By Njukang Princeley, Cameroon.
Developing visual impairment while in college or university always comes as a heavy burden. To Claudia Mbedo’o, though, this was a bit not too obvious.
Despite a difficult beginning after completely losing her sight at the age of 13 while in junior secondary school, Claudia’s early predicaments were never going to last like those of her other peers whose unannounced visual impairment completely shatters their dreams.
Though a visible component of success to disabled students in Cameroon, assistive digital technologies seem ever near, yet far away from the students who need it to gather their dreams together after developing an impairment.
Claudia’s early days when she lost her side sparked a new wave of enlightenment.
“It felt like my funeral had been announced, even though I was still alive,” she said in an exclusive interview.
“I didn’t know whether I’d ever school again… it felt like a full-stop to my dreams,” she added in an emotional tone.
After spending what looked like four unproductive years out of school, came the ripe moment in 2014 and Claudia says it was an opportunity well taken.
She fought her way into the Rehabilitation Institute for the Blind (RIB,) a government specialized school for visually impaired persons in Buea, Southwest Cameroon. It all looked like things had begun falling in the right direction for the young Claudia.
For the first time, she learned the writing and reading of Braille, a writing widely used by blind and partially sighted persons around the world. If there was anything else she had to be taught at RIB, it was how to use the white cane which appeared strange but later became a companion to the education enthusiast.
But in RIB, life did not show her the social color of blindness she would later meet during her second spell in secondary school. This is because Claudia unlike before was now blind and had to study with everyday students.
“Studies for me were very tedious, even discouraging,” she told DNA. She revealed that difficulties started the same day she got back to the very class she sat in while still sighted.
While Brailed textbooks were completely unavailable, the rest of her study contents were simply inaccessible, and Depending on classmates for assistance was never really going to be a permanent solution.
“I regularly needed someone to read for me, and to always see this person who would opt to read was very difficult,” she recounted in tears.
Today a second year student of Translation and Intercultural Studies in the Advanced School of Translators and interpreters, University of Buea, Southwest region of Cameroon, Claudia says she’s only been able to hit this level thanks to Digital assistive Technologies.
“As a student with visual impairment, I cannot do without these technologies,” she said. “It’s thanks to such assistive technologies as Talkback, NVDA and JAWS, that I’m able to go through my textbooks, and engage in detailed analysis.”
According to Wikipedia, Digital Assistive technologies allow students with disabilities to access the general curriculum. These technologiesincrease the functional abilities of students with disabilities, enabling them to participate more equitably in the learning process.
In the deaf community, one person who has witness the benefits of Digital Assistive technologies firsthand is Emelian Nkeafoon, a graduate of Theatre, Television and Film studies from The University of Bamenda in the Northwest region of the country.
Emelian opened up to DNA that the lack of Sign Language Interpreters during her school days almost kicked her off. If she was able to stay and successfully complete first degree, inclusive digital technologies played a key role.
“I made use of apps such as Live Transcribe and Talk to Deaf to connect to my teachers’ smart devices during lectures. These helped me to read whatever they were saying,” she explained.
In the meantime, Peter Tonaine,, President of Hope Social Union for the Visually Impaired (HSUVI), an organization championing meaningful inclusion of persons with Visual Impairment says assistive technologies mean everything to them.
“They create a level playing ground, wherein we are able to live normal lives than before, and to participate fully in daily living skills and issues, just like our non-disabled peers.”
Human Right Watch noted in January 2024 that they were over 600 thousand persons with vision loss in Cameroon, adding that 250 thousand of this number were blind. This is opposed to about 30 thousand persons with hearing impairment according to the Cameroon Organisation for the Development of the Death.
There are few organizations offering special services, exposing disabled people to digital technologies in Cameroon; a gap which HSUVI understands that filling it is not easy.
The organization runs an IT Center which has of the time of this publication graduated nearly 80 visually impaired and other persons on basic computer skills, and critical assistive technologies.
Peter Tonain says few persons with disabilities are able to use these technologies, stressing they are scarce and expensive. For the impact of digital assistive technologies on the education of persons with disabilities in Cameroon to be fully felt, Peter maintains, there is great need to continuously train them in the art.
“Many persons with disabilities find it difficult to use them maximally, talk less of special training centers to help imbibe these skills on to them,” he said.
DNA equally found that some disabled students use technologies unconsciously. Some students with hearing impairment said they don’t use digital assistive technologies, even while clearly using them almost daily.
Peter Tonaine told DNA that there’s a need for individuals and institutions working in the sector to go on an awareness offensive, while publicizing their services.
Disabled persons in the country face multiple challenges accessing economic opportunities, and due to growing poverty, they are not able to pay for premium digital assistive technologies which for now mostly come from abroad.
Way Forward
Cameroonian tech experts must take a bold step to start investing in the development of assistive technologies tailored to locally satisfy nearly three and a half million disabled people, majority of whom are youths, Peter has said.
Digital assistive technologies, though central to the education of students with disabilities in Cameroon, are never introduced early enough.
“I’m a girl who had passion for accounting, and if I’d discovered these technologies earlier, I would be doing accounting,” Claudia Mbedo’
o regretted.
Students with disabilities in Cameroon long for that day when access to Inclusive Digital Technologies would be assured. They love them, need them, but the technologies seem rather too far away from them.
Edited by Kesah Princely
Kesah Princely