My name is Puspa Raj Rimal, I am a person with deafblindness and a teacher at the Amarsingh secondary school in Pokhara, where I am teaching to deafblind children who came to school. Taking the example of Nepal, I can say that there is no education program specifically for deafblind children, and there are no measures to address the different levels of deafblindness. If we take the example of people with deafblindness coming from a deaf community and who have acquired their blindness on top of the congenital deafness, you will find them in schools for deaf children. Those kids use sign language, but there are not enough adjustments for them. In the same way, deafblind children coming from blind communities, will go to special schools for blind children. For them, it’s also very difficult: As they lose their hearing gradually, schools for blind children-only, do not have any adjustment for them. Moreover, there are no trained professional teachers for children who were born with deafblindess as a congenital disability. So, how should an properly inclusive program for deafblind children look like? To accommodate the needs of deafblind students, who are gradually losing vision, we should ensure that there is a good lightning management in the schools. The sitting management should not be far away from the white or black board so that they can hear or see better, actively participating in the class. The lightning should not be reflected on the whiteboard, not to be of disturb for their sight. The books should have big pictures, a large font size, as well as versions printed in braille. The uniform of the teacher should be visible, in order to ensure the good contrast. In the room, there should also be a very good and balanced sound system. Teachers should monitor the sitting arrangement, as well. On top of all these factors, inclusive education for children with deafblindness means that they are given the same education opportunities, just like every children. In order to provide children with deafblindness with quality education, government should take the right measures to adapt the education curricula to children with deafblindness. I will try, together with myteams and with the other to strengthen advocacy for quality education for the children with deafblindeness through awareness programs.
