PLIGHT OF THE BLIND

By Jally Kihara

Imagine yourself born blind – you join Moi University to pursue a Bachelor of Arts Education at the highly populous School of Arts And Social Sciences. You swing your cane back and forth as you struggle your way to locate LH1 only to find that it is full to capacity. Nobody cares about your visual impairment and you are left to sit at the back seat in LH1. Despite relying on audio, no one bothers to preserve you a seat closer to the lecturer. That is the story of freshmen who joined this institution to pursue the ordinary courses despite their sight flaw.

Jeremy, Denis, Fridah and Diana are among people with disabilities. They are blind. They have been neglected, either knowingly or unknowingly, by this society something that have exposed them to much suffering. They do not receive any special attention in spite of them being physically disabled. We go to class with them but seldom do we help them cope up with life. Their academic path is truly thorny; the class representatives’ do not consider giving them special attention, they always forget to update them on matters crucial and due to their (the disabled) small social circle it means them missing make-up lectures. They do not have as many ‘friends’ as I and you to halla them whenever there is a make-up. The lecturer dish out handouts and the blind have to hire someone to ’voice them’ so they can use their Braille to make their own notes. Some lecturers are not aware that they teach people who are blind; they announce CAT’s yet do not inform those in charge of the visually-impaired exams in order to set CAT’s in their readable form. They are left to forward their own miseries.

Think of accommodation – despite the existence of an admission form where we indicate any of our disabilities no specific number of rooms was reserved during this academic year for fresh men with disabilities. According to one of the people with disabilities, a number of first years who are blind were left to reside in Hostel D without much care to their daily lives. They did not have a choice on who to live with despite them depending on close friends for their daily chores.

“The first years were not aware that they can decide on whom to live with. They were given Hostel D until recently when the Engineering student signed out that they came here (Hostel F).” An official of the Moi University Student with Disabilities Organisation said.

What makes it impossible for us as an institution fail to identify those who have disabilities and offer them firsthand and unique services fit for their conditions? Why would someone in his right senses allocate a blind person a room in Hostel K, M or L and have to travel all the way instead of being allocated the much nearer hostels around Soweto? They should be left to choose which hostel they would like to reside in, whom to share a room with and automatically be left on the ground floor to save them the stairs trouble.

Do the disabled also enjoy the various facilities we have in this institution as we do? Can they use the free Internet at the library? What makes it impossible to establish a special section at the library for people with disabilities? How often is the audio-visual (the only place the blind can utilize in the much-hyped Margret Thatcher Library) updated? Does those in charge of such areas aware of the needs of the blind?

Does the library have staff assigned duties specifically to serve the physically challenged to save them the agony of moving from shelve to shelve in search of materials?

The disabled students have been neglected; by all of us! There is lack of a well established department to handle issues of the disabled people. The administration should come out with clear policies on how to assist those with disabilities.

To us with no disabilities life might seem normal as we criss-cross this land, nothing much to pay attention to. We rarely mind how we treat that person next to us. It is time the student fraternity be sensitive. Look around if that person next to you needs any assistance just pause and offer a hand. As you walk clear the way for him/her, be a bit patient and let them be served first.

The thought of giving the physically disabled persons special attention at all levels should come true – it’s the best love we can show.