The Students Representative Council of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology will soon create a permanent seat for students with disability at the student parliament council.

The president, Frank Owusu says the move is part of measures by the SRC to strengthen the disabled-inclusive environment of the university.

“As SRC, we believe we should lead the advocacy in talking about disability and diversity.

“We have taken it a notch higher to pass a bill to that effect, that students who are living with disability will be permanently represented in the parliament of the SRC. By extension, we want to give them a higher voice in the running of the school.

“There are so many needs of the students with disabilities that need to come to the fore. Making them members of the student’s council implies that we get firsthand information from them.

Speaking during the celebration of the world social work day, he revealed that the president and the general secretary of the Students with Disability Association will have this privilege.

President of the Students with Disability Association, Djidoo Kwadwo Mensah welcomed the news. He believes this will help them to promptly address their issues.

“It’s a good news. The fact remains that everybody can talk about disability but we know what we go through. So, we can demand more, less demand rights,” he said.

The event was jointly organized by the KNUST SRC in collaboration with the Social Work Students Association.

It was under the theme: “Respecting diversity through joint social action”.

The president, Gad Ampomah Baah said: “Respecting diversity is very key because it promotes community development. We want to urge everybody that irrespective of the nature of the person, we need to respect that person”.

Head of the department of Social Work, Prof. Esmeralda Manful called for reorientation of lecturers and students to better cope with persons with disability.

“We need to be oriented to sit in the same class as people with disabilities so they can sit in the same class with people with disabilities and lecturers have to be aware of that,” she said.

A social work student and president of TESCON-KNUST, James Amanianpong added: “the society should shun away from mistreating disabled persons, since they’re capable of many great things”.