Agency Urges Persons With Disabilities To Utilise Technology

The Lagos State Office for
Disability Affairs (LASODA), on Monday urged Persons With Disabilities (PWDs) to take advantage of technology to overcome challenges facing them in life.
The General Manager of the agency, Dr Tunde Awelenje who gave the advice in an interview in Lagos said “for people with disabilities, technology has been able to bridge the gap of accessibility and environment.
“In other words, the barriers being faced by people with disabilities in our society are being managed with technology.
“For the people with visual impairment, if not for the coming up of brail machine, most of them would not have being educated. “For the people with hearing impairment, we have so many hearing gadgets that are more promising even for those with physical disabilities.
“When I say physical disability, I mean those with upper or lower limb deformity. “You can see them driving car on our roads. So, I think the sky is not the limit, but the beginning, he added.
Technology has been able to eliminate some barriers between the people with disability and their social environment.“
Awelenje said the agency was collaborating with the manufacturers of assistive technology devices to subsidise their products and make them affordable especially to persons with disabilities.
He said, “We are having a seminar on assistive technology in collaboration with the Lagos State Ministry of Science and Technology and that will take effect by the end of first quarter (2015).
“And I think the manufacturers are willing; they have shown the political will to cut down the prices of these assistive technology devices for people with disabilities.“