Braille Without Borders uses a converted rickshaw to take a computer, printer and white canes to educate those most in need
In Trivandrum, Kerala, when blind children cannot go to school, school goes to them. Through an innovative project called Jyothirgamaya, or from darkness to light, a converted rickshaw carries a computer, printer, Braille slates and white canes to homes across the city in the southern Indian state.
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.
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.”
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.
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
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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