UEW VREF Team Engages its Local Stakeholders
A team of Faculty Members of the University of Education, Winneba (UEW) who recently won a research grant from Volvo Research and Educational Foundations (VREF), has held a meeting with its local stakeholders on the progress made and the way forward.
The meeting, which took place on Tuesday, 11th May, 2021, at the Faculty of Educational Studies (FES), North Campus, Winneba, briefed the stakeholders on steps taken for the project: “Towards a disability-inclusive urban transport system in Accra and Nairobi: a policy-practice agenda”.
The local stakeholders are the Ghana National Association of the Deaf (GNAD), Ghana Blind Union (GBU), National Council on Persons with Disability, Ghana Federation of the Disabled, Physical Planning Department of Accra Metropolitan Assembly and the Samuel Wellington Botwey (SWEB) Foundation.
Addressing participants on the purpose of the meeting, the Head of Department, Geography Education, Dr. Enoch F. Sam told stakeholders that the meeting was to seek their opinions and inputs on the research instruments the research team had developed for data collection.
Presenting the keynote address on “Literature Review and Way Forward”, the Dean, FES, Prof. Samuel. K. Hayford took participants through his search and evaluation of the chosen topic: “Disability Inclusive Urban Transport system in Accra and Nairobi, a policy-practice agenda under the Mobility and Access in African Cities (MAC)”.
He noted that the transport system is key for national development and a critical tool for participation in life. He further stated that studies have revealed the challenges that persons with disabilities encounter in accessing transport systems with both urban and rural communities across the world.
“Although persons with disabilities form a significant proportion of the world’s population, when it comes to transport system and service, we don’t factor their needs into services. Specifically, transport systems do not always meet the needs of persons with disabilities and therefore we limit their full participation in society. So our theoretical framework looks at the interaction of what society must do to ensure that persons with disabilities can participate successfully,” he averred.
He went on to say that the team was looking at barriers and how to remove them, with the strong belief that if they identify the barriers to address, persons with disabilities will enjoy transport systems fully as any other person.
Other resource persons who engaged participants throughout the workshop were Senior Lecturer, Department of Geography Education, Dr. (Mrs.) Esther Yeboah Danso-Wiredu; and Research Assistant, Mr. Prince Odame.
