General

Public information yet to go the differently abled way

For those who grew up in the age before cable television when programmes aired on Doordarshan were the stuff that Sunday afternoons were made of, news broadcast in sign language would always remain etched in their minds.

Fast forward two decades later, the communication intended for the benefit of the hearing impaired is hard to come by on our television channels. Yet another sign of a society that excludes the concept of ‘inclusion', activists would concur.

Lack of awareness

Winds of change for physically challenged

Rekha Goyal, 23, lost her sight due to chickenpox when she was just three. But the fighter that she is, she educated herself at one of the best institutions and found employment in a bank.

With the help of her post-graduate education, and computer and English language skills learnt at the Venu Institute of Universal Education (VIUE), many visually impaired people like Goyal as well as those with other physical handicaps are successfully defying the stereotype that the physically challenged cannot be employed in regular jobs.

A road map for inclusive culture

A four-day national symposium on “Designing Roads for Disabled Pedestrians in India” concluded here on Sunday, with the participants unanimously adopting a ten-point charter of demands on road designing for disabled pedestrians.

Delhi court pulls up Railway Ministry

Imposing a litigation cost of Rs.25,000 on the Union Railway Ministry for delaying recruitment of physically challenged persons under the 3 per cent reserved category, the Delhi High Court has directed it to launch a special recruitment drive to clear the backlog of vacancies for them.

School set up for visually-impaired

A school for visually-impaired children has been set up in Baramulla district by Army in collaboration with National Federation of Blind (NFB).

“With the aim of imparting training to visually-impaired children of Baramulla, a school has been established under the aegis of National Federation of Blind, Kashmir,” a defence spokesman said.

Braille newspaper in Hindi from April

Visually challenged people across the country will no longer have to rely on radio or TV to catch up on national and international news. A fortnightly Hindi newspaper in Braille, Drishti (vision), will soon be available to more than 20,000 readers through 325 institutions working with the blind.

“There is no greater joy than reading whether you have sight or not. And this is a great way to empower and enlighten the blind through education and entertainment,” said K Ramakrishna, secretary general, National Association for the Blind (NAB).

Caring for the disabled: Jharkhand leads by example, states to follow suit

The mobile grievance redress system, adopted by the Jharkhand disability commissioner, will be implemented by all the states and Union Territories so that cases concerning disability are disposed of without delay.

Work on ways to provide equal opportunities for disabled: HC

Alarmed that only 25 per cent of the posts reserved for the physically-challenged in Class-I category government jobs have been filled up owing to non-availability and non-suitability of candidates, the Himachal High Court on Wednesday directed the state government and Public Service Commission to work on alternatives to provide equal opportunities to the disabled.

Visually Impaired Man on Jakarta Transportation Council

A visually impaired man became the first person with a disability to sit on the Jakarta Transportation Council as the capital swore in 15 new council members on Tuesday.

Jaka Ahmad, 36, from the Jakarta chapter of the Indonesian Association for the Visually Impaired (Pertuni), said that he would fight for the rights of all people with disabilities during his two-year term as a member of the council known as DTKJ.

Blindness no dampener for this law student

This 26-year-old visually challenged law student is indeed a number-cruncher. He does multiplication till 56 lakh and has 25,000 cellphone numbers on the tip of his tongue. Siddu S Loute from Athani taluk of Belgaum was here recently to sell his CD on personality development for students and visually challenged to boost their confidence to succeed in their respective professions.