As one of the few scholars who has dedicated her life to the education of the visually impaired, Dr Diba Hossain, a professor at the Institute of Educational Research (IER) at Dhaka University, is a rare jewel. Her mission is to ensure the very basic right to education of a huge portion of our population who are constantly being deprived of it.

Source: Prabir Das Dr Diba Hossain

Of late, “Education for All” is a much overused term. Celebrities and famous personalities have expressed their support for it through dazzling TVCs. But in reality the education scenario in developing nations like Bangladesh is quite grim. According to recent statistics, there are 800,000 visually impaired people in Bangladesh who are 15-25 years old. And with very limited facilities from the government and the NGOs, Dr Diba Hossain is fighting to make this huge population enlightened with education and life skills.

After finishing honours and masters in Psychology from Dhaka University (DU), Diba was planning to do something for the disabled children. But lack of technical knowledge and unavailability of the adequate resources in Bangladesh at that time, were hindrances. Professor Dr Sultana Sarawat Ara Zaman came forward as Diba's mentor. Dr Sultana herself initiated the department of special education at the IER, the largest institute of DU and launched an elaborate diploma and master's courses on special education for enthusiasts like Diba. Dr Sultana also inspired Diba to work for the visually impaired children, especially those who were almost out of the educational system at that time. Cherishing the memories with Professor Dr Sultana, Dr Diba says, “She was the pioneer of special education in Bangladesh. Before her, nobody even knew what we could do to educate this generation with special needs. But now from this department we are creating a large group of people each year with proper knowledge and skill to spread the light of education among the differently-abled."

After completing her studies on special education, Dr Diba under the guidance of Professor Sultana, decided to continue her work on visually impaired children. She joined the IER as a teacher of the department of special education to conduct broader research on the education of visually impaired children. After joining the institute Dr Diba counselled the authorities to ease the admission process for the blind students at the DU. From the very beginning, each year she always welcomes some visually impaired students to her department and gives them lessons on the process of teaching visually impaired learners. She has established a laboratory with the help of Sightsavers International in the institute to develop educational equipments for the visually impaired students. Here visually impaired students can also use the modern educational equipment to help them with their studies at the university.

Cover of the book Drishty Protibondhita o Shikha (Visual Impairment and Education) the first Bengali book on blind children's education and life skills

There are only three universities in Bangladesh that admit students with visual impairment. But they have very few resources for these students to continue with their studies. At DU, the largest university of Bangladesh, there were no special services that blind students need for studying. Dr Diba pointed it out and her team in IER came forward to establish a resource centre attached to the central library of the DU. The resource centre was established in 2007 with the help of Sight Savers. Since its journey, it has become the sole study centre for the blind students of the university. Now it has collected at least three reference books from 10 departments each to convert them into Braille to facilitate the study of the visually impaired students. The resource centre also has computers with screen reader softwares, Braille printers and type writers. Mir Hosen, a blind student and a regular visitor of this facility says, “The centre means everything for my study. My study would not have been possible without it. I always thank all the teachers connected with it, especially Dr Diba, the founder of this facility.”

Dr Diba continued her study to introduce more innovative methods of teaching blind learners in Bangladesh. She went to the US to learn more on the education of the blind children from the Perkins School for the Blind (PSB), the first modern school for the visually impaired where Helen Keller had studied. At the PSB she got an in depth understanding on educational techniques and more up to date technologies that are needed for the education of the visually impaired children. Besides the technical knowledge, the relationship building with the blind students and the practical knowledge gained by sharing experience were vital for her study, as Dr Diba says, “The key to understand the educational need of the visually impaired students is to observe them effectively. In the Perkins, while making friends with the students I got the opportunity to observe them through their minds.”

Upon her return from the Perkins, Dr Diba has authored the first ever book on Blind Children's education in Bengali with her disciple and colleague Shahrier Haider. Titled “Drishti Protibondhita o Shiksha” (Visual Impairment and Education). It is the first reference book on the education and life skills of the visually impaired students in Bengali. As recognition of this effort, the authors were given the UGC Award on 2009.

Dr Diba is still working to make higher education accessible for the visually impaired students. She has pointed out some fundamental but key instruments in teaching visually impaired students. They are varied in nature: allowing students with audio recording equipment (in many classes teachers don't allow it), using screen readers in the computer laboratories, publishing alternative questions for the blind students if necessary and above all a bit of extra care in the classroom: these small act of kindness and care can inspire the blind student a lot into continuing his/her education. But without this care, Dr Diba says, the students might suffer from an inferiority complex, and it is a vital cause for the huge dropout rate among the visually impaired students all over the country.

Dr Diba is also working to establish an equal-opportunity employment sector for the visually impaired. Many of her students are now employed and are self reliant. Being involved with many non-profit organisations, she travels from one school to another to inspire the visually impaired learners and their families to continue their education. She shares her expertise and knowledge on various organisations like Sightsavers International, BVIPS, Child Sight Foundation etc, which are working to ensure quality education for the visually impaired children.

Dr Diba and her work is a source of inspiration for those who want to work and are working for the under privileged. Her pioneering contributions have improved the accessibility of education to the visually impaired students. However, she always reminds us that, more, a lot more needs to be done for this large number of meritorious but unsighted population. It is our responsibility to make the improvements that Dr Diba has made sustain to make our society an inclusive and developed one.

The writer can be contacted at shahnawaz.khan@thedailystar.net

***

Source: Prabir Das Writing board and audio equipment are the main tools for their study.

Get Rid of the Blind Spot

With around 30,000 students and some of the best teachers in the country, Dhaka University is the largest and richest centre of higher education in Bangladesh. Beating hundreds and thousands of able competitors in the admission test, a handful of meritorious students get the entrance to the country's highest seat of learning. At the university a completely different environment full of new challenges awaits for some.

Mostly allotted in the Mohsin Hall and Surya Sen Hall, these few extraordinary students, the unbeaten soldiers of destiny, are passing their days in studies, cherishing the dreams for a future which is not very certain for them in this country.

They are the blind students of Dhaka University. With no light in their eyes, their life is not as normal as others. Each new day brings a challenge, a new struggle.

Life for the blind students of Dhaka University is an odyssey of overcoming one hurdle after another. Being a visually impaired student, continuing studies is not an easy task. Though some efforts have been made by some NGOs and personalities like Dr Diba Hossain, they are turning out to be enough to change the stigma associated with the blind students of the country.

There are only a few special schools for the visually impaired learners in a handful of districts. For most of the families in Bangladesh, these government-run schools are the only place to take their blind children. But with few resources, textbooks and almost no trained teachers, these schools can't afford to teach blind students after the primary level. Md Shamim, a student of Education and Research, while sharing his experience says, "We practiced only some Braille lessons in these schools. If some NGOs had not supported us with learning aids, these few surviving schools would have shut down long ago."

For those who have no school in their district, getting access to education is even harder. Meet Mahbub, a visually impaired student of Islamic studies department. He is from the remote haor area of Kishoreganj, where even regular school is a rare phenomenon; special school for the blind is a distant dream. His family, determined to help Mahbub to further his studies, has to move to Sherpur to admit Mahbub to a special school. But after a blind student finishes her primary schooling, the student and her parents have to find a friendly, inclusive school that will take the child in, accepting her special needs. According to Shamim, it is very hard for blind students to see their parents go door to door literally beseeching the teachers to accept their children. Most of the schools are reluctant to accept these students though their brilliance and academic performance sometimes is far better than their normal counterparts.

The schools that accept these children in most of the cases can do little to give them any special service. Mir Hussain, a blind student of political science says, “Our secondary education is totally dependent on the Braille textbooks provided by some NGOs. But in the higher secondary level we have no such facility. We have to appoint 'readers' to read the whole book and convert it into Braille on our own using Braille type writers.”

The process of sitting for the exams is even more challenging. Blind students must manage to get 'writers' from younger classes long before the scheduled exam. These 'writers' write the answers of the examination questions as dictated by the blind students. If they can't manage someone, there is no other way a blind student can sit for the exam and being dropped out becomes the only option left before them. Even in most of the exams, especially in the admission tests, the appointed writers sometimes can't make out questions written in English. So in the exam hall where time is the determiner, these blind students with amateur 'writers' have to face severe difficulties.

Overcoming such difficulties, a few students further their studies and even fewer among them can reach the highest echelon of education in Bangladesh. Getting admitted into Dhaka University is like fulfilling a dream, but for the blind students it translates into the beginning of an even bigger challenge. A student has to wait for a year to be allotted a room in the residential halls. Getting a seat in the dormitories without any support from political big brothers is almost impossible.

But at the university most of these students find friends who are compassionate and eager to help them. They are also very curious to know how their blind friends study and can perform so well. They mostly take help from the Resource Centre for the Visual Impaired Students attached to the Central Library which offers a good number of reference books and educational equipments for the blind students. Then there is the Department of Special Education at the Institute of Education and Research which is also working to make the country's education system friendly to these students with special needs.

Things are far from enough, though. Students with visual impairment are not allowed to get enrolled into all the departments of the university. They are totally banned from the science faculty and have limited access to some departments of other faculties. In this regard, Dr Diba Hussain says, “The main problem of accessing higher education to the visual impaired students is the absence of appropriate technologies in our country. For visual impaired students we need to use more technology based methods such as online examination system, online submission of assignments, audibility enhancing equipments in the classroom, and above all empathy for these students.

Another expert on this field Shahrier Haider says, “In no other country of the world are the visually impaired students officially barred from getting higher education in selected disciplines. These students can't flourish their talents only because of our negligence. All we need to improve this condition is well equipped training facility for the teachers to teach these students. ”

These youths, despite their impairment, are no less capable of utilising the opportunities that DU offers. Mahbub Murshed, a blind student of political science department participated at the T20 world cup cricket for the blind held in India on 2012. Blind students of Dhaka University regularly participate in national debate competitions, chess competitions and bring glory to the university.

It is time the university creates a friendlier environment for its blind students so that they can continue their studies and perform even better. Many blind students can't develop their inner talents due to our traditional approach to education, ending up with a mediocre CGPA. Even the streets, yards, the dormitories, the footpaths in the campus are not at all friendly for their mobility. In many cases they have to seek another's help for moving in their own campus. Above all, our government has to create employment opportunities for these brave young men and women so that they can contribute their skills and expertise to society.

The writer can be contacted at shahnawaz.khan@thedailystar.net