Honourable Bombay High Court gave directions to the Maharashtra Government to provide appropriate access technology to its blind and low vision employees so that they can perform better in their jobs.

Ministry of Social Justice, Government of Maharashtra has circulated GR no. 2011060410420100 dated 3rd June 2011 to all the Maharashtra Government departments. Respective government departments are asked to pass this circular/GR to their blind and low vision employees and provide the access technology as demanded by them.  This GR also contains a list of access technologies from which a blind and low vision employee can select appropriate softwares, devices and gadgets which will help them in their work.  Court has also directed Government’s Social Justice Department and different NGOs working in the blind field to spread the word about this order and GR. In this respect the Xavier’s Resource Center for the Visually Challenged (XRCVC), Mumbai is working on to spread the information about this GR through different forums and channels.  Further to this we have planned a workshop on 22nd October 2011 at St. Xavier’s college, Mumbai at 2:00 pm to demonstrate access technologies.  Also we wish to get in touch with the visually challenged employees and help them to choose their requirements of access technologies. This workshop is only targeting employees of Maharashtra Government, Maharashtra Public Sector Undertakings and Universities in Maharashtra. Original GR is available on the Maharashtra Government website (http://maharashtra.gov.in/) and its accessible format is available on XRCVC (www.xrcvc.org) and NAB India (www.nabindia.org) websites.