Education and Employment

Three blind men clear civil services examinations

In the UPSC Civil Services results declared recently, so far we have come to know of three visually impaired persons who have successfully cleared this examination.

Topping the list is Ajit Kumar (Roll number 219116) who ranked 208th. At 32, Kumar is a lecturer of Political Science in Shyamlal College of Delhi. Now totally blind, he lost his vision at the age of four or five for unknown reasons, where, according to him, he woke up one day to find that he couldn't see any more. A married man, he prepared for these examinations using talking books, readers, and computers.

96.7%: city boy shows vision more important than sight

Anuj Goel’s eyes hurt. But he kept pushing himself, trying to prove that he could do it. It wasn’t easy sitting in the front row for the visually impaired student — he strained his eyes to make out the letters on the blackboard, peering through his thick glasses.

Friday’s CBSE results showed all his pains were worth the effort: Goel not only stood first among 1,034 disabled students who took the examinations, he was also the topper among government school students.

His score: 96.7 per cent.

MCD schools must have teachers for disabled students: HC

For 12-year-old Avinash, a visually impaired student of an MCD school in Jahangirpuri, it was smooth sailing from classes I to IV.

But since two years, he has been stuck in Class V, as his promotion now is based on performance.

“What could he do? All four years he just came to school and went back and could do nothing,” says lawyer Ashok Aggarwal.

He is pleading in the High Court for a direction to government and MCD schools to appoint special teachers for differently-abled students.

New software for visually challenged students at DU

Adding another feature to its effort for making the admission process a lot more student-friendly for the differently-abled candidates, Delhi University this year has introduced JAWS computer software for the benefit of visually challenged applicants.

JAWS is a software programme designed to work with a speech synthesiser, converting an ordinary computer into a talking computer.

Last year, the University had introduced Braille forms to enable the visually impaired to “feel” the form, even though their admission applications were filled by the student counsellors.

DU charts new course to open avenues for disabled students

One of the features that distinguishes Doordarshan from private news channels is a special news programme for persons with hearing disability: the anchor ‘tells’ news through sign languages, covering everything from politics to sports and the weather.

Though no other news channel gives such job opportunities, the Delhi University’s Equal Opportunity Cell is working towards more hearing-impaired students getting the training needed for such work. The course starts this August.

AU to help disabled students in getting higher education

The physically handicapped students, aspiring to pursue higher studies from Allahabad University, have a reason to smile as varsity authorities have come out with various initiates that would enhance the facilities being extended to such students.

Different And abled

With more than 1,500 seats on offer, Delhi University and its affiliated colleges are doing all they can to encourage physically challenged students to enroll.

Many DU colleges, including Khalsa, Miranda House, Sri Ram College of Commerce, Hindu, Gargi, Kamla Nehru, Janki Devi Memorial college and Lady Sri Ram College are ready to welcome their special students with lifts, ramps, specially designed toilets and libraries equipped with resources.

In 2008, DU was able to fill a mere 386 of its 1,500 seats.

Career Centric Computer Training at EnAble India, Bangalore

Computer Training for the visually impaired is the greatest form of empowerment for them. It opens up the world to them: a world of information (aiding research, education, daily living, recreation), people, jobs, books (print to voice). Computer training involves training on Computer Basics, MS office, Internet using the JAWS screen reading software which is talking software that aids the visually impaired to “hear” everything that a sighted person would “read”.

Railways decide to recruit the disabled

Physically challenged people have reasons to cheer up. The railways, which has been the largest employer in government service, has decided to re-start recruitment process under the disabled category. In the first phase of recruitment process, the railways would fill up vacancies of about 4,254 posts in group C and D categories across the country.

According to sources, the railways have fixed a time frame for completing this recruitment process. In fact, the railways would launch a special drive to fill up backlog of vacancies of physically challenged persons in the railways.

New courses for disabled students

To facilitate physically challenged students, who often complain of discrimination and difficulty in finding employment, Delhi University Equal Opportunity Cell (EOC) announced a new certificate course in news reading, anchoring and voice over, at a counselling session on Tuesday.

“The media sector is an up and coming field, and we feel disabled students must have the means to gain employment in the field,” said Chandra Nisha Singh, OSD of the cell.