Going to university after finishing matric can be a scary shift of change, especially for students living with disabilities. But not for top achiever, Kananelo Raleting, who recently enrolled for Information Technology (IT) at the Central University of Technology (CUT).
Clement Matroos – Bloemfontein Courant
Raleting was diagnosed with cerebral palsy from an early age and has been using a wheelchair throughout most of his life.
He applauded the staff at CUT for their exceptional service. “To be honest, CUT is a very good university because the welcome I received was pretty amazing and they also provide facilities that accommodate people like me. The registration process was not even longer than I expected because I was helped within 30 minutes of my arrival,” he said.
Bloemfontein Courant spoke to the administrative assistant from the Disability Unit at CUT, Maxine Mopp, who said they are continuously trying to make CUT more inclusive for students with learning barriers.
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“We offer individualised support especially when it comes to helping the students register. We offer one on one sessions, because we realised each disability is different therefore their needs are different. In addition we look at accessibility, we have various software devices that assist with the learning barriers and also the general accommodation on campus. We have recently put in tactile pavements to support our visual impaired students,” she said.
In the institution’s effort to support various students living with disabilities, Maxine announced their first deaf student. “We have our first deaf student at CUT. This is phenomenal with our language policy which has now changed. We have shifted to multi-lingual, so sign language is also included. In the past, CUT had a stigma that it would not accept deaf students. But for the past three years, we’ve had interpreters working on campus. Now I can proudly say we have our very first deaf student,” she concluded.
