Education and Employment

Four visually-impaired UPSC candidates may get civil service jobs

Five years ago, Shivam Kumar had cleared the Union Public Services Commission (UPSC) examination, but he was not appointed to the civil services. Now, he stands a chance to join the coveted service as the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) has directed the UPSC to give appointment letters to four visually-impaired candidates by October this year since they had secured more marks than some general category candidates who cleared the same examinations.

Mainstreaming the differently-abled

Highly-motivated and trained people are at the heart of any organisation and creating opportunities for training, employing and advancing persons with disabilities in India is high on the business community’s agenda.

At an Accenture’s Shaping the Future Forum in Bangalore, keynote speaker Sabriye Tenberken, Co-founder of Braille without Borders, brought wisdom to the event, saying, “Imperfection is the mother of innovation. We are not perfect, but we are on a journey and execution is the key.”

New DU courses tough for visually impaired students

Delhi University's (DU) foundation courses have left teachers and students worried. But the visually impaired students - spread across 30 colleges - may well be bearing the brunt of the new programme.

Though DU claimed to have made these courses easier for the visually impaired students, some students said that practical courses such as Information Technology were proving to be difficult due to the lack of assistance.

Japanese massage can economically liberate India’s blind

To help India’s blind become financially independent, a vocational training course in therapeutic massage will soon be launched in several cities including Delhi, officials said. The first two institutes will be set up in Ahmedabad and Dehradun by January 2014 followed by Delhi. The massage, developed in Japan over several centuries, helps cure stiffness, joint pains and poor blood circulation, among others. In the joint effort between the National Association for the Blind (NAB), National Institute for Visually Handicapped (NIVH) and Tokyo-based Special Needs School, the students would rec

Nimble fingers at work

The visually impaired are being trained by the National Association for the Blind to take up jobs as masseurs

On a quiet bend of a road near Mayfair Gardens in the Capital’s Hauz Khas area, quietly stands a building that is currently being renovated. It houses the National Association for the Blind (NAB) Centre for Blind Women and Disability Studies. A visually impaired girl sitting at the reception smartly points towards the exit when asked for the director’s room. Her smile is winning; I find my way to the designated room.

484 laptops distributed among disabled students

Delhi University has started distributing laptops but only to students belonging to the persons-with-disability category. As many as 484 laptops have already been distributed through DU's equal opportunity cell. The ones for the general category, however, will take longer.

HC lifts stay on KPSC technical, non-technical appointments

The High Court on Friday vacated the stay on appointments to 20 KPSC technical and non-technical posts, the notification for which was issued by the KPSC on January 18, 2012.

A division Bench of Chief Justice D H Waghela and Justice A S Bopanna passed the order on a public interest petition filed by the National Federation for the Blind which contended that such persons were not given the benefit of reservation.

The Bench directed the authorities to continue the selection process by including reservation for the visually impaired.

Notices Ordered

Visually-challenged students have a reason to cheer

Two new modern Braille printing units have reached the press of the Red Cross School for the Blind in Berhampur, the only such press in Odisha.

It is hoped that the new printing units would meet the textbook needs of the visually impaired schoolchildren of the State. The new ‘Interprint 55 high speed embossers’ have been imported from Belgium as they are not produced in India. Manager of the Prakash Narayan Rath says the units cost Rs.1.70 crore.

Visually-impaired girl to pursue dream course at Delhi University

Eighteen-year-old Sana Samad is the second student after Kartik Sawnhey to have been allowed to pursue mathematics after Class 12 at the Delhi University.

Life will no longer be a blind alley for Sana Samad, one of the two visually impaired students from the city, who opted to study mathematics in Class XII despite opposition and has secured admission to a prestigious Delhi University college.

Amidst all odds, she conquered

A partially visually-challenged girl has topped the Ph.D. entrance of the English and Foreign Languages University.

The topper Jyothi Priya had done her MA Literature five-year integrated course from the same university. “I was not expecting to top the entrance,” she said even as she accepted that Eflu was a friendly university to the challenged students.