Govt avails budget in Braille

Keikantse Lesemela | Monday April 7, 2014 11:58

Speaking at the launch last week, Permanent Secretary for the ministry, Solomon Sekwakwa said the visually impaired have the right to be informed and educated about how the national budget is being allocated and more importantly how it is going to address their needs, challenges and aspirations.

“This is a demonstration of our commitment to embrace all members of our society in undertaking our mandate,” he said.

He said MFDP uses various communication modes to ensure that the different members of the society have access to the annual budget speech information, which includes sign language interpretation on television. The ministry has also produced a simplified version of the speech in English and Setswana, which is a non-technical version of the speech for ease of understanding by those with limited knowledge of economics.

According to the 2011 Population and Housing Census, there are 28,721 blind people in Botswana, all ages inclusive. About 3,000 of these are children in various schools and they are taught to use Braille. There are also several people across Botswana who have been trained to read Braille at Pudulogong Centre in Mochudi.

On her note, Executive Director for Botswana Council for the Disabled, Sekgabo Ramsay said people with disabilities are often left out of major events. “Gone are the days where there was ignorance, neglect, avoidance and discrimination. Today when we speak about disability we no longer speak of subjects who need to be taken care of or look at them with pity”.

Ramsay highlighted that the minister has shown Batswana that it is not impossible to uphold the dignity and integrity of people with visual impairment.

“I am sure the speech carries the whole weight of the way the money of the nation will be disbursed and utilised in the economy. People with visual impairment will read for themselves.

To that end their human rights and fundamental freedom of association and acclimatisation to the speech will be fulfilled”.

The limited Braille copies of the 2014 simplified speech will be distributed to national libraries across the country, as well as tertiary education institution libraries such as university of Botswana and Limkokwing University, which have a considerable number of students who are visually impaired.