UBONG UDO
Blindness is not an abstract phenomenon, it is a social reality because every community has one or more blind persons. Globally, more than one billion people have a preventable vision impairment or one that has yet to be addressed.
According to a National Blindness and Visual Impairment Survey conducted in Nigeria between 2005 and 2007, it is estimated that one point one three million individuals aged forty years are currently blind.
A further two point seven million adults aged forty years are estimated to have moderate visual impairment and additional four hundred thousand adults are severely visually impaired.
Blindness is not a punishment for wrong doing and people who are blind are not cursed by nature as some people think.
Vision impairment or blindness can be caused by several factors, including diseases like diabetes and trachoma, trauma to the eyes, or conditions such as refractive error, cataracts and glaucoma.
Over the years, societies have devised ways of socially integrating and harnessing enormous potentials embedded in people who are blind for national development.
For example, Holistic rehabilitation programme and robust inclusive education system are pracmatic and workable methods of enhancing the productivity of the blind.
Functional legislations/policies should be enacted, all barriers hindering full participation of the blind must be eliminated and all myths and misconceptions about blindness and people who are blind must collectively discarded.
As a society, we should fully integrate people who are blind and provide them with cutting edge technologies, such as laptop with screen readers, accessible phones and guide cane that would enable them to cope with the neonormal life occasioned by COVID-19.
The Udom led administration should be commended for the utmost passion and commitment to disability inclusion and mainstreaming.
There have been regular celebrations of white cane day and provision of collapsible white canes to all blind participants. Training and provision of startup capital to graduants of Farm Craft centre has been a yearly ritual.
Today, the Ministry of Women affairs and social welfare is going to empower another batch of graduants and visually impaired undergraduates would be provided with laptop computers with screen readers.
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The State government through the ministry, has been providing other study aids like braille machines, tape recorders as well as type writers to blind students.
To guarantee an inclusive and accessible Akwa Ibom state, the task of caring for the blind must not be left in the hands of the executive arm alone, the legislature, judiciary and critical stakeholders must put hands on deck to give blind persons in the state a sense of belonging.
Specifically, the seventh assembly should as a matter of urgency pass the Akwa Ibom state discrimination prohibition bill and the ministry of works should ensure that roads/public building constructed in the state are white cane compliance.
The efforts of the Commissioner, Ministry of Women Affairs and social welfare, Dr. Ini Adiakpan at ensuring inclusion and mainstreaming issues of disability into the scheme of activities and programmes in the state is highly appreciated.
As we are celebrating Christmas, let us join hands with the state government to make the state inclusive and accessible for all.
Reduced or absent eyesight can have major and long-lasting effects on all aspects of life, including daily personal activities, interacting with the community, school and work opportunities and the ability to access public services.
