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Harmony Agere
Extra Reporter
The adage “disability is not inability” was brought to fruition when a 43-year-old visually impaired Masvingo man defied huge odds to graduate with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in English and Communication Studies from the Zimbabwe Open University (ZOU) about a month ago.
Mr William Mapfumo, who is also a teacher by profession, not only managed to attain the degree but did so with flying colours as he scooped the Best Student Award in his discipline.
This is despite the fact that he was receiving his learning material in print format as opposed to Braille since he was among a group dominated by able bodied learners.
Mr Mapfumo was the only visually impaired graduate among 2 119 students who were conferred with degrees by President Mugabe at a ceremony held at City Sports Centre recently.
Having attained seven Ordinary Level subjects at Kapota School for the Blind and later 10 points at Advanced level with Pakame High School, Mr Mapfumo was not deterred by blindness to advance his education.
He went on to acquire a diploma in education which has earned him a job as a teacher. However, he did not want to stop there and therefore he started a degree programme.
He said his achievement was made possible by his wife Finance Makota who helped by reading out loud print notes into a recorder and converting them into Braille for future use.
It was Ms Makota who had the responsibility for taking Mr Mapfumo to and fro ZOU’s learning centres to collect modules, participate in discussions and to write examinations.
“For me it was not easy because I was getting my learning material in print,” he said.
“Most of the time I was conducting my studies as if I am an able bodied person because I was in a class of able bodied people and even discussions, I was doing them with able bodied people.”
“So it had to take extra work for me to keep up with others because of my disability.”
It was purely a case of true love in bad and in good times for Mr Mapfumo and his wife Finance since she assisted her husband in every way possible.
“I give all the credit to my wife because had it not been for her, I do not think I would have achieved this.
“Like I said before, I was receiving my learning material in print so my wife had to read the notes or assignment questions into a recorder which I would playback later for studying.
“As for my assignments, I would write them in Braille and my wife would then convert them to print so that the lecturers could mark them.
“All of this was very hard because it needed a lot of money as I also had to pay my fees. I was not getting any financial help from anyone so the funds were never enough.”
Mr Mapfumo said the most difficult thing was to balance work, university work and family.
Mr Mapfumo has four children who are still going to school and sometimes needed the attention of their father.
“Being a teacher meant that I had to divide my attention to a lot of things – to my students, to my University studies and to my family,’ he said.
The degree achievement did not come on a silver platter and Mr Mapfumo had to put in double work than his fellow students.
“It may seem to other people that attaining my degree was an easy thing since I already have a diploma but that’s not true. It was even more difficult.”
Mr Mapfumo was proud to scoop the Best Student Award in a class dominated by able-bodied people.
“This is special because I was among the best students in a group with able- bodied people. So my message to other people with disabilities is that nothing can stop them. With hard work they too can achieve great things.”
Ms Makota reiterated Mr Mapfumo’s remarks, adding that she also had to balance the time.
“I assisted by walking him to collect his modules to the regional centres as well as to the examinations. Like he said I helped him with recording his notes and converting them into Braille.
“It was not easy because there are other duties that I had to do as a mother but with hard work we managed it.”
While Mr Mapfumo’s success is remarkable, it also magnifies the struggles that visually impaired and other people with disabilities are going through to acquire education.
Only the few ones like Mr Mapfumo get to battle to the end, most fail to make it due to lack of facilities that cater for their disabilities.
ln a study carried out at ZOU, Researchers Herbert Chikukwa and Florence Chimbwanda found out that in long distance and open learning, the visually impaired are most affected.
“The results (of the study) indicated that while open and distance learning (ODL) offers flexible learning opportunities to all, there remains a forgotten tribe in the form of blind and visually impaired students,” she said.
“Consequently, visually impaired students face numerous challenges in their effort to become successful college students. These include lack of qualified lectures to teach them, equipment and services to adequately serve their needs.
According to the study, both lecturers and visually impaired students felt there was need to have qualified professionals designated to the various needs of these students. Appropriate resources should also be availed while faculty staff, academic advisors, staff and other students must pro-actively respond to their needs.
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