Himachal Chief Secretary Shrikant Baldi on Saturday asked the Department of Personnel and Training to clear backlog of vacancies for visually impaired within three months in the State.

The directions came after a delegation led by Senior Lawyer S.K. Rungta, General Secretary National Federation of the Blind Delhi, met the Chief Secretary here.

Bhanu P Lohumi
Tribune News Service
Shimla, December 2

Visually impaired Misbahuddin Yousufzai from Afghanistan is pursuing MA (Political Science) at Himachal Pradesh University here. He does not have a disability certificate. “I have difficulty in reading and writing. I cannot do without a magnifying glass,” he says, regretting that he was unable to finish his exam today. 

People with visual impairments often face difficulty to understand memes, but now researchers have developed a method to automatically identify memes and apply pre-written templates to add descriptive alt text, making them intelligible via existing assistive technologies.

The study was presented at the ACCESS conference in Pittsburgh, US.

BENGALURU: Here are Nujeen Mustafa’s two principles: First: No one is born evil. Second: Don’t watch the news. Because if you watch the news, it will shake your first principle. 

Nujeen Mustafa’s unique and powerful memoir The Girl from Aleppo with award-winning journalist Christina Lamb is one of the best books on and by a person with disability.

To attain hostel accommodation one has to register either online or in person. After this, students have to run between the DSW office and the warden, for getting their permission. There seems to be no centralized process put in place.

According to the Rights of Disabled Persons Act of 2016, educational institutions are to “provide reasonable accommodation according to the individual’s requirements”.

Visually impaired students at Panjab university allege that they have to face a barrage of bureaucratic hurdles before attaining getting hostel facilities on the campus.

Bareilly: In an attempt to provide job opportunities to unemployed persons with disabilities, Uttar Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (UPSRTC) will set up 200 stalls across 100 bus stations in the state. The stalls will be allotted at a minimum monthly rent by UPSRTC to disabled employees within the corporation and to people who became disabled as an outcome of injuries sustained during their journey in UP roadways buses. These stalls will be used for selling disabled-friendly equipment and products. UPSRTC has also roped in several NGOs to set up these stalls at bus stands.

CHANDIGARH: Specially-abled cricketers from India and abroad  are participating in a 5th  edition of the Usha  Divyang Cricket League — a three-day cricket tournament  being held in the Union Territory from November 26-28th.