•A BLIND teacher at the Lions School for the Visually Impaired testing a computer before Copperbelt Minister Mwenya Musenge (left), Minister of Transport, Works, Supply and Communications Yamfwa Mukanga and ZICTA director-general Margaret Chalwe-Mudenda (right).

By HUMPHREY NKONDE –

THE global community has reached a consensus that many countries will not achieve Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015 because the physically challenged and other minority groups were not included in development frameworks.
There were no specific indicators on MDGs regarding how development goals would be measured on the physically challenged as well as other minority groups.
As a result, the global community has developed post-2015 development agenda whose concept is based on inclusive development.
MDGs are a set of goals that were designed by world leaders at the beginning of the millennium to reduce poverty by half by 2015, improve access to health, education, Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) and other aspects of social development.
There is no doubt that for poverty to be reduced and to have a well informed citizenry, there is need for quality education and access to ICTs by all regardless of their abilities or disabilities.
Quality education for the physically challenged means that pupils and teachers can be able to access information and news by the use of computers, the Internet, assistive devices and accessible print media such as Braille for the visually impaired.
In that context, the Zambia Information Communication Technology Authority (ZICTA) has installed computers connected in a laboratory at Ndola’s Lions School for Visually Impaired located in Hillcrest.
Installed computers have Job Access with Speech (JAWS), assistive software that produces verbal commands to the visually and partially sighted users.
Apart from installation of the computers, ZICTA will also look after the computers and the software because the school has no capacity to do so.
With that facility in place, the blind and partially sighted pupils as well as teachers will be able to use computers to conduct research from the Internet.
Before the computer laboratory was officially opened by the Minister of Transport, Works, Supply and Communications Yamfwa Mukanga on September 16, 2014, the audience was treated to poems, songs and speeches by the blind and partially sighted pupils.
Messages in the poems, which pointed to breaking the cycle of poverty, inequality and misery, were appreciated by Mr Mukanga and other dignitaries including Copperbelt Minister Mwenya Musenge and Ndola District Commissioner Rebby Chanda.
The pupils lamented that many had passed through Lions School for the Visually Impaired, but were not offered computer lessons.
In order to foster applications of ICTS, the Ministry of Education has made computer knowledge an examinable subject for all pupils including those with disabilities.
Mr Mukanga, a son of a visually impaired teacher, said globally and in Zambia, the ICT industry had continued to play a significant role in modern day economy.
“The fact that ICTs are revolutionising the education sector has become evident in that learning institutions are beginning to rely more on ICTs,” Mr Mukanga said.
He said that although the computer system at the Lions School for the Visually Impaired did not have Braille printer, ZICTA had applied to the International Telecommunications Union (ICU) for the assistive equipment to for schools for the visually impaired throughout the country.
Without Braille printers, the visually and partially sighted pupils as well as teachers at Lions School for the Visually Impaired and elsewhere in the country will not be able to print out materials in the medium they can easily read and store.
ZICTA has so far installed computers connected to the Internet at public universities, colleges, schools and skills training centres throughout the country.
This follows the ratification and domestication of the United Nations (UN) Conventions on the Rights of Person with Disabilities by the MMD and President Michael Sata’s Patriotic Front (PF) Government respectively.
Those rights include access to information such as large print, Braille, audio tapes and online resources.
Unlike the MDGs, the PF Government has gone further to put specific key performance indicators in the sixth national development plan with respect to access to education by the disabled.
One of the problems with the MDG on education is that it broadly speaks of access to education without defining what standards to meet regarding quality education.
In an interview, Copperbelt coordinator for Zambia Agency for Persons with Disabilities (ZAPD) Anthony Mwansa commended ZICTA for installing computers at the laboratory at Lions School for the Visually Impaired.
He said the school would move toward quality education because pupils would be taught how to use computers.
Mr Mwansa, who was among the dignitaries during the official opening of the laboratory, said the MDGs only mentioned access to education, but did not mention how quality education could be achieved.
The ZAPD official lamented that although ICTs were being introduced in schools for the disabled, general access to education still remained low.
Speaking before Mr Mukanga officially opened the laboratory at the special school, ZICTA Director General Margaret Mwelwa-Mudenda said the organisation had installed computers connected to the Internet at public universities, colleges and schools.
However, beyond improving ICTs at public schools and higher institutions of learning, ZICTA and councils should move towards making ICTs available at public libraries.
In that way, both the disabled and able bodied who are outside learning institutions will have access to information and news.
According to the Persons with Disabilities Act No. 6 of 2012, public libraries need to be accessible to the disabled.
Section 26 of the new law states: “A public library shall, as far as practicable, be fitted with facilities to enable persons with disabilities to use the library.”
This means that the physical construction of the library must make it easy for people with disabilities such as the blind and physically handicapped to gain access to those reading and research facilities.
Libraries should also provide e-books and other information formats such audio, audio-visual tapes, CDs and Braille for the blind.
By the use of computers and the Internet, public libraries can also create e-libraries so that the severely handicapped can access information and news by the use of mobile phones, i-pads, laptop computers and other devices without physical presence at those information centres.
Such technological innovations and products can also benefit the able bodied at night when libraries are closed, public holidays or when those facilities are undergoing renovations.
At the moment, it is difficult to research from hardcopy books at the Ndola City Council main library because it undergoing renovations and has not developed e-books for online access.
For a start, it is gratifying that Zambia is moving towards inclusive development by improving facilities for the disabled, the global community will have to embrace to answer the aspirations of post-2015 development agenda.
(The author was the leader for the development of a Braille magazine for the visually-impaired in Zambia, a project that was sponsored by Hivos and Free Press Unlimited both of the Netherlands and has also developed and copyrighted election results/adverts in Braille with the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting).