural environment and human-made
will be for 75 years. Someone of 6o years becoming
changes to it, support and relationships, attitudes,
visual or hearing impaired and if he is to live for 75
and services, systems and policies. However, most of
years, he has only 15 years of living with the
these areas are interdependent e.g. access to the
disability. Therefore children with disability have a
school building being one of the conditions for
longer period in life to struggle for access to facilities
access to education and as a whole ultimately
in life.
accounts for inclusion of people with disabilities
(PWDs). Access may be seen as the opportunity or
The persons with disabilities with the least access
right to experience or make use of facility or service.
include women, people with severe and multiple
This paper therefore discusses access or accessibility
disabilities, people with psychiatric conditions,
under the following subheadings: Access for PWDs;
persons with disabilities who are poor, and their
Ensuring access for PWDs; Physical access; Access
families. The trend of things in disabilities is such
to communication and Information; Programme
that those who suffer communication disorders as not
Accessibility; Employment; Education; Community
being able to communicate with the public will tend
Access; Visual Accessibility and Lighting the need
to be more isolated and neglected and lack more
to ensure access for PWDs; When to ensure access
access facilities than other categories of disabilities
for PWDs and Who is to ensure access for PWDs
without communication problem. For example, the
were also discussed.
world seems to support the education and
rehabilitation programmes of people with visual
impairment than all those groups that tend to have
Accessibility Issues are more difficult with some
communication problems, e.g. all the intellectually
groups of disabilities than others
Disability is better discussed in two phases when
impaired groups; those with mental retardation,
relating to accessibility. There is the congenital or
children suffering from seizure or convulsion,
childhood disability and there is the adventitious or
children with cerebral palsy, those with hearing
youth and adulthood disability. If a child is born with
impairment etc. The essence of discussing access
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Research Journal in Organizational Psychology and Educational Studies (ISSN: 2276-8475) 3(4):239-244
Promoting Access For Persons With Special Needs In Nigeria
women for small businesses should allow women
with disabilities to access such facilities.
issues is to ensure that all individuals with disabilities
irrespective of age, sex, type of disabilities and socioeconomic status, exercise the same rights and
opportunities as other citizens in society – “A society
for all”.
Access to Education
Only very few persons with disabilities gain access to
education in the world. According to Peters (2004) it
is estimated that only between 1% and 5% of
children with disabilities in the world go to school.
There are even worse situations in some countries.
Tomlison and Abdi (2003) found that there are
nonexistent schools for children with disabilities in
Somaliland. Several reasons are given by different
authors for lack of access to education for children
with disabilities of the world. Education is costly.
Many of the children cannot afford the school fees.
Schools are prohibitively expensive for persons with
disabilities. Many of them are from low
socioeconomic background. Even where primary
schools have been declared free, there are certain
little charges here and there that the parents cannot
cope. To some the cost of transporting the child is a
problem.
Poverty is the root cause of many disabilities and
disability further increases poverty. About 400
million people with disabilities live in low income
countries. They are often amidst poverty, isolation
and despair. Poverty further limits access to basic
health services, including rehabilitation and
accessing education (Report on the development of
guidelines for CBR 2005, Geneva, Switzerland). The
essence of discussing access in disabilities is
essentially about human rights; poverty alleviation,
provision of education, health care including medical
rehabilitation and enabling people with disabilities to
participate in the whole range of human activities.
Access to Women with Disabilities in Social and
Economic Development
According to Sinyo who is a member of parliament
in her country in Africa (1999), the greatest tragedy
in the life of a woman is not death. It is when a
woman especially with disability lives a life without
reason. According to Sinyo the greatest tragedy is
when a woman with disability lives a live unfulfilled,
empty, and hopeless. She lives life that is
meaningless to the extent that whether she lives or
dies, nobody cares and she too does not care. To
avoid this tragedy, women need access to participate
in development. There is the need for integration of
women with disabilities into development. Women
with disabilities suffer double discrimination.
Women with disabilities experience double
discrimination.
Education is broader than schooling. Schools need to
be seen in the context of life - long process.
Education includes both formal and informal, homebased, community and government initiatives. If you
graduate children from primary school or secondary
school, do you keep track of them or follow their
progress throughout their lives till death? Which
universities did they attend, what courses did they
read, what work are they doing, how are they fairing
with their families, how are they experiencing in their
retirement life? This is often better done by the
universities.
In promoting access to education, there are special
needs children in their homes that cannot come to the
school premises either due to the type or degree of
disability they have. They must have access to
education at home. The late Joshua in Jos was like a
log of wood on a trolley. He was taught reading and
writing especially spoken English at home. That
aided his interaction with the world especially the
foreigners that came to see him. If they took him to
school, there was going to be distraction in the
school.
According to Sinyo, when discrimination based on
disability combines with discrimination based on
sex, women with disabilities are more likely than
women or men without disabilities to be the poorest
of the poor, very desperate and very oppressed, to be
isolated and without family support because they are
more likely to have less chances of founding family.
The men with disabilities discriminate against
women with disabilities. They do not involve them
into their organisational activities. The visually or
hearing impaired boys always say they will never
marry a visually or hearing impaired girl. Feminist
movements and disability movements have never
championed the cause of women with disabilities.
Women with disabilities should have access to
women organisational programmes of their
communities. They should have access to full
participation in development. Girls and women with
disabilities should have access to education, work
and social opportunities just as boys and men do.
The distribution of resources for education and
training should favour both males and females.
Programmes that provide loans or financial aid to
Although everyone has the right to education,
sometimes it is wrongly assumed that people with
disabilities are an exception. Family members,
communities, and even people with disabilities
themselves, are denied the knowledge that they have
an equal right to education. They therefore miss
access to education.
The terms integration, mainstreaming, have been
used to achieve access to regular schools for children
with disabilities. The focus in integration is the
individual child, rather than the school system. The
problem with integration as an avenue for access to
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Promoting Access For Persons With Special Needs In Nigeria
school was that if there was any problem, it was seen
as the child's fault. However it should be known that
the success of the child depends on the goodwill of
the teacher, material support etc. There were children
who could not cope with the school because the local
school's inaccessible building, the child were teased
by other children and insulted by the teachers. The
teachers were fighting each other in the presence of
the children and the child with disability got
frightened and never came back to school. To gain
access to a school, there is the need to restructure the
school to become accessible. The teachers need to be
prepared, creating a welcoming environment and
educating all children to be inclusive and supportive.
All children have the same needs in terms of
learning. Children with disabilities may only need
means that will keep them accessible. For example a
child who uses wheel chair needs an accessible
environment. Some children with other impairments
may need particular resources to help them access the
curriculum such as Braille or sign language
interpretation. With good teaching techniques,
essential resources and an inclusive environment, all
children can learn.
Access to Physical Structure in the Environment
This means access to buildings, public spaces, and
any other places a person might need to go for work,
play, education, business, services etc. Physical
access includes things like accessible routes, curb
ramps, parking and passenger loading zones,
elevators, signage, entrances, and restroom
accommodations.
Jurmang (2010) asserts that accessing schools by
special needs children depends on the restructuring of
the school environment. The design of the building
should be considered. Simple ramps and internal
classroom arrangement to suit the special needs of
special needs children should be made. There should
be provision for availability of water, electricity and
toilet/sewage facilities. Those that can make this
happen are the teachers, ministry officials, parent,
community members like the local masons,
carpenters, welders, organizatiors of persons with
disabilities (OPDs) etc.
There are environmental barriers that have stopped
children from going to school. The schools are not
physically accessible for wheel-chair users
(Dhungana 2006). The case of Pius who was a law
student of the University of Jos. First he gained
admission in Bauchi. The sandy nature of the school
environment made it difficult for him to be pushed
around the school environment for lectures with his
tricycle. He left Bauchi and came home, got
admission to Maiduguri. Three times he tried going
to Maiduguri and he was at the Jos Bauchi motor
park; he was asked to pay for the entire back seat for
his tricycle and should pay his own transport fee
making a total fee for four persons which he could
not afford. He stayed home and the following year
got admission to University of Jos to read political
science and was in one of the University of Jos
Students hostel (village hostel). He could not climb
the upstairs where lectures hold for arts and social
science students at the permanent site of the
university to attend his lectures. He had to change
his course to law. Taxis charged him fees for three
people from the village hostel to main camp of the
university. There were instances where he was
pushed in the rain on his tricycle from village hostel
through into the University main campus. It was a
collapsible wheelchair from the resource room of
the Special Education Department that enabled him
to cope and eventually finished his university. Buses
with spaces for wheel chairs should be provided to
provide access to wheelchair owners. There should
be special parking spaces provided to persons with
disabilities in public places. Nigeria should consider
the provision of electricity as a priority to provide
access to persons with disabilities to public places.
There should be working lifts in public places.
There should be elevators working to carry people
including persons with disabilities to higher
grounds.
Formal education refers to education that takes place
in recognised institutions, e.g. schools, colleges and
university often leading to recognised qualifications
and certifications. Non-formal education refers to
organised educational activity outside the formal
system. It is usually targeted at particular
disadvantaged groups and have specific objectives.
Informal education refers to all the learning that
happens throughout life as a whole-from- family,
friends, communities. However none should be used
to deny the child with disabilities the formal
education
Everyone has a right to an education appropriate to
her talents and needs. The individuals with
Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) in the U.S as well
as laws in many other countries guarantee education
to students with disabilities. In the case of IDEA, that
guarantee extends through high school, while
American
Disability
Act
(ADA)
covers
undergraduate
students
admitted
(without
discrimination) to colleges and universities.
Jurmang (2010) observed that there is need to reform
education in Nigeria to meet the needs of diverse
pupils. There is the need to restructure the
curriculum. The curriculum that aims at developing
inclusion should have a flexible structure to facilitate
responding to the diversity and providing diverse
opportunities for practice and performance in terms
of content, methods, and level of participation. It
should give room to individual teacher for further
adaptation so that it makes better sense in the local
context and for the individual learner.
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Promoting Access For Persons With Special Needs In Nigeria
Readers
People with learning disabilities or vision difficulties
may need readers in order to successfully complete
courses. By the same token, deaf individuals may
need to be provided with lecture notes, or to have an
interpreter in lectures.
Access to Work, Job, Career or Vocation
Productive and decent work is essential for the
social and economic integration of individual
women and men with disabilities. A gainful
livelihood provides an individual with income,
self-esteem and a sense of belonging and a chance
to contribute to the larger community. It is
essential to ensure that both youth and adults with
disabilities have access to training and work
opportunities at community level. There should
be vocational training, employment and good
working conditions for persons with disabilities.
They should have access to vocational
rehabilitation services, vocational guidance and
skills training through both mainstream training
institutions and through specialized training
centres and programmes. There should be equal
employment opportunities for those with and
those without disabilities through national
policies and legislation. Job seekers with
disabilities should be supported to find
employment opportunities in the open labour
market. Persons with disabilities should have
access to informal apprenticeships with master
trainers or local businesses to provide individuals
with disabilities opportunities to learn employable
skills and gain practical experience. The business
community can provide job training, hiring
workers
with
disabilities,
mentoring
entrepreneurs with disabilities and providing
advice on current and emerging skills
requirements to vocational training centres. Micro
and small enterprise development programmes
can provide business skills training and advisory
services. They can provide access to credit to
assist women and men, including people with
disabilities, to start their own businesses and
become self-employed.
Telephones
One is that text telephones (teletypes TTY machines)
need to be provided. Another is that they could be
heard or seen. Cell phones should be programmed to
suit all categories of disabilities. People with visual
impairment receive calls with voice synthesizer
telling owner the name of the person phoning, and
other relevant information about the caller like
address of the caller etc. Text messages could be
used by those that have hearing disorders or those
with speech problems.
Internet Services:
Televisions (TV sets) and concerts and theater
performances should be presented. Persons with
disabilities should have access to Newspapers, radio,
television and the internet in suitable forms for them.
The visually impaired should have the Braille
versions of the newspapers, the internet should have
voice synthesizer for them. Television screens should
have sign language translations and also written
captions should follow most of the talks on the
television screen. They should be given room to be
interviewed by these media means so that people can
hear their voices and opinions. They can also provide
the public with information about disability issues,
and also present a positive image of individuals with
disabilities at school, work or in social gatherings.
Programme Accessibility:
People with disabilities have in the past often been
denied access to services of various kinds - from such
human services as child care or mental health
counseling to help in retail stores to entertainment either because of lack of physical accessibility or
because of their disabilities.
Access to Communication and Information
Signs, posters, public address systems, the
internet,
telephones,
and
many
other
communication media are oriented toward people
who can hear, see and use their hands easily.
Making these media accessible to people with
disabilities can take some creativity and
ingenuity. Rabinowitz (2013) buttressed that it is
expected that printed signs in buildings or on
streets to tell users what they need to know; but
for the visual impaired, signs with raised letters or
Braille should be placed at heights that can be
easily reached. Announcements in public places
should be both verbal and visual, so that they can
be heard or seen by those with vision and hearing
difficulties.
Employment:
Discrimination in hiring on the basis of disability
long as the disability doesn't interfere with
candidate's ability to perform the tasks of the job
question should be illegal; laws must check that
make employment accessible to PWDs.
as
a
in
to
Community Access
Everyone should have the right to fully participate in
community life, including attending religious
services, dining in public restaurants, shopping,
enjoying community park facilities, and the like.
Even where there are no physical barriers, people
with disabilities still sometimes experience
differential treatment. CBM (n.d.) declares that there
should be laws that will remove hazards from busy
paths to protect special needs children from injury.
The hearing impaired may need interpreters for
meetings with doctors, lawyers and other personnel
for lectures and classes, for business transactions; or
for public gatherings, such as conferences,
performances, or public hearings.
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Promoting Access For Persons With Special Needs In Nigeria
There should be laws that can create space for
persons with disabilities at the local government or
community level as well as the state and national
levels. The role of legislators is to simply make
functional laws that will remove all sorts of
discrimination and abuse of special needs children.
It makes good business and economic sense. This is
to say that commercial operations of any kind,
accessibility means that people with disabilities can
become customers, increasing sales volume and
profits. Furthermore, if a firm is a good place for
customers with disabilities to do business, the word
will get around.
Visual Accessibility
CBM (n.d.) described that orientation within the built
up environment depends for most people to a great
degree on its colour and a continuous usage of visual
aids. The visual structuring of situations through the
professional and systematic arrangement of
contrasts, information systems and light is crucial to
the orientation and mobility of fully sighted and
visual impaired users. Orientation cues such as
changes in illumination level contrasts and unique
patterns. Help particularly visually impaired people
to make maximum use of their residual vision and to
distinguish pathways and locations. The use of
colour do create a high contrast environment, which
facilities easy and safe orientation within buildings
and facilities.
Many PWDs in all walks of life are competent at
important jobs, and some do remarkable work.
Denying them (PWDs) access to employment,
education, or services wastes human resources and
makes the society poorer. Talent and energies are
simply wasted.
People with disabilities have the same rights as other
regular persons, including the right to fully
participate in community life. Everybody has a right
to live as normal a life as possible. It is a matter of
fairness and respect. Also, in some countries such as
Kenya, Uganda, Sought Africa, and U.S.A etc. it's
the law. It is either they have passed specific laws
concerning the rights of people with disabilities, or
have enshrine those rights in their constitutions.
Lighting has to be put in consideration to create a
flexible lighting system that accommodates the
various lighting needs of building users, particularly
those with visual impairments. CBM (n.d.) suggested
that dimmer switches should be employed in places
where individual control of illumination levels is
needed. Multiple lamps in light systems, each
governed by a separate switch also enable the
adjustment. Reflection glare, shadows and large
variations and hinder orientation particularly for
people with visual impairments.
When to Ensure Access for PWDs:
It is very important to ensure access for PWDs when:
- new public facilities are being designed and/or
built
- there is an addition, renovation, or repair made
to a public facility
- a history building is rehabilitated for public use
- a community group is working on improving or
rehabilitating a public facility or space
- an organization, institution, or agency that
provides services or education is moving or
renovating its facility. A move can be one to a
more accessible location and building. A
renovation
can
include
accessibility
accommodations.
- there are complaints about lack of access. Most
often than not, someone has to file a complain
or even go to court in order for a particular law
to be enforced, if you are an advocate or a
concerned citizen, or a person with disability
who knows about the problem, you can save
everyone a huge amount of trouble by
suggesting
or
brokering
reasonable
accommodations.
In general, ADA requires that public and government
facilities, cities and towns, educational institutions,
employers, and service providers make reasonable
accommodations where necessary to serve people
with disabilities (to encourage accessibility).
"Reasonable accommodation" means making
changes that don't cause unreasonable hardship to the
party making them or to others party that deals with
students, customers, employees, programme
participants etc. (Rabinowitz 2013).
Need to Ensure Access for People with
Disabilities:
Access for people with disabilities will make them
more accessible for people, who are not living with
disabilities, stake holders and even their families.
People with disabilities add to the diversity of the
community, and that diversity makes everyone's life
richer. If they can mix normally with the rest of the
community, they will have more friends and
acquaintances, and more people will have the
opportunity to know them. Many people with
disabilities already have a difficult life. It's simple
human decency not to make it
harder than
necessary.
Who to Ensure Access for PWDs:
People with disabilities have often been incredible
self-advocates. They can demonstrate how lack of
accessibility affects the, and speak eloquently about
their experiences. As participants in planning the
design and constitution of new buildings and
facilities, they can bring their experiences to bear to
make projects as accessible and usable as possible.
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Promoting Access For Persons With Special Needs In Nigeria
teachers, and a poor understanding of the issues faced
by children with disabilities on the part of other
students.
Organizations concerned with disability right.
Ensuring access is one of the reasons these
organizations exist. NGOs should also teach PWDs
how to do personal and systems advocacy.
Legislators and other officials can craft laws and
policies that ensure not only access for PWDs, but
also raise consciousness about their issues.
REFERENCES
Community Based Rehabilitation. (CBR) (2005).
Report on the development of guidelines for CBR.
Geneva, Switzerland.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) in each State and
Local Government and other agencies concerned
with enforcing all or part of disability rights laws can
simply respond to complains. It makes sense for
employers of labour to make sure they employ
qualified PWDs and to also make their workplaces
accessible.
C.B.M. (N.D). Promoting universal access to the
built
environment:
Guidelines.
Bensheim:
Christoftel- Blindenmission.
Dhungana. B. (2006). The lives of disabled women
in Nepal: Vulnerability without support. Disability
and Society, 21,2, 133- 146.
Educationists by and large, care about learners, and
want them to do well. They must teach both PWDs
and the general public how to make our systems and
communities more accessible. Educationists must
educate government on the importance of
accessibility and how it will vastly increase the
changes that learners with disabilities of all kinds
will eventually be successful.
Jurmang, I.J. (2010). Opening the school gate for
special needs children. Jos: Otana hearing and EduHealth Services.
Peters, S. (2004). Inclusive Education: An EFA
Strategy for All Children. New
York: World Bank
It's to the advantage of a developer to consider
accessibility for a number of reasons. Since it's
llikely to be less expensive than trying to make over
a building or facility later. Secondly, it increases the
value of the project, as well as increasing the number
of people who will be able to use it as resident,
customers, or however the project is intended. And
finally, the developer can get a tax credit for part of
the expense associated with creating accessibility
(UN, 1993).
Rabinowitz (2013). Ensuring access for people with
disabilities. Kansas: University
of Kansas.
SUMMARY/CONCLUSION
Accessibility, participation and inclusion are matters
of human rights. These issues include physical,
sensorial and economic barriers. There are barriers
and solutions at the macro and micro levels that must
be addressed. The environment must be free of
physical barriers for people with mobility difficulties.
Information must be accessible for people with
visual, hearing or intellectual difficulties. Economic
barriers must be recognized and addressed through
programs that promote equalization of opportunities.
Attitudinal barriers must also be removed for all
people with disabilities. Legislation for facilitating
access, participation and inclusion is important.
Issues of access and participation can be analysed in
terms of policies, legislation, raising awareness and
practical aspects. For example, there are goals like
Education for All, but there is no effort to promote
the use of Braille materials. Communication for
people who are blind is often limited because
information is not provided in Braille. In addition,
accommodations are not made for people with low
vision, who also need to be considered in situations
like exams, when large print is needed, but not
provided. There is a lack of awareness training for
Tomlinson, S. & Abdi, A. (2003). Disability in
Somaliland. Henley-on-Themes:
Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Sinyo, J. (1999). The concerns of the blind and
visually impaired women in social and economic
development in Africa. In International Development
Programme (IDP). Second Africa Forum.
Employment: A right to equal opportunity. Uganda,
WBU.
United Nations (1993). Standard rules on the
equalization of opportunities for persons with
disabilities. General assemble resolution 84-96 of
December 20, 1993. New York: United Nations.
.
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