During the 5th ASEAN Blind Forum, Mr. Aikeo Koomanivong, former acting president of the Vocational Development for the Blind Association and director of Disability Service Centre (DSC) submitted a country report from Laos. The report stated that in 2016 and 2017 only 270 visually impaired people can read basic Braille, 30 graduated from high school, 16 graduated from college and 7 are working as teachers for the visually impaired. According to the national census of 2015, an estimated 78,175 people in Laos are visually impaired,  and the numbers are in stark contrast with the reality, showing that the lack of opportunities to access higher education need to be seriously addressed. The project titled Capacity strengthening for the blind promotes inclusive education and full participation for visually impaired persons in higher education and society as a whole. In addition, the project promotes self-sufficiency and reliance for visually impaired persons, empowers and enhances leadership skills of visually impaired leaders, and builds the organisational capacity of DSC in areas such as strategic planning and staff development. The project increases the participation of blind people in social and economic life, raises awareness on their rights, and strengthens the capacity of leaders who are visually impaired to more effectively defend their rights  in policy and decision-making. The groups for this project are visually impaired students who have recently enrolled at the National University of Laos, particularly those in the Faculty of Education. DSC members, visually impaired workers, and entrepreneurs, as well as leaders and potential leaders (new-undergraduates) working in the education and law enforcement sectors.

A total of 397 rightsholders took part in the project, with 219 of them being women and 102 being People with Disabilities (PWD). The key highlights of the projects included the completion of massage training for blind people, the training on computers for vision impaired people on the provincial level, the training on how to facilitate PWD’s participation in society (particularly health, education and employment), the training for volunteers to make accessible textbooks for blind students at the university, the completion of book design guidelines, and the conversion of textbooks for blind students at the faculty of education by producing 30 books in audiobook format. Students with vision impairments can now read and participate fully in class, reading textbooks as electronic files with screen reading software. In addition, DSC hosted a volunteer program on campus, where each volunteer student received instructions on how to assist vision impaired students during class and in their daily lives on campus. 

After receiving the grant from Voice for organisational capacity building, DSC has grown and expanded its partnerships. Now, DSC serves as a representative for organisations of people with disabilities as the Organisation of People with Disabilities network coordinator. Moreover, DSC has passed the CBM (Christian Blind Mission) organisational partnership assessment and will become a partner for promoting disability rights and disability inclusive development projects in Lao PDR. 

Photos:  

1. Training for using the program to convert documents from hard copy to soft copy.

2.  Inclusive activity of person with no disabilities and blind people.

4.  Preparing for writing handout to help blind people to be safe.

5.  The debating completion activity on white cane day.

6. Volunteer students practicing a play to show on white cane day.