A majority of students with disabilities, in response to a survey, have said that online learning was proving to be a big hurdle to them.
About 56.5% of students with disabilities said they were “struggling, yet attending classes” irregularly, while around 77% of students said they would not be able to cope and would fall behind in learning due to their inability to access distance learning methods. The report, titled ‘Digital education in India: Will students with disabilities miss the bus?’, was released on Saturday. Two surveys were conducted by Swabhiman — a community-based organisation, and the disability legislation unit of eastern India of the National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People.
As many as 90% of the respondents were from Odisha, and the remaining 10% from Jammu and Kashmir, Haryana, Puducherry, Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. The sample size included 2,178 students from classes I to XII, 1,041 parents, 303 teachers and 105 adults with disabilities. The disability categories included orthopaedic impairment, visual impairment, speech and hearing impairment, intellectual challenges and multiple disorders.
The report said parents of 90% of the students with disabilities said teachers were not giving them attention, while 86% said they did not know how to use technology. A large proportion of teachers (81%) said they did not have accessible educational material, suitable for online learning.
The teachers also reported that 64% of students did not have smartphones or computers at home.
The surveys also found that 67% of students expressed the need for laptops, smartphones or tablets for educational purposes, while 77% asked for study material in formats suitable for children with disabilities. Around 74% of them said they needed data/Wifi support and 61% expressed a need for scribes, readers and attendants. No sign language interpreters were present in the webinars, said 44% of the students. The report has recommended material in alternative formats, while recognising that all children with disabilities cannot be clubbed into one group as they are persons with different needs.