DISABILITIES

This study aimed at examining the influence of assistive technology in special education. Four research questions were raised to guide the study. The design adopted for this study is the survey research design. The sample consisted of 100 respondents (teachers) randomly selected from 10 schools in Ovia North East Local Government. Questionnaires were used for the collection of data from 100 (one hundred) respondents which were basically teachers. The research instrument was validated by the researcher’s supervisor and two expert in the department of educational evaluation and counselling psychology The test re-test method was adopted in testing the reliability of the instrument after which the research instruments were administered by the researcher herself. The data obtained were analyzed using mean and standard deviation. Findings revealed that teachers have the right perception on the effects of assistive technology in classes with special needs children. It was also revealed that Teachers have the right attitude towards the use of assistive technology in classes with special needs children. Based on the findings, it was recommended that Government and other stakeholders should organize workshop, seminars and other capacity building training regularly for teachers as means of updating their knowledge and skills in the use of assistive devices considering the dynamic nature of special education technology. It was also recommended that Special education teacher training institutions should include assistive technology in their preparatory programme that will equip pre-service teachers with the necessaryknowledge and skills that will ensure a minimum level of competence in the classroom.

Disability based on the definition of the medical model is a physical or mental condition that limits a person’s movements, senses, or activities. It is an umbrella term covering impairments, activity limitations and participation restrictions. This model views disability as a physical or mental issue which must be treated and cured. Also, the United Nations Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), 2006, took a different approach in determining what disability is. Accordingly, the CRPD approached disability from the aspect of human rights; recognising PWDs as right holders and their impairment should not be used as a justification for denial or restriction of their human rights. The World Health Organization (W.H.O) in its World Report on Disability, 2010, shows that PWDs have poorer health outcomes, lower educational achievements, less economic participation, and higher rate of poverty than their counterparts who are without disabilities. These outcomes are partly as a result of the fact that PWDs experience barriers in accessing certain basic services which they are entitledto; such as healthcare, education, employment, transportation as well as information. These difficulties are even worse for PWDs in poor or less advantaged communities. This essay examined the right to employment of PWDs as a means of ensuring that they achieve economic and financial independence; thereby assisting them to reach their full potentials. In this regard, there are international and national legislations and policy frameworks with provisions that safeguard the general rights of PWDs in Nigeria. Pertinent questions as to the efficacy, compliance, and implementation of the existing legal frameworks, as well as issues that pose as challenges to the rights of PWDs were examined and the essay finds that the rights of PWDs, especially their right to employment has not been effectively implemented in Nigeria and that more realistic efforts has to be made to see that the rights of PWDs are safeguarded.