Maharashtra government on Thursday assured the high court here that it would immediately remove all barriers from public buildings to allow smooth movement to physically challenged and the elderly.

Imagine a robotic walker that can tell exactly how much and where your grandmother has walked on a particular day.

Or better still, imagine a game of air hockey that can be played even by blind people. City students have built robots that will improve the lives of the elderly and the visually impaired.

A group of students from international schools in the city have developed robots as part of the Sixth Indian Robotic Olympiad - Mumbai Chapter.

A group of 14-year-old students bagged the first prize in the open category.

As compared to its neighbours, Karnataka is not disabled-friendly. The state funds just 30 schools, a dismal number when compared to Maharashtra, which funds 900 schools, and Kerala, which supports 244 schools.

Making this incisive criticism, on Saturday, disability commissioner KV Rajanna said the commission is sending teams to neighbouring states to study how special schools are administered.

The reason for the government’s apathy is not absence of funds, said Rajanna.

She may not be able to see. But that hasn't dented her spirit to live her life to the fullest. GN Sangeetha, 38, was barely seven when she lost her eyesight to a brain tumour. Her cornea was intact and she has now pledged to donate her eyes so at least two persons can see. Today, she guides and inspires many like her by sharing her experiences.

In a major relief to a visually impaired employee of Chetna College, who was sacked by the college because of her disability, the state government has order her reinstatement by November 30 at the same post.

On Friday, government pleader GW Mattos informed a division bench of chief justice Mohit Shah and justice RS Dalvi about the state government’s decision to reinstate Nilima Surve as junior clerk.

The Wadhwani Foundation on Thursday announced a tie-up with NASSCOM in which the foundation would assist around 2,000 educated people with disabilities in getting placed in the IT/BPO and software industries around the country.

In a press conference on Thursday, the foundation launched a 'Web accessibility handbook' which would provide insights to companies looking to provide information and communication technology accessibility for their disabled employees.

We are about to see the release of the new Samsung Galaxy Nexus, the first mobile phone to come with the Ice Cream Sandwich version of the Android operating system installed. There are some well documented improvements offered by this new system such as unified applications for both mobile phones and tablet devices. There are however some features that are less well known and one of them is the support offered to visually impaired users.

In a room of Furn al-Shubbak’s press club Monday, students practice their radio voice with Antoine Mrad, the general manager of Radio Liban Libre, while some read sample lines out loud from their books.

The Bombay High Court on Thursday struck down a significant provision of the guidelines of the Mararashtra Housing Area Development Authority (MHADA) on its upcoming recruitment examination of visually impaired candidates.

The provision states that the candidate’s scribe must himself have secured a lower score than the candidate in a previous examination or less than 60 percent marks in his examination. The MHADA examination is scheduled on Sunday.