On Saturday the 12th of February 2022, roughly 30 facilitators set out to impact design thinking skills on students of the Cape Coast School for the deaf and the blind. The event which commenced at 11:30am was a Design Thinking Empowerment Session, in partnership with the Leo Club and Sign Language Club. It is the first in a series of three empowerment sessions for the physically challenged.
David Quarshie and Petra Abosi from the Sign Language club made the opening prayer. Miss Abosi signed for the auditory imparied, as Mr. Quarshie said the prayer for the visually impaired. The Leo Club was introduced to the audience by Mr. Adebayo from Ashesi University. Afterwards, there was a short but lovely chorale presentation by the visually impaired students. The headmaster later on addressed the audience, reminiscing previous visits to the school by Ashesi University. The keynote speaker of the day Mr. Samuel Asare then made his way to the center stage to deliver his speech.
The summarized biography of Mr. Asare as translated from sign language by the Master of translation for the day is as follows; “I was born Hearing not Deaf. I became Deaf in Primary 2. From Primary 2 to form 4 to be specific. In those days we called it middle school but now it has changed to JHS.”
Mr. Asare was not auditorily impaired in JHS but his hearing issues arose and he had to join Mampong Senior High School for seven years. The reason for this was that the learning curve for auditory impaired students was expected to be slower, as opposed to the 5 years standard schooling time.
He finished SHS in 1989 and began to struggle to get a Higher Education. He was told he had to join the inclusive school. In 1985, he acquired a certificate in Social Work. Sadly the government said he would not be able to work due to his disability. From 1995 onward, the struggle to get a job ensued. He wrote so many letters. In 1997, his old headmaster offered him a job as a Librarian, despite receiving training as a social worker.
He sat for the A-Level Examination, and applied for a job at the University of Ghana in 2002, where he was hired as an interpreter. A few years later he acquired a diploma in Librarian studies, and moved on to acquire a degree in Library, Religion and Political Science in 2005.
He became the first deaf man to enter University and successfully graduate from the University Ghana. He did not stop there and persisted to attain a Masters at Cape Coast University, where he was also a counsellor! Mr. Asare aspires to be a professor one day.
Mr. Asare encouraged everyone to forge on. He is a strong believer in God who he believes guided him through his education .He urges young people to persevere, quoting a bible verse from the book of Proverbs 128:2; "Whatever you want, you will get". He insisted on the need to have a goal, a plan and focus. He encouraged the students to be inspired by the Ghana National Foundation for the Deaf, whose director is deaf and has a master’s degree. He also said, that in order to succeed, one must like whatever they are doing.
The students of CCSFDB (Cape Coast School For the Deaf and Blind) were invited to contribute some of their key takeaways from the session. Irene JHS3, Visually Impaired, learnt about the need to concentrate on something, being determined about it and working towards it.”
After the speech there was an ice breaker organized by the Master of Events in order to let the students have some fun. It was an interactive game between students and facilitators, in which players were to randomly group themselves according to a given number. For example, if the number three was called, players must find themselves grouped in threes before the countdown from three to one is over!
DESIGN THINKING SESSION
The last session of the day was the design thinking session led by Anita Boakye-Yiadom and Anne Boakye-Yiadom. This session took place in the Dining hall with approximately 80 students taking part. The students were divided into teams of eight, based on their type of impairment. Auditorily impaired students were given two facilitators to sign the steps and processes being presented by the Design Lab, while visually impaired students also had two facilitators to a team, communicating the given instructions orally.
The key concepts for the day were the building blocks of design thinking which are as follows: Empathise. Define, Ideate, Prototype. Students were taken through the first three steps, in belief that the ideas developed will be revisited and prototyped in the near future.
The design Lab provided a list of problems areas which include; War, Hunger, Poverty, Education, Health, Pollution, Technology, just to mention but a few. Students were asked to focus on one of these problem areas, and empathize with the people experiencing problems in this area. They were then provided with ideation tools such as tree diagrams, cardboard, paper, pens, sticky notes, to define and ideate on a narrowed down problem. Using these tools, they mapped possible root causes, effects, stakeholders, and solutions were developed.
The final phase of the program was continued in the school lot, under the cool shade of the trees, where it all began. The students enjoyed refreshments, wrapped up their idea boards, and prepared for presentations. There was a quick snack break before the final presentations. Solutions ranged from creating NGO's for fees to enhance educational attainment, building affordable public toilet and washing facilities to curb water pollution and clean ups of stagnant water to curb the spread of malaria.
Team one was declared the winner, and took home prizes such as t-shirts and exercise books. Other students who had actively participated and answered questions were presented prizes, and stood for pictures with Mr. Kwabena Akuffo. (Design Lab Coordinator).
To conclude the event for the day, there was a farewell dance session and a photograph session between the students and the guests. The event ended at 3pm.
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