Knubbyah Zafar highlights how the education system of the country has failed the visually impaired through poor management and a complete lack of empathy.
Attitudes towards the visually impaired in Pakistan are of a strange nature; oscillating between extreme indifference and ill-advised sympathy. Both are detrimental as they undermine the positive role such an individual can play in society. Thus, many strive to generate discourse on integrating persons with disabilities into society in a positive manner.
This is where the social model of disability enters. The Social “Model of Disability” asserts that the most significant barrier for individuals with disabilities is not the disability itself; rather the environment with which a person with a disability must engage in. Society “disables” people by designing everything to meet the needs of the majority, that is not disabled. This model amplifies the oppression and exclusion of people with disabilities. It purports that for full inclusion, there must be significant changes made and barriers removed so everyone can participate on an equal basis within the society. Society can do a great deal to reduce and ultimately remove disabling barriers. This task is the responsibility of the society, rather than the person with a disability[1].
In the more developed countries, the social model of disability has started making its way into society and its effects can be felt in everyday life. One can see ramps for wheelchairs, road signs and markings in Braille and voice commands for doors in malls etc.
In Pakistan however, things are a little different.
Starting from the basic education, vision impairment is treated as a major disability in Pakistan, without realizing that there is very little that visually challenged people cannot do. The special education institutions for the visually impaired are established in almost every district and major cities, however, most of them are not well kept or organized. The single most important thing for a school is its syllabus. Converting the syllabus in Braille is an uphill task for these institutions. There is not a single Braille Press in the entire KP province. Braille syllabus is transported from Punjab and the students learn from those books only to realize that the board exams they take in KP are from an entirely different syllabus altogether. And this is just the beginning. The syllabus that these students do get is also obsolete and not regularly updated. These students have to do without Braille paper or Perkins (the specialized Braille typewriter) as these facilities are not available in most of the special schools. Almost all these schools teach cane work to weave chairs etc., as part of vocational training. In sports, cricket is their only option. And that too is not an option in every institution. Computer labs are a rare commodity in most government special education institutions, even though visually challenged students can use the computers without any difficulty. In fact, assistive technology and programs like Espeak and JAWS have almost eliminated any difficulty in using computers. If only the government would realize that using computers to teach visually impaired students can work wonders both for the students and the teachers.
And yet there are people who have achieved tremendous success despite these impediments. There are people like Sher Bahadur Afridi of Kohat, who conquers majestic mountain peaks of the Himalayas; Rubina Shad who mesmerizes the audience with her breathtaking poetry; Dr. Amir Hanif of Rawalpindi who has done a PhD from Sheffield UK; Shamsa Kanwal who won the prestigious DUSKIN leadership award in Japan; Salman Khalid who is the first visually challenged person to study computers in a mainstream university, Suleman Arshad who founded the first Rock Climbing and Adventure sports club for the visually impaired; Irum Shabbir who has done 3 Masters and serves as an educationist par excellence and Saima Arshad who is training hundreds of visually impaired students in Computers and Assistive Technology to make their lives better.
These are the people who give us hope when all else looks bleak. These are the people that we can look up to and cheer because no matter how hard or how many obstacles, there is always a way. And these true champions have shown us exactly that.
[1] https://itss.d.umn.edu/news/a11y-social-model-disability
Attitudes towards the visually impaired in Pakistan are of a strange nature; oscillating between extreme indifference and ill-advised sympathy. Both are detrimental as they undermine the positive role such an individual can play in society. Thus, many strive to generate discourse on integrating persons with disabilities into society in a positive manner.
This is where the social model of disability enters. The Social “Model of Disability” asserts that the most significant barrier for individuals with disabilities is not the disability itself; rather the environment with which a person with a disability must engage in. Society “disables” people by designing everything to meet the needs of the majority, that is not disabled. This model amplifies the oppression and exclusion of people with disabilities. It purports that for full inclusion, there must be significant changes made and barriers removed so everyone can participate on an equal basis within the society. Society can do a great deal to reduce and ultimately remove disabling barriers. This task is the responsibility of the society, rather than the person with a disability[1].
In the more developed countries, the social model of disability has started making its way into society and its effects can be felt in everyday life. One can see ramps for wheelchairs, road signs and markings in Braille and voice commands for doors in malls etc.
In Pakistan however, things are a little different.
Starting from the basic education, vision impairment is treated as a major disability in Pakistan, without realizing that there is very little that visually challenged people cannot do. The special education institutions for the visually impaired are established in almost every district and major cities, however, most of them are not well kept or organized. The single most important thing for a school is its syllabus. Converting the syllabus in Braille is an uphill task for these institutions. There is not a single Braille Press in the entire KP province. Braille syllabus is transported from Punjab and the students learn from those books only to realize that the board exams they take in KP are from an entirely different syllabus altogether. And this is just the beginning. The syllabus that these students do get is also obsolete and not regularly updated. These students have to do without Braille paper or Perkins (the specialized Braille typewriter) as these facilities are not available in most of the special schools. Almost all these schools teach cane work to weave chairs etc., as part of vocational training. In sports, cricket is their only option. And that too is not an option in every institution. Computer labs are a rare commodity in most government special education institutions, even though visually challenged students can use the computers without any difficulty. In fact, assistive technology and programs like Espeak and JAWS have almost eliminated any difficulty in using computers. If only the government would realize that using computers to teach visually impaired students can work wonders both for the students and the teachers.
And yet there are people who have achieved tremendous success despite these impediments. There are people like Sher Bahadur Afridi of Kohat, who conquers majestic mountain peaks of the Himalayas; Rubina Shad who mesmerizes the audience with her breathtaking poetry; Dr. Amir Hanif of Rawalpindi who has done a PhD from Sheffield UK; Shamsa Kanwal who won the prestigious DUSKIN leadership award in Japan; Salman Khalid who is the first visually challenged person to study computers in a mainstream university, Suleman Arshad who founded the first Rock Climbing and Adventure sports club for the visually impaired; Irum Shabbir who has done 3 Masters and serves as an educationist par excellence and Saima Arshad who is training hundreds of visually impaired students in Computers and Assistive Technology to make their lives better.
These are the people who give us hope when all else looks bleak. These are the people that we can look up to and cheer because no matter how hard or how many obstacles, there is always a way. And these true champions have shown us exactly that.
[1] https://itss.d.umn.edu/news/a11y-social-model-disability