PWDs in Nigeria lack digital skills for gainful employment, says IFA

Don advocates special recognition for PWDs in tertiary schools

Inclusive Friends Association (IFA) has disclosed that most Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) in Nigeria do not have the digital skills for today’s workspace requirements.

The non-profit organisation said apart from tackling the discrimination and stigmatisation suffered by PWDs in the country, there was a need for an inclusive society where PWDs, regardless of physical constraints, could contribute productively.

This was as Prof Bolanle Olawuyi of the Department of Social Sciences Education, University of Ilorin (UNILORIN), called for the inclusion of special education in general studies in tertiary institutions.

Programme Officer of IFA, Tracy Onabis, raised the concern during a two-day digital literacy skills training for PWDs organised by the association with support from Disability Rights Fund, in Abuja.

Onabis said the workshop, which included training on various digital skills for PWDs across the country, would have a significant impact on many PWDs, who had already lost hope of getting better jobs.

The skills include email and digital marketing, copywriting and software presentation. Stressing the need for every sector to accommodate PWDs, she said they were humans, who also have dreams and aspirations, but pulled back because of physical challenges.

She maintained that empowering PWDs with digital skills would enhance their employability and productivity as well as enable them to attain financial independence.

“Looking at how tech-savvy the world is becoming, and we all can see that the world is now a global village where one can be in a not-so-remote area but have access to the Internet and be working for an organisation elsewhere.

“So, we did the research and understood that in the disability community, there are a lot of gaps. The gaps being that persons with disabilities do not have digital skills to enable them to get employment or be productive in their current places of employment,” she added.

The capacity-building workshop on digital literacy is the association’s way of plugging the gap. She said the first batch of the training comprised 50 participants, with another set of 50 to participate in the second batch.

DELIVERING UNILORIN’s 255th inaugural lecture entitled, ‘People with Disabilities and the Celebration of Life Beyond Limits’, at the weekend, the don hinted that this would make the society aware and appreciate their counterparts with disabilities and the causes of disability.

Olawuyi tasked the administrators of the country’s education sector to convince the government to ensure that every teacher training programme must include special education.

PWDs, she asserted, can only be useful to society if the societal stigmas and barriers associated therein are removed. She said: “If the societal limitations and barriers are removed from the path of PWDs, they will be able to contribute a greater quota to national development wherever they find themselves.

“I look forward to a reorientation in the sign language curriculum to accommodate different dimensions of language to enable those with hearing impairment to function in any country.”

Calling for the employment of more professionals who can help in providing inclusive education for PWDs, she urged society to be conscious of the causes of disability and take precautions.