New research from McMaster may answer a controversial question: do the blind have a better sense of touch because the brain compensates for vision loss or because of heavy reliance on their fingertips?

The study, published in the most recent edition of the Journal of Neuroscience, suggests daily dependence on touch is the answer.

This year the admission for students with disabilities to under graduate courses in Delhi University will be conducted during 28 may to 8 June 2011. This is significantly different from the schedules of previous years when the admissions used to be conducted during 1 to 15 June.

The admission process of PwDs is conducted centrally. They do not need to go to the different colleges. They just need to walk in to the DSW office near University Main Gate, Delhi 7 with their 12th certificates and disability certificates.

A national-level chess champion, an athlete and now a school topper — Rinku Shekhawat from DPS RK Puram scored 94% in humanities in her CBSE Class XII exams. Her joy knew no bounds on Monday while her family back in Sikar in Rajasthan was celebrating like never before. Rinku cannot see. But she can see her dreams coming true now.

Even the skies don’t care for blind people in India. After Kingfisher Airlines recently made a woman get off a flight because she was blind, we ran a reality check on other domestic airlines and found that contrary to international practices, most carriers in India do not allow blind people to travel independently.

When we called the tele-booking counters for Jet Airways, Kingfisher, Spice Jet, Go Air and Indigo, requesting to book a ticket for a blind adult who would travel unaccompanied, all of the above refused.

Online junior college admission forms give students 30 options, but for Akansha Jadhav, 16, there are only four colleges to choose from. A visually impaired student of New English School, Bandra, Jadhav was shocked to learn that only four city colleges have self-vision centres. Self-vision centres cater to visually impaired students and are equipped with open source screen reading software, screen magnifying tools, and a data bank of Braille notes and audio academic CDs. Certain centres also store newspapers and novels in Braille to ensure that the students are aware of general affairs.