In 2015, RBI received a number of complaints about universities and colleges refusing admission to students with visual impairment. The usual reasons given were: a) the teachers were not ready to handle students with visual impairment and b) they did not have the special tools needed to teach them. This is a serious blatant violation of the Magna Carta for Persons with Disability which provides that PWDs must be given full access to quality education, but many academic institutions are still unaware that such a law exists.

To address the issue, Resources for the Blind reached out to administrators of schools and universities in partnership with the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) and became more assertive in its drive for inclusion of students with visual impairment in higher education.

In 2015, 308 university administrators and faculty attended the orientation workshop for the inclusion of students with visual impairment. This is an improvement on the level of participation that we had in the past two years.

Based on our latest data, we have already given training to 95 universities where a total of 165 college students with visual impairment are enrolled. Our data also showed some encouraging results as we have twenty students who have been given college scholarships.