General

Blind to read news on Braille's B'day

On January 4, Bangalore will celebrate the birthday of Louis Braille, the creator of the script for the blind with the rest of the world. Doordarshan Kendra will be observing this day in a unique way, Kannada News will be presented by visually challenged persons trained in Braille script.

Braille Script consists of six dots that are raised.

These six bumps are in different patterns, like constellations, spreading out over the page. They consist of numbers, letters, words.

Slew of measures for differently abled

CHENNAI: The tax-free State budget 2010-2011, presented by Finance Minister K. Anbazhagan in the recently inaugurated Assembly-Secretariat complex on Friday, contained a slew of policy measures for the differently abled.

Samsung Netbook at a special price for visually impaired students

Saksham has been able to finalise the purchase of Samsung N150 Netbook for a special scheme for university students with blindness or low vision.

The Netbook is being purchased at the cost of Rs.16500.

Musical talent-visual impairment link

New research suggests musical talent and vision impairment are closely linked. High-profile and brilliant blind musicians such as Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder and Andrea Bocelli have long caused people to wonder if there is a link between music and blindness.

Now Professor Adam Ockelford, a musician and visiting research fellow at the Institute of Education, London, has some solid evidence.

He and his research team surveyed and visited visually impaired children who had been premature babies, at home and at school.

Soon, radio station dedicated to visually-challenged

The visually-challenged could soon get a 24X7 companion in the form of a radio dedicated solely to education and entertainment for the blind. City-based Braillevani Education Radio Group (BERG) has been working on the concept and will approach HRD Minister Kapil Sibal with it in July this year. Once sanctioned, the group said, the project would be functional by the end of the year.

Woman learns Braille for daughter

She travels 85 km from her village to Bhopal to study for her blind daughter’s sake, spending Rs 250, every day — a huge amount for an underprivileged family like hers. But 29-year-old Govind Kunwar does not mind because her efforts are helping her daughter reclaim her confidence and live with dignity.

Kunwar, a woman with normal vision, is learning Braille so that she can help daughter Anita (7) cope with her studies.

HC seeks details of disabled candidates joining IIMs

The Bombay high court on Monday sought details of the seats reserved for disabled candidates in Indian Institutes of Management across India and the number of such candidates admitted during the current academic year.

Hearing a petition filed by a city-based TYBcom student Rahul Girreddy, who dragged the IIMs to court, a division bench of Chief Justice Mohit Shah and Justice S C Dharmadhikari has given IIM-Ahmedabad time till July 6 to submit the details.

Govt should relax rules for physically challenged: HC

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday asked the government to consider treating physically challenged people at par with SC/ST candidates while granting relaxation in qualifying marks for admission in professional courses. The court asked the government to consider the recommendations of chief commissioner for disabilities who had directed all government-aided institutions to extend the relaxation in qualifying marks to physically disabled candidates in order to bring them at par with SC/ST candidates.

SC directs Centre to appoint blind to IAS

Three years after he cleared the civil services exams, a visually impaired man, Ravi Prakash Gupta, is all set to join the elite Indian Administrative Services (IAS) with the Supreme Court on Wednesday directing the Centre to grant him posting within eight weeks.

A bench of Justices Altamas Kabir and Cyriac Joseph also directed the Centre to pay Rs 20,000 to Gupta who successfully argued his own case in SC.

HC seeks govt take on admission to disabled

The Bombay High Court has directed the Maharashtra government to clarify its stand on allowing visually challenged and other disabled students from pursuing professional and health science courses.

The court was hearing a petition filed by a 17-year-old visually challenged Ruparel College student who is seeking admission to the physiotherapy course at G S Medical College attached to KEM Hospital. A division bench of Chief Justice Mohit Shah and Justice S C Dharmadhikari has sought the information from the government by August 2.