KARACHI, March 28: Spea-kers at a seminar on Friday called for making collective efforts to help people with physical disabilities become useful citizens and play an active role in every sphere of life.

They also stressed the need for making available of ramps and other facilities at all educational institutions, hospitals, bridges and recreation spots to help such people. The seminar, titled “Why Some People Are Special”, was held in the arts auditorium of the University of Karachi. It was organised by the KU’s department of special education in collaboration with the Special Teachers and Parents Resource Centre (STPRC).

KU Vice-Chancellor Dr Pirzada Qasim Raza Siddiqui was to preside over the seminar but he could not make it because of his engagements and Pro-Vice-Chancellor Dr Akhlaq Ahmed chaired the event.

Faculty of Arts Dean Prof M. Shamsuddin under lined the need for sustained awareness of the cause of people with physical problems. “The problems being faced by disabled people should be highlighted through awareness campaigns and events and such activities should be covered by the print and the electronic media on a regular basis,” he said.

He referred to the research on the subject conducted by the students of the KU’s mass communication and other departments, and observed that the print media was not allocating enough space for the coverage of the issues confronted by special citizens.

He said that a proposal to shift the department of special education from its present location, the Sheikh Zayed Islamic Centre, to the university’s own premises was under consideration. For this purpose, he added, construction of a building was included in the mega projects to be executed at the KU campus.

Prof Shamsuddin commended the presentations made by Sehrish Iqbal, Humera Aziz, Humera Zubair, Mehwish Tariq, Saima Afzal, Fauzia Rehman, Nidra Umar and other students of the department, and announced setting up of three cash prizes to be awarded to students who would write articles on the issues of special people provided that the writeups were carried by leading newspapers.

Dr Shakeel Farooqui of the KU genetic department said that in case a special citizen could not be cured, the only way to mitigate his sufferings was to manage his disability in a manner that he did not feel being redundant. This was possible if such a person was given education and professional training to compete with normal people, he added.

He asked all those engaged in managing special people not to such people feel as though they were being experimented upon, and said that their efforts should always be to provide them with maximum comfort and help them improve their quality of life.

Dr Anjum Bano Kazmi, In-charge of the department of special education, said that the purpose of holding such seminars was to create awareness of the issues of special people.

She said that the department was set up in 1988 and, at present, it had over 150 students in the masters classes and around 100 students in the recently introduced 4-year BS programme. An evening programme had also been introduced by the department, she added.

Dr Aqila Khatoon, former STPRC director, said the organisation had launched the Urdu Braille System for the first time in the country.