Don seeks inclusive opportunity for visually impaired in Nigeria

By Our Correspondent 

A Don, Professor Adeniran Adetoro, has called on the government and corporate organisations to intensify efforts to ensure that virtually impaired people in the society have access to information in order for them to be able to contribute meaningfully to the development of the nation.

He also called for inclusive opportunities for the visually impaired and people with special needs.

Speaking during the 14th inaugural lecture of the Tai Solarin University of Education (TASUED), Professor Adeniran who spoke on "Information Use Phenomenon: Unlocking Its Techno-Psychological Nexuses And Dilemma Of The Excluded", opined that Virtually impaired personalities should be allowed to access information without hindrance 

Professor of Library and Information Science, Professor Adetoro said in line with the sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), policy actions, access and use of information by all should be seen by governmments as not only a target, but also as a veritable means of achieving other UN targets. 

He regretted that government has continue to pay lip service to matters that concerns Virtually Impaired Personalities, "this has contributed to their lack of skills required to make use of technology and poverty that limits affordability of technology.

He advised that in the use of information, focus should be on developing strategies to measure progress made and showing the benefits it can bring to communities.

"Connectivity in Nigeria has not been an area of strong performance, with many countries making major strides towards affordable internet access, there is the urgent need for more meaningful investment in IT infrastructures and services in Nigeria such that we can live in a

country where every citizen has the ability to get online at a

price they can afford.

"As a people, we should consider the potential of libraries as a key means of delivering access to information for citizens. 

"As a preexisting, familiar infrastructure, with an expertise in facilitating use of information in all format and sources, libraries should be considered as logical partners through the actions of government or private actors, playing a

positive role as development accelerators, digital inclusion hubs,

promoting equality, employment and skills from the local to the

global level.

Professor Adetoro suggested that "services to PVIs should be premised empirically on their reading interest and information needs. 

"The establishment of centres charged with producing library and information materials specifically for the blind and other virtually impaired persons in the Nigerian public and university libraries system is necessary to help bridge the access gap to information resources

and to help address their needs for information for leisure and reasons. 

"They should identify needs, make resources available and prepare for services using assistive technologies such that persons with Visual impairment have access to similar available services as all other persons in a coordinated manner rather than working in silos and maintaining awareness of copyright requirements and protocols. 

He also recommended that steps should be "put in place to remove those

practices, policies and procedures which are capable of rendering the visually impaired not able to use information services.

"In educational institutions students would need services delivered to them in their academic departments, Staff should

undergo training such that the appropriate library service is provided at the time of request, in a useful format, in the needed

quantities. 

Librarians including NGOs

for the visually impaired should promote, publicize services and advocate on behalf of their patrons, informing the virtually

impaired community and any other interest groups.

Marketing and advocacy initiatives must also engage stakeholders including potential patrons, existing patrons, associations for

people who are print disabled, blindness agencies, librarianship

community and educators. 

"To remove the dilemma faced by PVIs, government

and all stakeholders need to strategize and implement a course

of actions investing in technologies for information access and

use in collaboration with the global blindness community actors, investing in tech use trainings for all categories or PVIs, building skills and subsidizing the delivery of assistive technologies, making them affordable.

He said the right use of information can change lives for the better.

"Libraries, having evolved from information gatekeepers to knowledge facilitators, have a significant role to play in bridging the digital

divide; in the digital inclusion of the society and the excluded

persons with visual impairment who have being at the receiving

end of society's inequity in all social spheres. 

He said "there is strong evidence that technology holds the future for efficient access to and use of information and knowledge for the sighted world and the visually impaired, who to a great extent, have been

incapacitated, hence, their terrible dilemma. 

"This scenario is very true especially for a developing country such as Nigeria.

The psychological dimensions of information use curiously remind one that the state of the mind and behavioural characteristics of users of information are keys to a meaningful and beneficial use of it. 

"As we advance the frontiers of knowledge, information use and the tech around it would

phenomenally impact our lives and society will need to create a just and equitable social, ethical, legal and cconomical support structure for all persons to thrive.