Lack of manpower hinders accessibility for students with disabilities in colleges | Goa News

Panaji: Lack of manpower is responsible for colleges not being made accessible for students with disabilities, Spandan, Inclusion Accessibility Consultancy Services, founder Neha Trivedi said on Thursday at International Purple Fest.“Teachers are definitely overworked and cannot handle inclusive education services. Inclusive education services is an activity of its own account. It’s like counselling services… you cannot expect teachers to be counsellors. Just like you need specialised counsellors on campuses, you need dedicated disability officers at least in institutes that have more than 25 students,” she said, adding that their responsibilities would revolve around delivering services to accommodate their needs at the institute as mandated by the UGC.Trivedi was speaking on the sidelines of a workshop on ‘Making Higher Education Inclusive: Journey from Law to Practice’ for teachers organised by the directorate of higher education in association with Spandan, the department of empowerment of persons with disabilities, and the office of state commissioner for PWDs.She explained each of the 21 disabilities recognised under the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act along with the unique requirements of each of them and busted myths about PWDs—that all of them have a sixth sense, that a teacher needs to learn braille to teach a blind person or sign language to teach a deaf person.“Physical disability doesn’t mean intellectual challenges. They have no challenges with comprehension,” Trivedi said.She said each educational institute needs information on its students with disabilities, which they can collect even while maintaining anonymity by making each fill Google forms and without having them disclose personal data, Trivedi said.Other misconceptions—that lives of people with disabilities are sad and miserable—need to be done away with, she said, adding that starting to engage with persons with disabilities as equals will make a difference to create a more inclusive world.Disability inclusion requires more common sense rather than expertise, Trivedi said.