A hear­ing-im­paired stu­dent at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Trinidad and To­ba­go (UTT) is call­ing on the in­sti­tu­tion to ho­n­our its re­spon­si­bil­i­ty to pro­vide equal ac­cess and sup­port for stu­dents with dis­abil­i­ties.

Lisa Ra­mansar, who be­gan her Diplo­ma in Fash­ion De­sign in 2023, said she start­ed her pro­gramme with an in­ter­preter, but af­ter a few months, the in­ter­preter left and no re­place­ment was pro­vid­ed for more than a year. She said the lack of sup­port has had a se­ri­ous im­pact on her aca­d­e­m­ic progress.

“This means en­sur­ing the nec­es­sary re­sources, like in­ter­preters, are in place, and mak­ing sure lec­tur­ers are sen­si­tised and trained to ef­fec­tive­ly teach stu­dents with dis­abil­i­ties. We de­serve the same op­por­tu­ni­ties to suc­ceed as any­one else,” Ra­mansar said.