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09 October 2019 | Story Xolisa Mnukwa | Photo Barend Nagel
Braille Signage
Big on Braille: Members of the Kovsie community who are living with visual impairments can now access directions through the new braille system.

The University of the Free State (UFS) commemorate World Sight Day, which is celebrated annually on the second Thursday of October. The day has been set aside and aimed at drawing attention to blindness and vision. This was originally initiated by the #SightFirstCampaign of the Lions Club International Foundation in 2000. 
The university aims to contribute to the development and social justice of all students through the production of globally competitive graduates. Thus, the development and implementation of co-curricular programmes, activities, services, and mutual infrastructure will allow for humanising daily lived experiences among students, which are essential for universal access, student academic success, social behaviour, engagement, and an inclusive institutional culture.

With this in mind, the university rolled out a capital project that included the construction of tactile pathways with braille indicators on the pathways, designed to support and caution pedestrians who are blind or visually impaired. The indicators are universally accessible, because it includes Braille and text. The text then gives indications to new students who are also struggling to find their way around campus.

A UFS Bachelor of Social Sciences student who dreams of becoming a social worker, Tshegofatso Nkatlholang, who was born partially blind, but is now completely blind is motivated by the prospect of living a life where she has the ability to help the less fortunate. Her opinion of the construction and implementation of the new tactile pathways on the UFS Bloemfontein Campus is that they are extremely helpful. She went on to say, “That is my road, and I am grateful for a university that strives to operate an inclusive infrastructural environment where I don’t feel sidelined.”
Kovsie student Keamogetswe Mbele was born partially blind with very low vision, eventually losing her eyesight. She explained that she had no knowledge of the newly built braille indicators on the tactile pathways, but that she felt appreciative of the university’s initiative to constitute an inclusive academic and infrastructural environment for all students on campus. Motivated by her personal goals of independence and financial freedom, ‘Kamo’, as her peers refer to her, is determined to live a prosperous academic life throughout the course of her studies at the UFS.

According to Mookgo Moloi, a Kovsie student who was not born blind but gradually lost her sight at the age of 15, said, “Life on campus is very caring”. She reflected on the opportunities, as well as the technical and emotional support that the Center for Universal Access and Disability Support (CUADS) has provided her, which has made her academic career a lot easier, and more advantageous for her to graduate. 
CUADS further strives to facilitate, create opportunities, and enhance students’ understanding of multiple intersections and ways of being that are consistent with human rights and the principles of social justice.




News Archive

UFS main campus and Vista campus students’ simultaneous graduation a first
2004-12-01

Altogether 284 students from the University of the Free State’s (UFS) main campus and the Vista campus will for the first time graduate during the same ceremony on Thursday 2 December 2004, following the incorporation of the Vista campus into the UFS in January this year.

The ceremony will mainly comprise of the graduation of students from the UFS’s Faculty of Health Sciences. Students from the Vista campus who will be graduating include those from the Faculties of Economic and Management Sciences, Humanities, Law and School of Education. One doctorate will be awarded to a student from Vista campus’ School of Education.

During the ceremony, the first group of students who completed the five-year programme for the MB ChB-course will be receiving their degrees. The last group of students who completed the six-year programme of the same course will also be receiving their degrees. The six-year programme of the MB ChB-course will be fully converted into a five-year programme as from next year.

Prof Stewart Petersen, from the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom, will receive a shield of honour from the UFS’s School of Medicine for his outstanding contribution to, and input in the medical curriculum 2000 that is used for the training of medical students in this school. Prof Petersen’s advice, ideas and recommendations have helped the School of Medicine to put together a medical programme that is currently considered one of the most innovative teaching and training programmes for medical students in South Africa. He is also involved in the Health Professions Education Programme where he acts as co-supervisor for Ph D students at the School of Medicine.

The ceremony will take place at 14:30 in the Callie Human Centre on the UFS main campus.

Media release
Issued by: Lacea Loader
Media Representative
Tel: (051) 401-2584
Cell: 083 645 2454
E-mail: loaderl.stg@mail.uovs.ac.za
1 December 2004

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