Access to education in the midst of the covid-19 pandemic The perspective of persons with visual impairment

Abstract

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals underscores the significance of education in empowering people with the knowledge and skills to work towards individual, national and global sustainable development. Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4 is dedicated to the achievement of quality education, aiming to ensure inclusive and equitable education and promoting lifelong learning. Specifically, target 4.5 aims to eliminate disparities in “access to all levels of education for the vulnerable, including persons with disabilities…”COVID-19 however, appears to reverse the progress made so far on SDG four and risks harm to a generation of learners It is for this reason that this study is occasion to explore access to education in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic from the learners with visual impairment perspective. The study used semi-structured interviewed guide and observational research instruments to unravel the research questions in attainment of the study objectives. Participants involved were sixteen informants comprising thirteen students, two teachers and the head of the institution in the Eastern region of Ghana were purposively sampled. From the ripostes of interviewees, it came out of the study findings that, the COVID pandemic has had negative outcomes on the educational content dissemination towards them. Issues of unmodified teaching content, inadequate dissemination of lessons via only radio and television programs, and non-involvement of the needs of learners with visual impairments in the online remote learning content Lack of support from both the school and home environment Non-extant technological and assistive devices to undergird the educational needs of learners with visual impairments. Due to the COVID-19 outbreak and the core deleterious effects imposed on them by the pandemic a situation that the research participants ascribed to one of artificial manufacture as a result of the socially constructed view of handling persons with visual impairment. This tends to overlook the needs of persons with visual impairment in any design of policies rather than their natural disability contributing or being the cause of the difficulties. Which is a palpable manifestation of systemic neglect of injustice in what is done and what is not being done. On the part of duty bearers and the educational system in general in Ghana