How online education can give disabled children greater learning opportunities

Synopsis:  Disabled people have often lagged behind in their educational achievements. But the advent of online education has the potential of bringing transformative changes.

Introduction

The article highlights the benefits online education is offering in the advancement of Persons with disabilities (PWD).

What is the global status of disabled people?

Globally- about 15% of the population lives with some form of disability. Of this, 80% live in developing countries. They have to face multiple hurdles which impact their day-to-day life.

Literacy rate

Over the last 65 years, the overall global literacy rate has increased by 4 % every five years — from 42% in 1960 to 86% in 2019. However, the global literacy rate for the disabled is as low as 3%, with just 1% for females. According to UNESCO, 90% of disabled children in developing countries do not attend school. Also, the school dropout rate is very high owing to various reasons like infrastructure, untrained teachers etc.

This lack of education also impacts the employability ratio of the disabled. According to the UN, in developing countries, 80 to 90% of PwDs are unemployed, whereas, in industrialized countries, it is between 50 to 70%.

What is the benefit of online learning?

Online learning offers various advantages to disabled students. They do not have to face any physical barriers like transportation etc and there is no need to attend physical schools. They can opt to study from their homes. Furthermore, they have access to lectures, libraries and resources without the need to physically navigate remote campuses.

It also offers the advantage of self-paced learning. With technological aids and assistive devices like technologies like screen readers, text magnifiers, speech recognition software, braille keyboards etc it is possible to train disabled children in various skills.

Another positive contributory factor is an increase in access to the internet. As of January 2021, there were 4.66 billion active internet users worldwide — almost 60% of the global population. In 104 countries, more than 80% of the youth population is online. Moreover, the prices of the internet have dropped by 50% over the last few years and broadband is now also accessible over mobile phones.

What should be the way forward?

Government and ICT have a great role to play in making quality education accessible to all, including the disabled. Given the need to achieve the SDG goal of inclusive education, there is a need to fast-track the education for the disabled.

Source: This post is based on the following articles “How online education can give disabled children greater learning opportunities” published in Indian Express on 27^th September 2021.