Education and Employment

Students to record study material for blind

A group of students have come forward to record in audio form the entire syllabi of Class VIII to XII for the benefit of blind.

We4You, a voluntary organization of students across the state, will start recording the syllabi from April 10 in a studio here, said Abhay Kumar Mahanata, chairman of We4You and a student of Gandhi Engineering College.

"Blind students are very good listeners. If they listen to the study materials it will be easier for them to recall. It will help them in their studies, apart from the Braille method," Sahoo said.

Bangalore University comes up with action plan for blind students

Visually challenged students of Bangalore University have something to smile about. The varsity is now taking initiatives to make their learning process more easier. A meeting was held at the vice-chancellor’s office on Thursday that chalked out an action plan for visually challenged students.

Vice-chancellor N Prabhu Dev announced several measures that the university would take to add value to these students.

The university has formed a committee under the chairmanship of the vice-chancellor to carry out the action plan.

Law schools test to go disabled-friendly this year

The largest-ever law school exam that decides admission to nearly a dozen national schools across India will turn disabled-friendly this summer.

Additional time to crack the two-hour exam, option of bringing one's own scribes along with instruments for problem-solving and a question paper sans any visual reasoning to aid the blind are some of the key features of the Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) policy of candidates with disabilities to be implemented from this year.

Scribes render silent service to blind students

Meera (name changed), a media professional in the city, is silently rejoicing the success of blind students in the higher secondary exam results. She is part of an informal group of people who double up as scribes -- rendering valuable service to the cause of the visually challenged.

Blind man will sue American Bar Association

A federal lawsuit will be filed against the American Bar Association on behalf of a blind man arguing the required Law School Admissions Test is biased against the visually impaired and should not be required of blind law school applicants.

The suit will be filed on May 24 in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, Attorney Richard Bernstein said.

Bernstein, who is blind, was the last law student to be admitted to law school 15 years ago without taking the LSAT.

Admissions in DU for PwDs from 28 May to 8 June 2011

This year the admission for students with disabilities to under graduate courses in Delhi University will be conducted during 28 may to 8 June 2011. This is significantly different from the schedules of previous years when the admissions used to be conducted during 1 to 15 June.

The admission process of PwDs is conducted centrally. They do not need to go to the different colleges. They just need to walk in to the DSW office near University Main Gate, Delhi 7 with their 12th certificates and disability certificates.

She can't see but her dreams closer with 95% in CBSE exams

A national-level chess champion, an athlete and now a school topper — Rinku Shekhawat from DPS RK Puram scored 94% in humanities in her CBSE Class XII exams. Her joy knew no bounds on Monday while her family back in Sikar in Rajasthan was celebrating like never before. Rinku cannot see. But she can see her dreams coming true now.

Colleges haven’t done enough

Online junior college admission forms give students 30 options, but for Akansha Jadhav, 16, there are only four colleges to choose from. A visually impaired student of New English School, Bandra, Jadhav was shocked to learn that only four city colleges have self-vision centres. Self-vision centres cater to visually impaired students and are equipped with open source screen reading software, screen magnifying tools, and a data bank of Braille notes and audio academic CDs. Certain centres also store newspapers and novels in Braille to ensure that the students are aware of general affairs.

Computer hub for disabled

Gauhati University will set up a special centre to train hearing and visually impaired students of the state in computer skills.

The university has signed an MoU with the National Thermal Power Corporation Ltd recently. NTPC will provide necessary infrastructure to the centre.

It will be run by the department of disabilities studies of the university.

Kishore Mohan Bhattacharya, who is heading the department, said the department had already received most of the necessary equipment like computers to start the centre.

MP govt makes braille text books for students

Madhya Pradesh government has made available braille text books of primary level to all the districts for visually impaired students of the state, officials said today. All the district project coordinators have been asked to ensure availability of braille text books for the concerned students well in time, they said. Braille is a writing system for vision-impaired or sightless people, consisting of patterns of raised dots that are read by touch, they added. Louis Braille had invented the braille system of reading and writing for visually impaired people in mid of 19th century.