The Justice Department says its recent inspection of a New Orleans jail found “alarming conditions” and uncovered persistently high rates of prisoner-on-prisoner violence and staff misconduct.

In a letter Monday to Orleans Parish Sheriff Marlin Gusman, the Justice Department’s civil rights division accused jail officials of failing to take basic steps to correct “systemic issues” and “serious constitutional violations” that were identified in a 2009 report by the department.

The Ahmedabad University (AU) has granted affiliation to a college of physiotherapy for visually impaired in Ahmedabad.

According to authorities at Ahmedabad University (AU), the three and a half year diploma course on physiotherapy at the newly-affiliated college will be taken over by the varsity from the new academic year.� BM Shah, registrar of the varsity, said that a batch of 15 students will be taken in the college as the term begins from this June.

The one and only Dada of Indian cricket, Saurav Ganguly has donned many avatars and his latest will be as the Brand Ambassador for the forthcoming T-2- World Cup for the Blind.

The Delhi High Court Wednesday directed the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) to relax the guidelines for disabled students appearing in exams conducted by it. 

The division bench of Acting Chief Justice A.K. Sikri and Justice R.S. Endlaw told the institute conducting the exam to allow a relative of every disabled student to act as a writer for him or her.

Students and staff of Tikshna, an organisation for rehabilitation of the visually impaired, staged a dharna outside the Deputy Commissioner's office here on Wednesday in support of their demands, including release of grants from the State government.

They took out a procession and raised slogans against the alleged negligent attitude of the authorities in providing facilities to the organisation.

Denise Delatoba of Gautier is the type of patient helped by the nonprofit Community Services for Vision Rehabilitation.

Delatoba, 49, woke up one morning unable to see out of her left eye, she said. An orange-sized tumor in her brain had pressed on her optic nerve and severely impaired her vision, she said.

Her right eye also was affected by the tumor, which has been removed, she said.

With the summer pool season approaching, a battle is brewing between advocates for disabled Americans and hotel owners over how to make public swimming pools more accessible to people with disabilities.

At the center of the dispute is a new regulation that requires hotels and recreation centers that operate public pools and spas to install or order permanent lifts — costing between $2,500 and $6,500 each, plus installation — by May 21. The requirement also can be satisfied by pool ramps, which are much more expensive.

Mention footpath and our cup of collective cynicism runneth over. Yet Corporation of Chennai (CoC) seems determined to prove us wrong. CoC has identified 60 bus route roads in the city and around 170 km in the newly-added areas to upgrade street facilities to world class standards.

Sceptical? Anecdotally, 80 per cent of our footpaths have no real encroachments. They are just badly designed and maintained and can be set right. 10 per cent have obstacles that can be removed and the rest have serious encroachments. Is 90 per cent a good start?