Braille books for impaired learners

BHAVA Chanderparsadh says blind people in South Africa have been ignored for far too long.

“The department of education had a negative world view about people with disability, anything that has to do with people with a disability is just an afterthought to them,” says Chanderparsadh.

While she is thrilled at this week’s news that all visually impaired learners would be provided with braille textbooks, she said it was an issue that was meant to be sorted out a long time ago.

Following six years of persistent and ongoing engagement between the Minister of Basic Education, SECTION27 and the South African National Council for the Blind, the National Braille Authority and governing bodies of schools for visually impaired learners, a settlement was finally reached in litigation this week to compel the state to provide braille textbooks for all visually impaired learners.

The state will now be compelled to provide prescribed braille textbooks to visually impaired learners for every learning area at the commencement of each academic year.

Chanderparsadh says it’s “embarrassing” that it has taken the department such a long time to provide braille textbooks.

“The Constitution of the country says no child will be refused access to quality education on the basis of gender, race and disability. They (government) have gone against the Constitution.

Chanderparsadh says it will go a long way in making a difference to the blind community of South Africa.

“Production of accessible textbooks especially in braille is a lengthy process. It requires the data typing, proofreading, embossing and binding,” says Jace Nair, chief executive of Blind South Africa.

“On average it could take approximately a month to produce one title from a print to a braille version. The department has not announced how they expect to meet these time-frames.”