The Inclusion of the Visually Impaired in the Educational, Social and Economic Systems in Ethiopia

According to the latest statistics, up to one-seventh of the world’s population live with some form of disability. Blindness/visual impairment is reported to be a major type of disability, with well over 300 million people estimated to live with it around the globe (Global World Report on Disability-2011).

The same source reveals that developing nations particularly those located in the sub-region known as Sub-Saharan Africa account for 15-17% of people with disabilities in the world. As a country located in this part of Africa, the report indicates that Ethiopia also has one of the highest disability prevalence rates estimated at 17% of its total population.

As far as visual impairment is concerned, a national report released by the Ministry of Health in 2005/6 estimated the prevalence rate of blindness in the country at 4% of the population. Accordingly, it may be said that there are an estimated 3-4 million partially of totally blind people across the country.

According to this and other studies, the causes of blindness in the Ethiopian context are wide- ranging involving both natural and man-made factors. In the case of the natural causes, eye diseases resulting from poor sanitary and hygienic conditions are known to lead to the loss of eye sight in a vast number of instances. In addition, poverty and famine induced malnutrition is reported to have resulted in visual impairment to countless children in the country in urban as well as rural areas. Since recently, with relative increase in living standards and life style, the incidence of blindness associated with health conditions such as hypertension and diabetes is also on the rise. On the side of man-made factors, a single major cause of blindness has been armed conflict in which large segments of the population especially those in the productive age participated in tens of thousands over the past century. The landmines from such armed conflict have continued to result in disabilities including the loss of eye sight long after the fighting or war situation ended. On top of this, work-related and other accidents are identified as further causes of visual impairment under local circumstances.

The main focus of this baseline survey is on providing specific and relevant information to advise and direct development interventions geared towards the inclusion of the visually impaired largely in the regular educational system in Ethiopia. Thus, the first principal objective of the study is to furnish information that serves as benchmarks on the educational, social and economic participation of the visually impaired, against which the achievements and results of future interventions can be assessed and measured. Moreover, the survey also seeks to meet a number of related objectives. Most importantly, it aims to generate and analyze information and reach conclusions on the accessibility status of the physical environment, the regular school system, social relationships and the general employment market from the perspective of particularly persons with visual impairment.

Key Findings

The survey data was organized and analyzed under different thematic areas for the convenience of the presentation and discussion of the findings. Part of the first thematic issue refers to accessibility. In respect to this, the findings show that the physical environment in the survey communities is generally inaccessible to persons with visual and motor disabilities. The physical environment is understood to mean buildings, roads, institutions and similar infrastructure. The other part of the same thematic issue concerns the availability of orientation and mobility services to visually impaired persons. Likewise, the finding strongly suggests the non-availability of such service to the required extent. In both cases, lack of awareness and wrong attitudes are identified as the root causes of the problems related to accessibility in terms of physical environment and orientation and mobility services.

The quality and size of educational participation by the visually impaired in the regular school system constitutes the second thematic area of the baseline survey. In this connection, the results of the survey emphasize that educational participation in the regular school system by persons with visual impairment is extremely limited. The chief contributory factors are scarcity of Braille text books and reference materials, the inadequate provision of tutorial support and failure to supply the students with the necessary adaptive educational devices. Further manifestations of low educational participation are that visually impaired students are forced to drop/omit school subjects such as ICT, Math, and Physics, to mention some. At the root of these problems is believed to be the non-existence of a central responsible body in the educational system committed to mainstreaming disability/visual impairment issues in the national educational program and resource planning. This can hardly be managed without institutionalizing inclusive educational strategy, in which process professional training, awareness raising and positive change of attitudes are crucial inputs. The third core point of the baseline study relates to the assessment of the participation by visually impaired girls/women in the regular school system, as compared to their male counterparts. In this regard, the survey found that blind girls/women had a lower level of educational participation, largely due to gender-based factors. It was understood and brought to attention that families were reluctant to send young girls with visual impairment to school because of the perception that they would not succeed, or for fear that they might face sexual violence. Likewise, blind girls/women find themselves to be more vulnerable to sexual abuse compared to female counterparts with visual impairment, as shown by the findings of the survey. Greater vulnerability on the part of blind girls/women in this case is explained mostly in terms of disability and gender-aggravated poverty, economic dependency and lack of access to information regarding the exposing factors to sexual assaults. In regards to the interaction of the visually impaired within the family and the community as a whole, the fourth theme of the survey, the evidence points to reduced family participation. In other words, persons with visual impairment were found to be viewed not as equal participants in decision making on family matters as other members. This is attributed, among other things, to the perception that the blind are not capable of producing constructive ideas due to lack of access to information. In addition, the findings indicate that the social interaction of the visually impaired is limited due to a number of factors. In general, the explanations range from the difficulty on the part of persons with visual impairment to communicate through visual and non-verbal contacts, mobility limitations and self-exclusion to attitudinal barriers resulting from social perceptions.