Maties up their game to support students with disabilities
Marcia Lyner-Cleophas, Pippa Louw and Ilse van Wyk
It is Casual Day again – a time to reflect, pause and focus on disability-related matters
(not that we do not attend to these all year around). The Casual Day theme for 2016 is “Up
your Game!” The question is: Have we upped our game this year?
With increased awareness of disability in higher education and the myriad challenges
often faced by students with disabilities, we do not always realise how we are excluding
others. It does not always take grand gestures to “up your game”. Simple awareness of
people with disabilities and a bit of creativity can change obstacles into enablers. In this
regard, we want to laud Stellenbosch University (SU) and its staff for how they enable
inclusive practices on campus and help make life easier for students with disabilities.
Among the students who have benefit from such efforts, are Jeff Kao and Kerryn
Pedersen. Jeff Kao, a second-year student in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, uses
a motorised wheelchair to move about. Speaking about life at SU, he writes: “During my
study at SU, I experienced small obstacles, but could overcome them with the very warm
assistance of SU staff as well as one of my favourite lecturers, Dr Thomas Cousins.”
During the renovations at the Faculty of Education, Jeff encountered one of these “small
obstacles” – the wheelchair access to the Arts and Social Sciences Building was blocked off
with roof plates and Jeff was unable to attend a Social Anthropology lecture. Upon receiving
an e-mail from Jeff, explaining his absence, Dr Cousins immediately took action with the
following e-mail to relevant staff members who deal with facilities matters:
“My student Jeff Kao was unable to enter the building this morning in his motorised
wheelchair because of the construction on the building. This is deplorable, and should never
be allowed to happen. Please could you follow up with him directly and also make a plan to
make sure the building remains accessible.” Immediately, an alternative access point was
found, since Jeff had another class later the day and by the next day, the contractors
removed the roof plates.
Reflecting on the support given to students like Jeff, Ms Tanja Malan, Personal Assistant
to the Dean of the Faculty Arts and Social Sciences, writes: “It is a privilege and also
inspiring for me to be part of the support team for students with special learning
needs/disabilities within the Faculty. To be able to find innovative and easier ways to create
equal opportunities for these students in terms of their studies is what I aspire to. Our
Faculty’s ‘collective strategic aim is to cultivate a learning community that (1) can think
critically, and (2) to better humanity’ (Acting Dean, Prof Pieter Fourie, 2016), and we
encourage these students to be part of our learning community”.
Ms Malan has also assisted the Disability Unit in numerous ways through facilitating the
inclusion of new students with disabilities in the Faculty and finding alternative lecture rooms
where physical access was problematic. Ms Malan, together with the Department of
Information Science, HUMARGA, and the Disability Unit, are also in the process of modifying
the module Information Skills (a module compulsory for all first year students) for visuallyimpaired students who use software packages to navigate their way around computers.
Visually-impaired students can then also benefit from the practical learning skills taught in
this module, for instance how to write an academic assignment or how to reference.
Kerryn Pedersen, a B.Ed (Hons) student who is visually-impaired writes the following
about her experience with a lecturer walking the extra mile:
“One late night, during an Inclusive Education lecture, Mrs Conradie (a personal hero of
mine) decided to spontaneously change the format of the lecture. Instead of the planned
PowerPoint presentation (which had been sent to and adapted by the Braille Office1 so that I
could follow), she was now writing on the blackboard – in cursive. As the discussion
progressed I was frantically listening and trying to capture all the information that was being
recorded. This went on for a long while... Then suddenly, mid-word, Mrs Conradie,
addressed me. In utter shock she exclaimed, ‘Kerryn, you probably can't see one thing I've
written, can you?!’ She was obviously very right. In reply I blushed and answered that I had
been listening instead. The next day, the points of the discussion that had been on the
board, were typed and emailed to me by Mrs Conradie herself.”
Dr Lorna Dreyer of the Department of Educational Psychology in the Faculty of Education
summarises the simplicity of the procedures lecturers follow to enable visually-impaired
students to have accessible learning material: “I just send the study material, slides, test and
examination papers to the Braille Office, where the material is adapted so that the students
can read it. With adapted PowerPoint slides, for instance, students are able to follow lectures
with the adapted slides on their laptops.”
At the Lombardi Centre, students with visual impairments have access to computers with
accessibility software, braille printers and Prodigi magnifiers. Water bowls for the guide dogs
are provided. In the JS Gericke Library, visually-impaired students also have access to a
computer accessibility software as well as a magnifier.
Only a small portion of the students using the services of the Braille Office utilise braille to
read. The majority of blind students use JAWS, a software package that allows them to
utilising audio feedback to navigate and use their computers. Documents are adapted into
Word format and in enlarged font for partially sighted students. Students with severe visual
impairments use Prodigi magnifiers and magnification software such as ZoomText.
Students with severe reading and writing difficulties can use an invaluable software
programme, WYNN, which eases reading and comprehension of written texts and assists in
the writing process.
These are just some of examples of reasonable accommodation, as expressed in
disability guidelines of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with
Disabilities2.
As we celebrate Casual Day, let us not forget that with caring staff and fellow students
upping their game and with the help of assistive technology and making our environments
and reading material more accessible, we can ensure that no Matie is left behind.
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Do share your story of a staff member or student who has upped their game
regarding disability inclusion in whatever way, on [email protected] or
@sudisabilityupdate.
Contact Dis-Maties at [email protected] or visit www.sun.ac.za/cscd if you want
to get more involved in disability matters on campus.
*Marcia Lyner-Cleophas, Pippa Louw and Ilse van Wyk work at the Disability Unit in the
Centre for Student Counselling and Development at Stellenbosch University.
1
The Braille Office is part of the Disability Unit, and located at HUMARGA. They convert texts into
accessible formats for blind and visually-impaired students. For more information contact
[email protected]
2
http://www.un.org/disabilities/documents/convention/convoptprot-e.pdf