2024 UNIZIK Visually Impaired Students Week Commences Today


The 2024 UNIZIK Visually Impaired Students week commenced today with advocacy visits to the Dean of Students Affairs, the Director of the Centre for General Studies and the Chief Security Officer.

Declaring the week open, the President of the association of Visually Impaired Students of Nnamdi Azikiwe University Awka, Enoch Chioma Lillian, described the advocacy engagement as a crucial instrument of finding solutions to some of the common challenges faced by students with visual impairment on campus.

Addressing the Dean of Students Affairs, the President of the association, Enoch Chioma Lillian appealed for more scholarship opportunities to be made available to visually impaired students. She advocated for special considerations during scholarship award, stating that any financial support given to students with visual impairment will go along way in improving access to quality education.

Also speaking, Frank Obiefune appealed for extra examination time for visually impaired students as they can not write at the same level with their sighted counterparts.

Responding, the Dean of Students Affairs, Professor Chinonso Achebe commended the students for their resilience and restated the commitment of the school authority to making the university environment accessible to all who desire quality university education. He assured the delegation that his office will work with scholarship providers to provide support to the students while urging them to keep faith alive. He congratulated them on the visually impaired students week celebration and commended the various volunteers for a job well done.


Commending the warm reception given to the delegation, the Public Relations Officer of the association, Favour Ezinne Onele, thanked the office of the dean of students affairs for the warm reception and invited him to the gran finale of the week-long celebration.

High points of the visit was the presentation of the advocacy statement to the dean and a group photograph.

Similarly, at the Centre for General Studies, the delegation was received by the Director of the centre, Dr. Charles Nweke. Speaking on behalf of the delegation, the President of the association, Enoch Chioma Lillian, disclosed that the essence of the visit was to intimate the centre on the various challenges confronting students with visual impairment.

Frank Obiefune commended the director for the warm reception and listed some of the challenges facing visually impaired students to include: absence of textbooks in audio formats and absence of specialised readers to read questions to the students during examinations. He also appealed for extra time during examination.

Responding, Dr. Nweke promised to make the audio books available to the students before the commencement of the general studies examination for second semester. He also assured the delegation of his commitment to personally supervise their examination to ensure that the best standard is maintained. The delegation also presented the advocacy statement to the director.

At the Office of the Chief Security Officer, the delegation was warmly received by the CSO. Speaking on behalf of the delegation, the Vice-President of the association, Confidence Nwachukwu, commended the school safety department for providing professional security services to students with visual impairment. He however called for sanctions for some transporters within the campus environment who are in the habit of discriminating against their members. He revealed that the situation has become a huge source of concern to visually impaired persons as the uncivilized behaviour has continued to go unchecked.

The delegation which was led by the association’s President, Enoch Chioma Lillian, had Frank Obiefune, Emmanuel Somtochukwu Okoye, Favour Amarachi Atta, Confidence Nwachukwu, the association’s Vice-President and Favour Ezinne Onele, the Public Relations Officer. The delegation was also accompanied by volunteers who are students on the institution.