‘We Have Tried Various Applications…’

KOMPAS/PRIYOMBODO

Irfan, who has hearing impairment, uses sign language during a 30-minute daily online class on Wednesday (26/8/2020) from his house in Larangan, Tangerang municipality, Banten. His disability has not dampened Irfan\'s enthusiasm for studying at the SLB Sumber Budi school for disabled children in South Jakarta.

The Covid-19 health crisis has caused a number of problems in the education of special needs children. However, neither schools nor the children have given up. They are trying any and all possible means to enable them to continue learning.

In early March 2020, acting principal Wawan and the teachers at SLB Negeri A Pajajaran special needs school in Bandung, West Java, were faced with a dilemma: they were obligated to change the school’s learning methods to prevent the spread of Covid-19 by switching from in-class learning to online learning.

They have tried out a number of virtual meeting platforms ranging from Zoom to Cisco Webex, Google Meet and to direct messaging applications like WhatsApp to support online learning. However, the results have been less than optimal. These applications were not specifically designed for special needs children, especially those with visual impairments.

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"[The applications] are less adaptable for special needs students. For visually impaired students, visuals are unnecessary, so we are more concerned with the audio quality. In addition, the application must be easy to use," Wawan said on Saturday (12/9/2020).

In mid-April, Wawan and a number of teachers held a discussion with several students to find a more user-friendly application for special education. Dwi Cito Laksono, a ninth-grade informatics and computer student at the school, proposed using the videoconferencing application TeamTalk.

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"Apparently, the sound is clear on TeamTalk. This is suitable for our students who rely more on their hearing,” said Wawan.

About 70 percent of the 78 students at SLB Negeri A Pajajaran used the application, while the remaining 30 percent relied on WhatsApp and home visits by their teachers.

Kompas/Priyombodo

Nanik (teacher) teaches Islamic religious education using sign language in distance learning for deaf students from classrooms at SLB B-C Sumber Budi, Pesanggrahan, South Jakarta, Friday (11/9/2020). Education for children with special needs is also being carried out online because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Even though children with special needs need more teacher assistance in learning.

Home visits

Face-to-face can be replaced with screen-to-face, but ‘heart-to-heart’ is hard to replace.

Teachers at another special needs school, SLB Negeri 1 Bantul in Yogyakarta, also had to work extra hard after the government imposed its distance education (PJJ) policy, commonly called “Study at Home”, to prevent spreading Covid-19. In addition to online leaning methods, some teachers made regular visits to the homes of individual students.

The school principal, Sri Muji Rahayu, said that the teachers made visited the students\' homes not just to teach, but also to encourage and motivate the students in staying upbeat and healthy. Heart-to-heart communication between teachers and special needs students had been particularly difficult to replace under the PJJ policy. Maintaining close communication was difficult if the teachers and students did not meet in person.

"Face-to-face can be replaced with screen-to-face, but ‘heart-to-heart’ is hard to replace. Special needs children are very happy when they can meet their teachers and their friends [in person]," he said.

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Florentina Atik, an inclusive education specialist, said that learning amid a pandemic should emphasize an inclusive approach, meaning that learning activities should accommodate student needs and circumstances.

For example, deaf children who do not have intellectual disabilities can take part in online learning. Meanwhile, teachers and parents need to provide regular lessons on life skills for special needs children with intellectual disabilities. And parents and teachers can optimize the use of online learning platforms for autistic children who have no visual impairments and have an interest in information technology.

Teachers must also recognize that they could manage online learning activities over 24 hours. They must be willing to assess student assignments and ready to assist parents at any time. "The thing to remember is that children should not become stressed," said Atik.