4.3 Resources
4.3.2 Advisory service offices
Around the world, there is a shift in people’s perceptions about people with impairments.
In South Africa, within the office of Presidency, there are individuals with different impairments who are looking at the needs of people with impairments. There are also organizations which are looking at the interest of people with impairments such as Disabled People in South Africa (DPSA); Office on the Status of Disabled Person
(OSDP); South African Federal Council on Disability (SAFCD). These organizations are fighting to ensure the rights of people with impairments. They try to ensure that people are educated towards understanding the needs and issues pertaining to people with impairments while at the same time keeping an eye on the services that should be
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provided for them, keeping things on the agenda so that they can be dealt with. This would also challenge the invisibility aspect of people with impairments by those in charge and it will become more difficult to ignore those issues which have been raised.
The South African White Paper 6 identified the lack of appropriate and adequate support services for people with impairments which become a barrier to them (DoE, 2007). This is corroborated by participants of the study who are concerned with the absence of the advisory offices which could help them with all the questions and requirements that they have. MC commented:
The office was there but due to the merger, it was not used much, although it was under student governance, it was there. We are the members of the organization that brought changes into our residences, particularly.
NA knows of the organization but she does not agree with MC because her concerns were not attended to by the organization:
DASA (Differently abled students association) was in existence when I joined the institution and they informed me about it but it was not effective. We had a meeting and they asked me to write down my concerns, as they were going to meet the DVC, but nothing came about. What I noticed was that there was no specific person to assist us with our concerns, the members of DASA were on their own.
Organizations are important but they are not always successful, especially if they are not powerful. They may be sidelined if they are controlled by a minority group. They become invisible and not heard. So such organization may not have an influence on those who have power.
The other participants also complained about the lack of an office which could assist them on registration and also on other matters. NB said:
I did not know where to find people who can help me. if we had a help desk, it would assist us in knowing most of the things which are useful to us. I have never heard of DASA.
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MB expressed himself strongly about the lack of the office and the organization which should have advocated for them. His concerns are not only for the present students but he wishes for the inclusion of other students with different impairments.
Students Representative Council has an office but students with impairments do not have. I think it is important to have a coordinator. There is more to be done by that person together with DASA. We need an office which will take care of our concerns like UKZN, there they have a Disability Office. Those little things may not matter to other people but are important to us. The institution is trying hard to accommodate students using wheelchairs, but what about other impairments?
There are no visually students with impairments here, the deaf are only doing IT, what if one wants to do something other than IT?
Adams et al (2006) argue that higher education systems still reflect the social
inequalities which were created a long- time ago that were based on fitting students into already available institutions without assessing their needs. The advisory services office is seen by the participants as the vehicle which will inform the lecturers as to what the students need per programme and also assist in assessing the students’ needs, as they emerge, due to new developments.
MD who could not be accommodated in a shuttle bus to another campus, requested the security guard to take him to another campus but could not be helped. He blamed a lack in the advisory services office because nobody is specifically designated to assist or deal with the needs of students with impairments.
The office would have known that the bus could not accommodate me.
One of the participants got sick and he had to go the hospital. Because of the
unavailability of office staff to give help, he had to travel on his own then to take a taxi to the hospital.
I was very sick and I had to go to Chief Albert Luthuli and there was no other way except to catch a taxi from Old Dutch Road
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Old Dutch Road is a very busy road with minibuses. It is not safe for a wheelchair user to use the road unaccompanied. MD also had to use his wheelchair from Berea
residence to Berea City campus, going through the same road, going past the market place which is busy. Around that vicinity, are bus ranks and minibus ranks which make the place overcrowded. The area is known for mugging. The life of this participant has been endangered by the lack of someone who could take the information to those in charge of the institution.
Gathering from the data given by students, it is evident that students have never challenged the institutions on their rights as students. Each student is concerned with her/his own survival. For example, NA wanted to visit the (then) Vice Chancellor, for her own personnel problems but could not, because the building is inaccessible. With her failing attempt to meet with management, she never pursued other means. The students have never questioned their rights as students who are registered and paying fees within the institution. They accept the conditions at face value without asking the institution to provide what is due to them.
MA and MD are not the only ones who use the wheelchairs for long distances. MB also had to the go to Department of Labour to query his application for accessories.
I just go down West Street to DoL whenever there is something that I need from them.
Due to the lack of a coordinator the office which deals with students with impairments has left the students to cope by themselves. All participants were concerned with the lack of the office help and the information that they should be getting like disability grants which they had heard of but they did not know how to get the information about them. The responsibility is on the students with impairments to get together and make their voices heard, it is their constitutional rights to be provided with essential needs.
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