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People with disabilities hit roadblocks to higher education
Based on 2015 data from Statistics Indonesia (BPS), Indonesia has 21.5 million citizens with disabilities, which represents about 8 percent of its population. Unfortunately, based on recent data from BPS, they only spend an average of 4.6 years at school, far less the government’s requirement of nine years.
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Participants of a walking tour posed to take a picture after boarding Transjakarta bus to ride the MRT in Bundaran HI Station on Sunday. Koko Jali walking tour on Sunday promotes tolerance and encourage disabled kids to use public transportation. (JP/A. Muh. Ibnu Aqil)
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dhi Kusumo Bharoto, 32, studies English literature at the School of Humanities in the state-run University of Indonesia in Depok, West Java, where he needs a colleague to sit beside him and use sign language to explain what the lecturers are saying in class.
Adhi has a hearing impairment, a condition his parents told him started when he was 6 years old and suffering from a very high fever.
After completing his diploma in the Center for Sign Linguistics and Deaf Studies at the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2013, he returned to Indonesia to work as a researcher in a sign language research lab a year later before he eventually decided to pursue his Bachelor’s degree in 2016.
Adhi said he was not fond of wearing hearing aids, a tool that helped him during his younger years.
However, every day is a struggle for him to study.
He said the university had not yet provide enough support to students with hearing impairments, especially during classes.
“I was facing many challenges because the university does not provide hearing-impaired interpreters or typists during classes,” he told The Jakarta Post on Monday.
