Can you empower a person with disability by giving him a calliper and teaching him physiotherapy exercises? It is not props, but the creation of an inclusive society that can essentially empower differently abled persons.
The Asian Blind Union is hosting a three-day event at Hotel City Park in Pitampura here beginning this Monday to discuss problems faced by visually impaired women in the Asian region.
“Blind Women Meet” will be inaugurated by World Blind Union president Maryanne Diamond from Australia. The second day will see “Conference of Asian Blind Union”.
On the last day, general assembly of blind representatives from the Asian region will discuss organisational matters and election of the new team.
Until a few days ago, Arjun and Althaf, Std X students of SMV School were at the mercy of their teachers to learn their daily lessons. Unlike other students of their class who had no problem following the new textbooks with changed syllabus, visually-impaired Arjun and Althaf who have not yet received the Braille texts had been struggling to keep up with their friends. “Not any more,” said the boys showing their audio CD packs which had recordings of all the lessons for their coming exams.
Aiding learning
Visually challenged persons marched to the Collector's office from Thangaraj Salai to draw the attention of the State government to consider their demands, which included issuance of house site pattas.
The members led by Sadasivam, Rajamani and others pleaded to the Collector during the grievance day meeting to direct the authorities concerned to issue free house site pattas.
District Collector U. Sagayam asked the authorities to examine their demands for house site pattas and issue necessary orders.
The Centre has decided to link payment of pension for the elderly, widows and disabled persons to the Aadhaar to ensure timely delivery.
The decision was taken here on Tuesday at a meeting chaired by Union Minister of Rural Development Jairam Ramesh. The present structure of payment is a time-consuming one and does not allow for monthly payment of the pension of Rs.200 to those eligible under these three categories.
A total of 109 differently abled children attended the medical camp organised by Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), Vellore at the Block Resource Centre of Madhanur on Wednesday. This was part of the second phase of medical camps to be organised by SSA.
According to officials, 109 differently abled children in the age group of 1 to 18 years attended the camp. The camp covered physically challenged children, those with speech and hearing impairment and mentally challenged children from Madhanur and surrounding blocks.
Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) organised a two day workshop in 'Dealing with Students with Disabilities in Open and Distance education' for Deputy Registrars, Assistant Registrars and Section Officers posted at different Regional Centres (RCs) of IGNOU.
ANDREW Follows is often seen holding on to his guide dog with one hand and his camera with the other.
‘‘People can often see me [and must be] thinking that doesn’t look right,’’ he laughs.
Born with a condition known as retinitis pigmentosa, Follows has no sight in his left eye and tunnel vision and cataracts in his right eye. He has just a metre of clear sight compared to the 70 metres a person with normal vision has.
Despite being legally blind, Follows is proving that those without sight can still have vision.
For those who grew up in the age before cable television when programmes aired on Doordarshan were the stuff that Sunday afternoons were made of, news broadcast in sign language would always remain etched in their minds.
Fast forward two decades later, the communication intended for the benefit of the hearing impaired is hard to come by on our television channels. Yet another sign of a society that excludes the concept of ‘inclusion', activists would concur.
Lack of awareness
Members of the Joint Action Committee of the Disability Rights Movement of Odisha demanded that the State government should strictly implement existing recruitment guidelines for absorbing people with disabilities in different jobs.
“It is a matter of great concern that, the chief secretary has announced a time bound special recruitment drive for PwDs. However, the order was never translated into action,” said the committee in a memorandum addressed to Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.
Rekha Goyal, 23, lost her sight due to chickenpox when she was just three. But the fighter that she is, she educated herself at one of the best institutions and found employment in a bank.
With the help of her post-graduate education, and computer and English language skills learnt at the Venu Institute of Universal Education (VIUE), many visually impaired people like Goyal as well as those with other physical handicaps are successfully defying the stereotype that the physically challenged cannot be employed in regular jobs.
A four-day national symposium on “Designing Roads for Disabled Pedestrians in India” concluded here on Sunday, with the participants unanimously adopting a ten-point charter of demands on road designing for disabled pedestrians.
Imposing a litigation cost of Rs.25,000 on the Union Railway Ministry for delaying recruitment of physically challenged persons under the 3 per cent reserved category, the Delhi High Court has directed it to launch a special recruitment drive to clear the backlog of vacancies for them.
There was a ray of hope for differently-abled people in India on Monday when President Pratibha Devisingh Patil announced a separate Department of Disability Affairs in her speech on the first day of the Budget session of Parliament.The Ministry of Civil Aviation also decided to review the existing guidelines for persons with special needs in the wake of a spate of incidents of discrimination faced by them at airports across the country.
To help visually-challenged children learn classical Indian music, a new book having musical notations and tabla compositions in Braille has been launched.
Published by the city-based Dhwani Academy of Percussion Music in collaboration with the Ramakrishna Mission, the 80-page book 'Tabla Innersight' is available in English, Hindi and Bengali.
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