By Petride Mudoola

Students with disabilities joining Tertiary institutions have asked Government to streamline the admission system to enable them get the courses they qualified for.

 Benson Okware, a blind student pursuing a Bachelor of Arts in Education at one of the public universities told New Vision that during admission, some of the university authorities tend to change their courses after realizing that the student is disabled.

 Okware explained that he was admitted for a Bachelor’s degree in Social Work and Social Administration (SWASA) but when he reported at the university, one of the administrators changed his course to Education

 “When I inquired about the changes, the authorities informed me that I was not capable of pursuing the initial course of admission due to the fact that l am disabled yet it required moving with machines during lectures,” Okware remarked.

 According to him, the allocation of courses does not give fair hearing to students with disabilities and that they are forced to give up the better courses they qualified for.

 Kyambogo University’s Public Relations manager Lawrence Madete in his responded to the matter saying a student is given a particular course depending on the applicant’s qualification and that if the student has applied and qualifies for the course, the university Senate automatically gives him /her that course regardless of the incapacities.

 However efforts to get a comment from Makerere University’s Public Relations Officer were futile as his phone was off.

 According to the Universities and Tertiary Institutions Act (2001), students with disabilities at higher institutions of learning are entitled to necessities that include disability allowances, an extra time during examinations, provision of print material in alternative formats like Braille for the blind, audio tape recording, and descriptive video narration for the deaf.

 Unlike Makerere, Kyambogo University provides guides for the blind, Braille study materials, sign language interpreters during lectures, use of lamps in lecture rooms, easy accessibility to toilets and provision of wheel chairs.

“Underrating students with disabilities has led to stigma, which has affected their learning ability hence contributed to the high dropout rate among the disabled,” Simon Ochan, a Special Needs teacher attributed.

According to research conducted by the National Union of Disabled Persons of Uganda (NUDIPU), out of the 2.5 million population of persons with disabilities (PWDs), only 2.2% of them have attained formal education.

Okware suggests that more institutions for students with special needs should be established and well equipped to enable disabled learners attain education in order that they can compete favorably on the job market.