NICDAO hopes to become a public school teacher.
Can persons with disabilities (PWDs) lead complete, happy lives?
“It is difficult, but it can be done,” says Sotero Nicdao, a 46-year-old father of four from Manila with a degenerative eye disease.
Nicdao, “Nic” to family and friends, had a perfectly normal life as a loving husband, doting father and college instructor. When he was 33 years old, he noticed that his right eye had become blurry. He thought it was a cataract although it seemed unusual for someone his age to have cataracts.
After consulting specialists, Nicdao learned he had a genetic disease called Aneredia, or “undeveloped iris.” His irises — a muscle that controls the volume of light entering the eye — were unable to filter light properly.
“I could still see with my left eye and see some images with my right but it became really difficult. I would be blinded by the glare in the daytime [and] at night … I could not see traffic signs or approaching vehicles in the dark,” he says.
He would be visually impaired for the rest of his life, with no cure in sight.
Nicdao had to resign from his teaching job and the family relied on his wife’s salary as a bank accountant. When his wife accepted a job abroad to support the family, Nicdao became a househusband.
He tried to apply for jobs—
from copywriting to telemarketing—but was always turned down.
At one call center, he was asked to read a script and failed badly. Nicdao can only read large fonts on large computer screens. The company used laptops.
“I think there are well-intentioned institutions and companies … but they are constrained by logistical considerations needed to support us,” Nicdao says.
A few years ago, he hit rock bottom when two of his children were found to have the same eye disease. “Sometimes, I wonder what my children and I had done to deserve this?” he says.
PWDs are among the most historically disadvantaged people in society. The 2010 census found that 1.44 million,
1.57 percent of the Philippine population, had disabilities.
Despite laws to protect their rights and welfare, PWDs still face problems like inaccessible public transportation, lack of health insurance and rehabilitation services, limited livelihood and education opportunities, poverty and ridicule.
Nicdao was beginning to despair when he learned of Scholarships in Teacher Education Programs to Upgrade Teacher Quality in the Philippines (Step Up).
Step Up, a full scholarship program, aims to produce 1,000 quality teachers by 2019. Funded by the Australian government, it is administered by Philippine Business for Education, with the Department of Education (DepEd).
Nicdao applied with Step Up in its Certificate in Teaching program, an 18-unit track that allows non-Bachelor of Science in Education graduates to take the Licensure Examination for Teachers (LET), a requirement for public school teachers.
Nicdao had to pass a rigorous screening process. “I was worried I would not be able to read and answer the questions in the exam. Fortunately, the proctor understood my predicament and read all the questions and shaded all the circles for me,” he recalls.
Passing the screening process was the easy part. Being a middle-aged PWD student at the University of Santo Tomas (UST) was a bigger challenge but Nicdao is excited about the future.
He felt reinvigorated when classes began because he really likes studying, says Nicdao, who finished a four-year
Accountancy course, one-year certification program in Computer Technology and almost completed a Master’s Degree in Business Administration.
He thanks UST for being a PWD-friendly school. The university assigned someone to read out the questions to him during an exam. Assistance is extended when the need arises.
To help with his readings, Nicdao says he scans documents and reads them on his computer.
Nicdao plans to apply with the DepEd for a teaching job if he passes the LET.
In a few years, he hopes to be a public school teacher and swears he will be an example to others. He wants to help other PWD students and push his own students to pursue excellence at all times.
“I have experienced so many difficulties … I believe the time has come to move forward,” he says.