By Edoue Valentine in Buea.
The plights of learners with hearing and speech impairments in the university of Buea, UB are being followed up in order to ease their studies.
This activity is spearheaded by the University of Buea Association of students with disabilities, UBDSA in partnership with the Presbyterian Community Rehabilitation service, PCRS.
Through a series of awareness-raising campaigns, UBDSA is seeking to better the conditions of deaf and dumb learners who often face stigmatization, discrimination, and slow follow-up of lectures owing to poor inclusive practices in the university of Buea, Cameroon’s Southwest Region.
The association of students with disabilities has been using flyers, posters, class to class sensitization and media outings to articulate the plights of this category of learners.
The ongoing advocacy plan is part of an Inclusive Health Humanitarian Project for IDPs and host communities in Cameroon’s restive Southwest Region.
The project which is implemented by PCRS Kumba seeks to provide assistance to persons with disabilities and internally displaced persons, IDPs trapped in an ongoing separatists armed conflict in the country’s anglophone Northwest and Southwest Regions.
According to UBDSA president, Kesah Princely, hearing impaired have a hidden impairment which requires much attention.
“This explains why we are calling on the University of Buea to make Sign Language a school requirement for all students. This will help create more awareness and foster the inclusion of learners with hearing impairment,” he said.
The advocacy action plan started in April 2022 and will run for the next couple of months.