BHUBANESWAR: In an age when information technology has become a way of life, a section of the society - the Persons with Disabilities - have been ignored to a large extent. Accessibility for the disabled today is not just limited to physical access to buildings but to information, communication and services meant for the public, eminent disability rights activist Shruti Mohapatra said on Tuesday.
After the state government introduced 30% reservation for women in the first year of junior colleges (FYJC) from this academic year, educators and child development specialists have demanded an increase in the quota for students with disabilities. They suggested starting special courses for the differently-abled students, which will concentrate on skill-based training instead of focusing too much on academics.
Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh was in Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh, on Saturday to visit the BSF Academy in Tekanpur district. He was there to attend the passing out parade of the BSF assistant commandants graduating from the academy.
But in addition to his official engagements, the BJP leader took time out to pay a visit to visually impaired BSF officer Sandeep Mishra. Mishra, an assistant commandant of the Border Security Force Academy at Tekanpur, had lost his eyesight in a clash with the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) militants in Assam's Tinsukia district in 2000.
Seva Bharati, a non-government organisation working for special children and visually impaired in the city, will start running the two day care centres for endosulfan victims from April 1. The NGO takes them over from the Sri Kshetra Dharmastala Rural Development Project that ran the centres since their inception in 2011.
BHUBANESWAR: The Centre is not serious about accessibility hurdles which have been a long standing concern for persons with disabilities (PWDs) in India.
While there has been much hype on implementation of Information Technology in an array of sectors, there is a large divide between ‘Digital India’ and ‘Accessibility India’ campaigns launched by the Union Government, said Javed Abidi ,Global Chair, Disabled People’s International here on Monday.
BHUBANESWAR: With the Centre contemplating to broaden the criteria for persons with disabilities (PWDs), Odisha Government is likely to start a fresh enumeration of PWDs within a few months. The Centre is currently reviewing the proposal to include 22 additional disabilities apart from the existing eight conditions.
The government is set to change a four-decade-old definition of blindness to bring it in line with the WHO criteria and ensure the Indian data on blindness meets the global estimates.
Innovators from India have created a new device that has yet again changed what we can or cannot do without seeing.
Plastic sliding calipers known as Squirrel Devices, developed by MIT grad students, make geometry's continuous shapes and lengths measurable for blind and limited-vision students, who can read measurements in Braille.
DERA GHAZI KHAN: Visually impaired employees of different government departments staged a protest demonstration on Thursday at Musharraf Chowk over nonpayment of their salaries for the last four months.
A high school student in Arunachal Pradesh has invented a unique pair of goggles that uses ultrasound and infrared sensors to help the visually impaired detect obstacles on their path. On Friday, the State government pledged financial support for him to develop the gadget.
Anang Tadar, a Class XI student of New Galaxy Academy, Nirjuli, was recently awarded the Dinanath Pandey Smart Idea Innovation Award for inventing a gadget called Goggle for Blind (G4B).
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