GIFEC, ITU to empower visually impaired with digital skills

The Administrator of the Ghana Investment Fund for Electronic Communications (GIFEC), Mr Prince Sefah, has reiterated the organisation’s commitment to enhancing digital access to persons with disabilities.

Mr Sefah said this when GIFEC and the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) collaborated to provide basic computer skills to visually impaired persons as part of the Digital Transformation Centers project in Ghana.

The initiative, named, "Introduction to Computer Basics for the Visually Impaired (ICBVI)," focuses on training both sighted and visually impaired educators to teach fundamental computer skills to visually impaired students.

The training of trainers, involving 20 individuals, which commenced on November 13, 2023, at the University of Ghana's Department of Assistive Technology, is expected to end on November 24, 2023.

Mr Sefah noted that the Digital Transformation Centers have trained 14,000 people and aim to train 3,000 more by the end of the year and 20,000 citizens by 2024.

“They provided laptops to special needs students at various institutions and plan to update ICT resources at the University of Ghana's Department of Assistive Technology,” he said.

“GIFEC is expanding projects like Coding for Kids and aims to scale up the Computer Basics for the Visually Impaired project,” he added.

The Senior Project Manager for ITU, Robyn Fysh, highlighted efforts to extend digital skills to marginalized communities across Ghana's 16 regions.

She was optimistic that the ITU and GIFEC would provide expertise and courses to empower instructors in their communities and ICT Centers.

The Head of the Department of Assistive Technology at the University of Ghana, Mr Alexander Bankole Williams, praised the initiative's goal to empower visually impaired individuals.

The training of trainers aims to equip individuals to train more visually impaired people across the country, with plans to train 50 more trainers by January 2024.