General

Web radio works wonders for the blind

Satish Navale, the man behind the Braille Vani web radio for the visually-impaired, on Tuesday demonstrated how to plant saplings to visually impaired students in Nashik, Pune and Assam.

Braille Vani is the brainchild of Navale, a former visually impaired student of the University of Pune (UoP).

The 25-minute programme, which was aired from 107.4 FM of UoP through teleconferencing, was coordinated by public information officer of Rahuri Krushi Vidyapeeth, Sandeep Patil, and retired IAS officer from Assam, Mohini Mohan Budagoa. The programme was conducted in Hindi.

Banks disable the visually impaired

If you're visually challenged, you can certainly play the piano, but you can't get money out of most ATM machines in hi-tech Bangalore.

It is surprising that though ATM facilities are widely available, the visually challenged are unable to make use of them -- all because some banks allegedly refuse to provide ATM cards, while others do not even open accounts.

Making music against all odds

The band, Black, performed on Saturday at a charity event at Sri Satya Sai Nigamagamam. All 13 members of the band are visually impaired and while a few of them have learned music on their own, others have attended music school or are still music students.

Hailing from Mumbai, Black, has already recorded three devotional albums and have toured the US, Jordan, UK, Canada and other countries. They were here for a charity function organised by JCI, Hyderabad Deccan.

Enabling the Disabled

The centre of attraction in a noisy lobby of Hotel Geeth in the city is a vivacious woman deep in conversation with 10 people at the same time. With a smile and a few words of encouragement, she, Jayshree Raveendran, was bidding adieu to most of them. At times, her nimble fingers spoke rapidly in reply to questions posed by equally agile fingers.

Our Ability: Web Portal for People With Disabilities

When I was 16 years old, I had no person with a physical disability that I could look up to as a mentor. My heroes were Bob Costas, Dick Stockton and other Syracuse University broadcasters. All able bodied.

I craved someone with a physical disability that I could emulate. I needed to see the path to success -- a role model, a mentor. As I speak to individuals around the country, other people with disabilities share the same story. They had no role models. It is true today with the next generation of people with disabilities.

Test newborns for disabilities, Bombay high court tells Maharashtra

The Bombay high court on Friday directed the state government to make it mandatory for all hospitals in Maharashtra to carry out screening tests to check disabilities in new born babies.

The division bench of Chief Justice Mohit Shah and Justice SJ Vazifdar took a special hearing on a clutch of public interest litigation seeking implementation of the Disabilities Act.

At the last hearing the suggestion to test new born babies for disabilities was made by retired army general Ian Cardoz of the Rehabilitation Council of India.

NGO prays for Braille ballots

An NGO for the visually challenged has requested the West Bengal chief electoral officer to ensure better arrangements in polling booths for blind voters in the Assembly election.

The Calcutta chapter of the National Association for the Blind has written a letter to poll panel chief Sunil Kumar Gupta, asking him for adequate Braille ballots in all booths, as well as ramps to provide easy access for the wheelchair-bound.

Indian blind kids help scientists solve mystery over eyesight

Scientists from India, the US and the Netherlands have answered one of the world's most famous philosophical questions - a 300-year-old problem that intrigued Locke, Hume, Berkeley and other legendary thinkers - aided by Indian blind children. People born blind and taught to identify objects using touch likely cannot, on gaining sight, immediately identify the same objects using only vision, the researchers have concluded in findings published on Sunday in the journal Nature Neuroscience.

HC questions denial of e-tickets to disabled

“Why are the disabled denied the right to book railway tickets on Internet and avail concession when senior citizens can do the same,” questioned the Delhi High Court. The court has issued notices to the Railway Ministry and the Railway Board on what it called, a “serious and sensitive” issue.

The notices were issued after a visually challenged Delhi-based consultant Praveen Kumar filed a PIL that raised this question. The last day for the ministry and the board to file its responses is May 18.

Five more Delhi hospitals to issue disability certificates

he Delhi Government will authorise five more hospitals of the city to issue disability certificates in order to reduce pendency.

The decision was taken by Delhi Health Minister A K Walia today who reviewed the matter of issuance of disability certificates.

Dr Walia expressed concern over the present situation as the applicants had to suffer hardships and were forced to repeatedly visit the hospitals for getting the certificate.