Addis Ababa University Special Needs Support Center (SNSC) has celebrated International Day of Persons with Disabilities (IDPD) in a half day conference on Inclusion of Persons with disabilities in Higher Education on December 13, 2019 at Nelson Mandela meeting hall.

Yirgashewa Bekele (PhD), Director for Special Needs Support Center, on her welcoming speech said that, the main objective of organizing the conference is to get a fruitful output that will help improve the service to be effective in the future to deliver more for the students.

Husen Kedir (PhD), Dean at College of Education and Behavioral Studies, on his opening remark noted “As you all know in our country the quality of education is questionable; specially inclusive education is more vulnerable unless and other wise if the government give more attention for this issues and implement an inclusive education system.”

 ”We cannot reach the 2030 development goal, if the government does not give close attention to inclusive education” Hussien emphasized.

“If you need any provision regarding to inclusive education our college is volunteer to support you on any matters.”

Abebe Yehuluwork (PhD), from AAU Special Needs Education Department, presented his research findings on “Factors and Realities for the Promotion of Inclusive Education in Higher Education.”

On his research findings Dr. Abebe said “The total number of world population is about 1.2 billion. 15% of them are people with disabilities. And in Ethiopia around 17.6% of the population lives with disabilities. On this regard the issue of disability is not the question of few people. It is the question of millions.”

“Access to education is one of the best vital element for those people with disabilities to empower, to make them more effective and to bring them on the leading position” Abebe said.

Alemayehu Woldemariam (PhD), from AAU Special needs department, presented are search finding researched by INEDIS Research team on six (6) colleges of AAU on “The Effect on Institutional Support in Improving Inclusion on Students with Disabilities at AAU Lesson and Implication.”

Dr. Alemayehu on his part said “According to the research results, there are so many challenges and problems that students with disabilities mainly face in the areas of education, access to service and information and the public’s scant attention towards disabilities.”

 “Based on this research results, we offer a training for AAU communities that have direct contacts with disabled students. These days there are significant changes, but still some attitudinal issues need a serious follow up” Alemayehu said.

Dr. Alemayehu further noted that they should not proud on what they have done so far they should have to work more and more too satisfy their customers’ interest.

 Since 1992 the International Day of Persons with Disabilities (IDPD) has annually commemorated on December 3aroundthe world. The theme for the2019 IDPD is “Promoting the Participation of Persons with disabilities and their Leadership: taking action on the 2030 Development Agenda.”

Netsanet Merete December 18, 2019

Photograph: Fikiremariam Beyene