Towards Proposing an Illustrative Technical Graphic Design System for Special Needs Students in Nigeria (the Deaf)

Towards Proposing an illustrative technical graphic design system for special needs students in Nigeria (The Deaf).

Omobo Okeoghene Blessing

Department of Mathematics & Computer Science, Elizade University

Ilara-Mokin, Ondo State,

Nigeria.

Okeoghene.omobo@elizadeuniversity.edu.ng

Abstract

Disabled individuals have the right to the very best of education as they can get, just like their normal peers. Hearing impaired individuals are among these categories of people with disabilities, they deserve the same educational rights as normal individual(s). Special need individuals, particularly hearing impaired students, possess the same level of cognitive mental capability as the normal students in terms of studying. According to a research by the South-African Hearing Institute “In Nigeria about 14 percent of the school children have some kind of hearing loss”. The hearing impaired students are only lacking their hearing capability not their intelligence level. Therefore, they will be undertaking the same subjects or courses in any education departments or institutions as those taught to the normal hearing students of the same age. However, a problem could occur for the hearing impaired students if the technique used by the teachers or instructors in teaching them is as the same used for normal hearing students. The main goal of this research is to create a natural and intuitive system for interaction and learning for the deaf students. Research proves that students tend to remember the practical aspect of a subject better than the theory. The specific objective of this work is the development of an illustrative system to engage the deaf students in technical drawing based educational tasks. This paper further sheds more light on why schools with special need students (the deaf) should embrace this system to teach the hearing impaired students and make it fun for them.

Introduction

Education is paramount to any individual in every society, the disabled inclusive. Unfortunately, public schools in Nigeria today are overcrowded and lack sufficient qualified personnel and facilities to identify children with special needs. Unegbu (2006) defined special people as “those with significant sensory deficits or unusual high intellectual that are not properly addressed in the regular programme". They further opine that a highly intelligent child is a child with outstanding achievement and ability who is not well catered for in the regular classroom. The Federal Government on the disabled persons is the establishment of National Council for Special Education in 1976, with the aim of looking into the issues of the disabled and advice the government from time to time. Furthermore, the Federal Government established a College of Education called Federal Government Advanced Teacher Training (Special) Education, Oyo in 1977 (now Federal College of Education [Special]). A Special Unit was also created at the Federal Ministry of Education while Special Education Section was also created in all the State Ministries of Education in response to a directive from the Federal Government. Finally, some Federal Universities namely the Universities of Ibadan, Calabar and Jos, offer courses in Special education to both the undergraduates and the post-graduates.