December 13th, 2014 by Rachel | Tags: Disability, Peace Corps | No Comments »
Cameroon is a country where modernization can seem so out of sync. Cell phone signal is far more accessible than water. Most people who do not have direct access to water in the home own a cell phone and can talk freely in the rural areas. Many cell phones sold in Cameroon can hold two SIM cards, allowing people to switch services freely. This is a great advantage for when we are in a situation where one service goes down and we can use the other service or when we are in a location where one service doesn’t exist. Internet exists in Cameroon and while smartphones with touch screens including iPhones and Androids do exist in the country, internet access is still not on the par with the United States and many other both developed and developing countries. Internet options are limited. People in Cameroon pay for internet by the number of data or if they don’t want to be limited by the number of data, they can choose the unlimited option or hourly rate where the speed is much slower. Neither options give us the freedom to be able to use video chat as much as we would like to unless we choose to pay exorbitant amount of money for a lot of data.
A few days ago, a news report came out stating that internet access should be a basic human right. I couldn’t agree more. Internet opens the doors to so many opportunities and solves so many global problems. Internet is the doorway to communication, news, education, literacy, books, movies, socialization, entrepreneurship, video conferencing, shopping, and cultural exchange. According to a news report, Cameroon has unfortunately been ranked the lowest for internet access, meaning that the internet access in the country is less free and more unequal. This news is highly disturbing, especially for those in the disability community. Last week, Hilda, Ruth and I spoke on the radio about how technology, specifically internet, can positively impact people with disability. So, I will discuss here about how internet has broken many barriers for people with disability and how this one technology can single-handedly change so many lives in Cameroon for the better.
If I had to choose one subgroup of people with disability that has benefitted the most from internet, it would be the deaf community. For decades, before the advent of internet, deaf people had limited access to information and long distance communication. During the days when radio was the most popular form of sharing information, deaf people were left out of hearing the news and political debates. Telephone was completely out of reach and this meant that deaf people had to wait for at least a few days for a response from their family and friends through snail mail. Now today, deaf people who do not have cochlear implants or do not hear well enough to converse on the phone can communicate with long distant family and friends instantly through instant messaging and video chats, which are provided through the internet. Social media such as Facebook and Twitter has allowed them to share their voice with a large audience with ease, which was once difficult for them to do. For instance, attending town hall meetings may have once been difficult for deaf people as they would have had to find an interpreter to attend with them. However, they can now connect with their local political representatives instantly through social media by posting a comment on Facebook or sending out a tweet to a political representative.
Internet has without any doubts made the life easier for people with mobility disability and those who cannot drive. They no longer have to stress about spending time commuting to stores, finding a handicap parking space and trying to carry items in the store and to the car. They can purchase items with a click of a mouse and then find the items at their doorstep a few days later. It’s important to note that online shopping would only work if Cameroon first improves the street map by giving more street names and every home an address.
Written news and books are more accessible than ever to visually impaired people. They no longer have to wait for the braille version or never be left out of reading news. When they go to an online news site, they can just click on “Text to Speech” and have the computer read the text to them. This is the same for books downloaded from the internet.
Because only 2% of all Cameroonians with disability receive formal education, literacy rate in the disability community is likely to be very low. When people with disability have access to internet, they could likely become more literate as most of the time spent on the internet involves reading and writing. Most information found on the internet is free. Moreover, there are many websites offering free lessons such as math problems to practice solving, free language courses to learn a new language, and free video clips on science lectures. Therefore, those who do not or have not had the opportunity to go to school can still acquire free education through internet.
Most importantly, people with disability can connect with other people with disability through Facebook groups catered to people with disability and other websites offering message boards and mailing lists and share their experiences, tips and obstacles relating to living with disability and ask questions about an issue they face and learn from others about how they handled the issues. They can also learn information that they would have not otherwise learned from a medical specialist in their country. Plus, since many don’t have access to medical specialists, internet can allow them to acquire information that they would have obtained from medical specialists such as information on assistive devices and rehabilitation tools.
Next week Sunday, I will be helping Ruth and Hilda train a group of women with disability on how to use computers and how to teach other women with disability to use computers. We hope that by educating women with disability on how to use the computer and internet, they will fully realize how much of their barriers can be broken down.
