Education and Employment

Will this law student get justice?

A scheme for visually impaired teachers from I.G.N.O.U.

The Indira Gandhi National Open University (I.G.N.O.U.) has approved a scheme of financial assistance to visually impaired teachers of the university. <br><br>All the teachers and academics who have been appointed under the visually impaired scheme are eligible for the assistance, said I.G.N.O.U. Vice-Chancellor V. N. Rajasekharan Pillai. <br><br>The quantum of assistance has been pegged at Rupees 12,000 per annum that may be used for payment to reader, purchase of Braille books and equipment for research, teaching and learning.

Art made easy for blind

When Nagamani, Mahadevi, Kavitha, Sushma, Rachana, class 10th students at C.S.I. Victoria Girls' School drew pictures using crayons at a workshop held recently, people assembled were surprised and appreciated the efforts of visually impaired students and Mustafa Khan. The students made use of ‘pop-up symbolism,’ a new technique of drawing conceived by Mustafa Khan for visually impaired people. Khan, a recipient of the Bimal Roy Award, developed the technique after working with the medium for nearly four years.

Information Communication Technology centre

Aimed at identifying and solving the basic issues being faced by visually impaired people while using computers, a model Information Communication Technology (I.C.T.) centre will be set up in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala.

The centre plans to provide a complete ‘Free Software-based solution’, which gives the users complete freedom to adapt the entire solution for their needs. It also gives the freedom to use, modify and redistribute copies of the software. So, the total cost per user is very low compared to the proprietary solutions.

Career counselling for blind students

Chennai based N.G.O. Nethrodaya organised a one-day career counselling guidance session for visually impaired students appearing for class X and XII examinations.

Students from remote villages of Tamil Nadu got an opportunity to study various government and private schemes and other career options.

The speakers who motivated the students were also visually impaired. These included, Veerakumar, advocate, Mani, stenographer, Jalal Ali, musician, Kasi Mani, vocal training instructor and Dakshinamoorthy an English teacher.

SC brings hope for this blind student

A two-judge bench of the Supreme Court has stayed the Madhya Pradesh High Court order that barred a visually challenged student from studying medicine.

The road to becoming a doctor is finally clear for Nitin Mantri. This visually challenged student in Khandwa in Madhya Pradesh now has the permission of the Supreme Court to finish his medical degree.

Mantri says, “I will fulfill the dreams of my parents and family members. They wanted me to be a doctor and now that the Supreme Court has endorsed our stand I will become a doctor."

S.S.L.C. Topper

Kerala State Institute of Educational Technology (S.I.E.T.) recently launched audio C.D.s of class 10th syllabus in a condensed format for visually impaired students.

Titled `S.S.L.C. Topper', the C.D.s are dubbed in English and Malayalam and will be given free to all visually impaired students. They’re of 28-hour and 20-hour duration respectively.

The C.D.s were devised as an alternative learning methodology, as it was found that a majority of the visually impaired students lacked the speed and skill to decipher Braille literature.

A computer center for blind children in Chandigarh

Set up with funds from ‘Dell Foundation’, the first Dell computer centre in Chandigarh (Punjab) was inaugurated at the Institute for the Blind, recently.

The centre has 12 Dell desktops and two laptops. The hardware is enabled to support software programmes for the visually impaired children to aid their education.

The centre will also provide opportunities for ‘Dell community champions ‘ to make a difference to the lives of the children, by extending a caring hand and sharing their knowledge with them.

Blind Chemist Crafts Tools for Visually Impaired Students

A blind chemistry graduate student at Penn State is making an impact in how visually impaired students get involved in the laboratory. A story posted on the Penn State website explains how Cary Supalo went from hating chemistry in high school to majoring in it in college. What made the difference? Having a little extra help in the lab.

As part of his doctoral degree, Supalo is creating tools that will better equip the visually impaired student to participate in the lab. "Chemistry gives you the potential to discover something new that can change the world," he says.

Centre an 'example to rest of country'

A Newcastle specialist centre for blind and partially sighted people was declared an example to the rest of the country by David Blunkett yesterday.

The Sheffield MP who has been blind since birth praised the state-of-the-art learning facility at Newcastle College in partnership with the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB).

The former Home Secretary and Education Secretary met some of the students who use the centre and had a tour of the facility in the Armstrong Building with his guide dog Sadie.