Access to digital resources will enhance learning for people with disabilities, say experts

DISABILITY rights advocates and concerned stakeholders have called on private and public sectors to collaborate and make digital resources accessible to persons living with disabilities for the enhancement and promotion of inclusive learning.

This consensus was reached at the November edition of Edtech Mondays, an initiative of the Mastercard Foundation in partnership with CoCreation Hub.

The virtual roundtable featured a three- man panel that comprised Founder and Executive Director of Disability Not A Barrier Initiative ( DINABI), Olajide Funso Benjamin; Head of Programme, Disability Rights Advocacy Centre, Amaka Ogwu and a Biomedical Engineer, Oluwatomisin Kolawole. With over 400 million children living in Africa, data from the World Health Organisation ( WHO) revealed that 10- 15 per cent of children live with disabilities.

It further stated that out of about 60 million primary and secondary school- age children living with disabilities, half of them are out- ofschool.

In Nigeria, an estimated 32 million people, comprising mostly children, live with disabilities, according to the United Nations Population Fund ( UNFPA). It is said that at least 95.5 per cent of these children are out of school, owing to the challenges and barriers they face in accessing education.