Education and Employment

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.

Winning against all odds!

The abacus method to calculate numbers has become a rage among school students not to mention the visually-challenged students of Devnar School for Blind who bagged four prizes at a State level Competition that was held on January 20.

T. Andalu, (9th std.) and G. Satya Veni (7th std.) bagged the first prize while CH. Gopal, a 7th Std. and Yugandhar, 9th Std. students won the second and third prizes respectively in the level one competition.

Over 50 students are being trained in Abacus as a part of a brain developing programme in the Devnar School for Blind.

Scholarship for visually impaired girls

Twentythree visually impaired girls studying in Coimbatore and Maduraireceived scholarships to continue their studies at a function organisedby UDIS Forum, a network that assists people with disabilities, at theBishop Appasamy College of Education.

Gelman helps disabled students access library resources

Thanks to a donation and collaboration between Gelman Library and Disability Support Services, blind and visually impaired students can now access resources in the library with more ease.

Last month the library held a ribbon cutting ceremony in celebration of its two new assistive technology suites - study rooms that are equipped with speech, scan and read, magnification and voice recognition software that help blind and visually impaired students see text and use other library materials more easily. About 35 students, library staff and faculty attended the ceremony.

Visually impaired people in the Civil Services

Working ona query received on Eyeway helpdesk, Mr Pranay Gadodia approached the UnionPublic Service Commission (UPSC) on behalf of Eyeway looking for specificinformation pertaining to visually impaired people in the Civil Services. Onrefusal from the commission to answer anything over the phone, the sameinformation was sought using the RTI Act.

Punjab govt to soon fill up vacancies for blind

The Punjab Government has decided to immediatelyclear the backlog of the posts reserved for the blind and partiallyblind persons in the state.

An assurance to this effect was given by PunjabChief Minister Parkash Singh Badal to a delegation of NaterheenJagarities Sangh Punjab (visually challenged persons) led by GeneralSecretary Prof. Rajnish Mahal which called on Badal and submitted acharter of demands to him here at his official residence thisafternoon.

Lucknow to have varsity for disabled

THE STATE Government on Saturday announced to establish a universityfor the handicapped in the name of Dr Shakuntala Mishra, mother of BSPgeneral secretary SC Mishra, who is also an MP. The university willcome up in Lucknow.A state cabinet meeting presided over by ChiefMinister Mayawati gave the go-ahead to the project.

Mayawati toldnewspersons that initially the university was proposed underpublic-private partnership (PPP) and SC Mishra had offered to take upthe project through the Dr Shakuntala Mishra Smriti Sewa Trust.

Now, visually challenged part of Bangalore's software boom

Meet Murali C (28), a mechanical engineer and system operation lead specialist at IBM, and K. Joshi (27), a masters degree holder in philosophy now employed by software major Infosys.

They are just two of the thousands of entrants in the city's booming information technology (IT) industry.

However, what sets Murali and Joshi apart from the rest is that both are visually challenged.

Talking laptops for visually impaired students

Bahrain has vowed to provide all visually-impaired students with talking laptops  to integrate them to  modern technology.

More than 300 blind that would be given free talking laptops are being trained on how to use them. The Ministry of Social Development provided 26 laptops to such students  last year and the rest  would be given soon.

The service comes shortly after the recently implemented experience, in which all blind  students joined public schools with normal bodies.

Visually impaired students trained as piano technicians

To most of us, the piano is some kind of magical mystery box. You sit down and play, and what comes out represents perfect precision in sound.

Each key does exactly what it's supposed to do, sounds exactly the way it's supposed to sound in relation to its neighbors, and the whole is a thing of mathematical beauty (skill of the player notwithstanding, of course).

Piano technicians know differently.

"People think you just sit down and make music," said Mark Burbey, a student at the School of Piano Technology for the Blind in Vancouver's Hudson's Bay neighborhood.