Resources, skills needed to support children with Autism: NGO
The chairperson of advocacy group, Action in Autism has placed the number of children living with disabilities at half-a-million headcount, nationally.
Liza Aziz says there's a shortage of resources allocated to teaching and supporting children living with disabilities, like Autism.
"There's a range of services - and nationally [thousands] of children with disabilities are still not accessing our schooling services. That's a huge transgression of their right. We know the Bill of Rights guarantees the right to basic education for all children regardless of whether they have a disability or not. We are falling far short of that," she said.
Action in Autism lobbies for and supports people with Autism and their families. In KwaZulu-Natal, she says, there are 72 special needs schools.
"That caters for a small part of our population that has Autism or neuro-developmental conditions. We are finding a frightening trend that only those with low support needs are accommodated - those are learners that can go to the bathroom themselves or those who can fulfill a task from beginning to end. But those with high support needs - that's blindness and Autism or deafness with Autism - we are finding it hard for them to find a school."
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Aziz spoke to Newswatch about the expertise needed in the disability learning sector.