Dodoma — OCCUPATIONAL Safety and Health Authority (OSHA) has launched a special book for training visually-impaired individuals over workplace safety and health issues.
The book, written in braille, is meant to enable the group learn about guidelines for safety and health during their economic activities on daily basis.
Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office (Labour, Youth, Employment and Persons with Disability), Professor Joyce Ndalichako, officiated the launch of the book in Dodoma, this week.
The event was attended by over 100 representatives of visually-impaired people who earlier on attended one day training over how to use the book.
When launching the training and the book, Prof Ndalichako urged the group to use the book for intended purpose, which is to give them a tool for implementing their daily duties by adhering to procedures for safety and health.
"I am pleased to see OSHA organising this training, but the more important thing in this training is that they have prepared a special book written in braille so that blind people could read and understand the content," she stated.
The minister pointed out that the government under President Samia Suluhu Hassan has continued improving various services for people with disabilities, including formulating policies, laws and regulations, as well as various guidelines in order to improve their wellbeing.
"I direct OSHA to print enough copies and distribute as well as continue offering training to every worker," she instructed.
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The minister further said that according to results of the 2022 National Population and Housing Census, Tanzania has a population of 61.7 million and the data processing to establish actual population of people with disabilities was still ongoing.
Completion of this exercise would ease provision of various services to this important group in the society.
OSHA's Chief Executive Officer, Ms Khadija Mwenda, said the authority prepared the publication in implementation of its duties of educating various social groups, including people with disabilities, over safety and health.
"We understand that disability is a state which does not remove their humanity neither their participation in various economic activities. So, we have special programme to empower various social groups including people with disabilities," Ms Mwenda noted.
Commenting, Chairperson of the Tanzania Association of the Blind, Mr Omary Itambu, thanked the OSHA for prioritising the issue of empowering people with disabilities, especially the visually-impaired individuals.
