Dear Friends
I fail to understand, how a public representative - the Chief Minister of a State can say this, while poorer states like Assam have gone ahead with seal to implement the same.
It is loud and clear that while the Chief Minsiter has sufficient money to create her statutes and parks and also to develop a security force to protect the statutes created at the cost of public money, while she has no money to invest in children of her state and protect their fundamental right to compulsory and free education guaranteed by the Constitution of India!
Have such politicians any right to remain on the crucial posts they hold?
"UP has no fund to implement RTE Act" iGovernment.in
regards
SC Vashishth
I think of a democratic and progressive India, where rights of every citizen are respected and ensured.
Monday, April 5, 2010
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Accessibility for all could be a future business model for some
Hi Friends,
Reproducing a beautiful article from Live Mint.Com detailing on the business sense of accessibility. Click on the title to read it from source site. Here it goes.
Accessibility for all could be a future business model for some : Akshai Jain
Reproducing a beautiful article from Live Mint.Com detailing on the business sense of accessibility. Click on the title to read it from source site. Here it goes.
Accessibility for all could be a future business model for some : Akshai Jain
‘Blinkered mindsets’ could be preventing many from spotting the opportunities in making technology accessible
New Delhi: George Abraham is an angry man. “Why is it,” he asks rhetorically, “that I can’t issue a cheque without having it countersigned by another person? Or buy a railway ticket without wasting hours at a station?”
The brunt of his rage, however, is reserved for the cricket coverage of television channels. Very often, he says, at the end of an innings commentators sign off leaving the final score to be displayed on screen. While that works fine for everyone else, it prematurely ends the game for him, because Abraham is legally blind. But as a cricket enthusiast, bowler and the chairman of the Association for Cricket for the Blind in India, he’s very interested in knowing the score that he can’t see. “The only reason I haven’t smashed the television so far,” he seethes, “is because I own it.”
Similar sentiments are repeated across India’s disabled community. At a time when information technology and communications systems are becoming more sophisticated, and electronic devices are proliferating, this 60-million-strong population finds itself increasingly isolated.
In India, few of the new systems in the market have accessibility features that allow the visually, hearing or motor disabled to use them. “Technologies of the 1980s and 1990s like DOS (disk operating system)-based systems were character based,” says Kiran Kaja of the UK-based Royal National Institute of Blind People. “It was easy to provide accessibility in them, but current systems are very different.”
Touchscreen interfaces come without voice recognition technologies that the blind need; mobile phones are shrinking in size, making it difficult for people with motor disabilities to use them; remote controls have no standardization, requiring disabled users to familiarize themselves with each anew; and most Indian websites aren’t designed to work with screen reading software. As a result, while life has become simpler for the “normal” population, the disabled find themselves facing new obstacles.
The problem, according to Javed Abidi, one of the country’s best-known disability activists, is neither technological nor financial but, “lies in a lack of awareness and in blinkered mindsets”. Companies that sell products with built-in accessibility features abroad don’t market them here. “In countries like the US,” he says, “there are laws, section 508 for example, that lay down accessibility standards. We need something similar here.”
That already seems to be happening. In 2009, the National Informatics Centre came out with the Guidelines for Indian Government Websites that require all 6,000 or so government websites to adhere to strict accessibility guidelines. These sites now need to have alternative text for all images, icons where possible and need to limit the use of embedded applications that don’t allow screen reader access, etc.
A number of government websites are now completely accessible. “Change has been slower coming to corporate sites,” says Shilpi Kapoor of BarrierBreak Technologies, a Mumbai-based accessibility consulting firm, “but the guidelines have been a great first step towards creating awareness”.
A National Policy on Universal Electronic Accessibility is also on the drawing board. The ministry of social justice and empowerment, department of information technology, companies such as Microsoft Corp. and disability experts like Abidi and Kapoor have been involved in drafting it. Industry organizations such as Confederation of Indian Industry and Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry provided suggestions. The policy, which will be released in a few months, lays down accessibility standards for information and communication technologies and electronics.
Anil U. Joshi, programme director of IBM Corp.’s India human ability and accessibility group, is almost evangelical about the opportunities the new sector holds. “It’s a myth,” he says, “that accessibility is a niche or low-income market.” Neither does he believe that accessibility is only about the disabled. “Not knowing a language is a disability,” he points out. “The elderly and those with low literacy also suffer from disabilities similar to those of the disabled.”
Disabilities, Joshi believes, are graded. Instead of viewing accessibility features as a corporate social responsibility add-on to their products, companies need to start looking at their products as catering to various degrees of ability. “There’s a great demand out there for more accessible products,” he says.
IBM India has been working on a series of enhanced accessibility products over the last few years, most of which serve multiple purposes. Their Hindi speech recognition technology can be used for educating people with disabilities, and finds application in making ATMs more accessible. It’s currently also been licensed to the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing for transcribing parliamentary speeches.
The spoken Web is an effort to create the voice equivalent of the Internet. It consists of a series of voice sites that are created by users over a telephone. These sites can be linked to each other, indexed and searched. People with visual disabilities or low levels of literacy can easily create and browse these sites. The project has been tested in a few villages in Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh, where it’s been immensely successful.
A similar realization is taking place at Yahoo India, where a five-member accessibility team has been working to change the “developer’s mindset”. “Building accessible sites is about going back to the basics,” says Subramanyam Murali, content engineer at the company. “It’s about building functionalities first and then adding the enhancements.”
The separation of basic functionality and enhancements has not only made their sites more dynamic, but has “significantly” reduced the bandwidth they require.
“It does take an additional 10% effort to design an accessible site,” states Murali, “but it pays off in the long term”.
Changes have also made their way to banks and ATM manufacturers, although with a nudge from the Reserve Bank of India, which recently put out a guideline that requires 30% of new ATMs to be accessible. Rakesh Aulaya, spokesperson for NCR Corp., which manufactures ATMs with audio start-up and guide menus, Braille keypads and voice recognition technologies, says that the roll-out so far has been small since banks need to upgrade their software to use these ATMs. But he expects a significant increase in demand over the next few years. “For banks the costs involved are small,” he says, “but the benefits will be high.”
Manufacturers associations have supported the introduction of accessibility guidelines, even though they’re unsure about its affordability. “The costs (and returns) of accessibility will vary widely from industry to industry,” says Vinnie Mehta, executive director of the Manufacturers Association for Information Technology. “Larger companies may not require subsidies, but for others government subsidies will be important.”
It will be a while before electronic accessibility becomes common, but Abraham agrees that things are improving. Cricket coverage might not have changed, but television channels such as Star Movies and Zee Studio have started subtitling some of their films, and My Name is Khan has become the first Bollywood film to be released with Hindi audio descriptions for the visually challenged.
Monday, March 29, 2010
Sign Language Poetry
Poem in sign language - unheard of.
Poets who have forsaken words with a wave of hands
Vineet Gill
TNN
New Delhi: Mainstream poets play with words to channelize their spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings.But some poets express their angst,joy,hope,despair through signs.For hearing-impaired persons too,poetry is a possibility.
Today,sign language (SL) poetry has evolved into a refined art form.And Dutch filmmakers Leendert Pot and Anja Hiddinga have brought this obscure and relatively new art to the capital through their five short sign language poetry films,to be screened at India Habitat Centre on Friday evening.
Every country has its own sign language.It has its own grammar and vocabulary.And playing with the conventions of any language gives you poetry, said Anja Hiddinga,adding that this art scores over conventional poetry by involving the visual space also. The message or the content is as important as the form or the gestures in SL poems.Movement of the hands of the poet,while performing,is an integral part of the poem.And the use of different camera angles and the play of lights and shadows add different dimensions to the whole performance, said Leendert.
Anja and Leendert have roped in professional translators to translate the poems of Dutch SL poets,Wim Emmerik and Giselle Meyer,to English and Dutch.The duo has filmed the poets performing their poems in SL,with English and Dutch subtitles below.
The organizers and filmmakers believe that this will not only be welcomed by the art lovers of Delhi but will empower the hearing impaired communities all over the country,giving them new possibilities of expression. A deaf person doesnt want to be constrained by his handicap.They want to communicate with as many people as possible.And poetry is a good vehicle for that, said Leendert Pot.
The idea of SL poetry films was conceptualized in 2002 by the two filmmakers when they were making a documentary about Anjas two sons who are hearing impaired. At the end of the documentary,I had Anjas son perform a poem in sign language,and I was deeply moved by it.We thought of doing something about it.We got together every week,and it took us about two years to finish the whole thing.We have been on the road since 2005 promoting and popularizing the films, said Leendert.
NEW GENRE
Sign language
A set of gestures and signs to convey the meaning visually, rather than acoustically, using varying hand movements and hand shapes
Though no international standard exists,sign languages in different countries are similar
Sign language poetry
An art form that uses the conventions of sign language for a poetic expression
Like poetry,SL poetry too has different poetic devices such as symbolism,alliteration,metaphor
A rhyme in a SL poem is conveyed by a repetition of a hand movement
Poets who have forsaken words with a wave of hands
Vineet Gill
TNN
New Delhi: Mainstream poets play with words to channelize their spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings.But some poets express their angst,joy,hope,despair through signs.For hearing-impaired persons too,poetry is a possibility.
Today,sign language (SL) poetry has evolved into a refined art form.And Dutch filmmakers Leendert Pot and Anja Hiddinga have brought this obscure and relatively new art to the capital through their five short sign language poetry films,to be screened at India Habitat Centre on Friday evening.
Every country has its own sign language.It has its own grammar and vocabulary.And playing with the conventions of any language gives you poetry, said Anja Hiddinga,adding that this art scores over conventional poetry by involving the visual space also. The message or the content is as important as the form or the gestures in SL poems.Movement of the hands of the poet,while performing,is an integral part of the poem.And the use of different camera angles and the play of lights and shadows add different dimensions to the whole performance, said Leendert.
Anja and Leendert have roped in professional translators to translate the poems of Dutch SL poets,Wim Emmerik and Giselle Meyer,to English and Dutch.The duo has filmed the poets performing their poems in SL,with English and Dutch subtitles below.
The organizers and filmmakers believe that this will not only be welcomed by the art lovers of Delhi but will empower the hearing impaired communities all over the country,giving them new possibilities of expression. A deaf person doesnt want to be constrained by his handicap.They want to communicate with as many people as possible.And poetry is a good vehicle for that, said Leendert Pot.
The idea of SL poetry films was conceptualized in 2002 by the two filmmakers when they were making a documentary about Anjas two sons who are hearing impaired. At the end of the documentary,I had Anjas son perform a poem in sign language,and I was deeply moved by it.We thought of doing something about it.We got together every week,and it took us about two years to finish the whole thing.We have been on the road since 2005 promoting and popularizing the films, said Leendert.
NEW GENRE
Sign language
A set of gestures and signs to convey the meaning visually, rather than acoustically, using varying hand movements and hand shapes
Though no international standard exists,sign languages in different countries are similar
Sign language poetry
An art form that uses the conventions of sign language for a poetic expression
Like poetry,SL poetry too has different poetic devices such as symbolism,alliteration,metaphor
A rhyme in a SL poem is conveyed by a repetition of a hand movement
Friday, March 19, 2010
Child Care Leave for Mothers of children with disabilities made more friendly
Dear Friends,
regards
Subhash C. Vashishth
To read the news article from source click here:
Leave Rules Relaxed for Mothers of Disabled Children
Some good news for the Government Employee Mothers with disabled children. The child care leave rules have been relaxed. Earlier the leave rules permitted women employees to avail CCL of 730 days (2 years) in their entire service up to two children till their children were 18 years which is now extended to 22 years of age for the mothers of children with disability.
For those of you wanting to preserve a copy of the DoPT Memo No.13018/6/2009-Estt.(L) dated 03rd March 2010, click the link to download the same. Download earlier leave Rule dated 29 September 2008 here.
For those of you wanting to preserve a copy of the DoPT Memo No.13018/6/2009-Estt.(L) dated 03rd March 2010, click the link to download the same. Download earlier leave Rule dated 29 September 2008 here.
However, I have a problem with the process of such revision in the Rules even if the revision is progressive. Often the rules are relaxed on adhoc basis on reciept of some representation without thinking in larger context. Such progressive decisions could benefit many more than just mothers of children with disability up to 22 years of age!
I raise this point because I find there are several others who deserve & would greately benefit from such a progressive provison. Our experience tells us that mothers continue to care for their disabled children even after 22 years of age, also often the need of care becomes crucial if there is a member with major support needs or with mental illness in the family. And its not mother alone, it could be father, brother, sister & spouse too!
Therefore, in such scenario, it would be prudent and more justified to extend this to all such stakeholders. Also the age bar of 22 years would become redundant for other disabilities where the member may be needing life long support. That is why it is always important and logical to involve stakeholders and organisations working on the subject or representing the interests of stakeholders to come to a reasonable and benefit-all amendment in the existing rules. Organisations of parents, families with disabled members or those specialising on the support networks might have additional views on this which could be heard by the Government.
We hope the DoPT or any other similarly placed organisation would consider this while taking such progressive decisions.
regards
Subhash C. Vashishth
To read the news article from source click here:
Leave Rules Relaxed for Mothers of Disabled Children
New Delhi: The government has relaxed the age restriction on childcare leave (CCL) given to women employees with disabled children. In ordinary circumstances, women can avail the special two-year CCL till their children are 18. After the extension, mothers of disabled children can avail the leave till their children are 22.
The department of personnel and training (DoPT) passed the order after getting requests from mothers that the age restriction be relaxed for disabled and mentally-challenged children. "We consulted the finance ministry and decided to permit CCL to women with disabled children till they are 22," a DoPT circular said.
Mothers of children with a minimum disability of 40% are entitled to this, but only if the child is dependent on her. Disabilities included mental retardation,locomotor/orthopaedic disability, visual disability, speech and hearing disability.
The government had announced the childcare leave in the Sixth Pay Commission. The leave is for the entire service period and can be taken whenever the employee thinks fit, especially when the child is sick or is appearing for an exam.
During the leave period, the employee is entitled to get salary equal to what she was getting before going on leave. Besides, the Centre gives extra benefits to disabled women. For two years, they are paid Rs1,000 over and above their gross salary as childcare allowance.
Thursday, March 18, 2010
A focal point in the PMO can facilitate early implementation of UNCRPD
Dear friends,
The demand and mandate for creating focal points for monitoring of implementation of Disabilities Act & UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with disabilities in India is growing bigger & louder. The activists are demanding two or more focal points within in the Government and outside the Government.
One such focal point can be a National Advisor to the Prime Minister within the PMO. Article 33 of UNCRPD mandates that the States Parties shall, in accordance with their legal and administrative systems, maintain, strengthen, designate or establish within the State Party, a framework, including one or more independent mechanisms, as appropriate, to promote, protect and monitor implementation of the present Convention (read UN CRPD).
The UNCRPD also mandates that the Civil society, in particular persons with disabilities and their representative organizations, should be involved and should participate fully in the monitoring process.
The existing Central Coordination Committee (CCC) (proposed to be renamed as Central Advisory Committee in the amendments suggested by MSJ&E in the PWD Act 1995) should remain the second focal point to facilitate implementation of the convention and disablity related laws, rules and regulation in the country. However, this body needs to be strengthened and made accountable to people. This would be possible by prominent involvement of civil society and persons with disability in general on such bodies.
The statement of former CJ of Delhi High Court is very relevant and echoes the sentiments of the disability sector. The disability sector has been a witness to myriad of problems of in-coordination among various ministries on the issues related to disabilities which has resulted in growing discomfort in the citizens with disability in India.
regards
SC Vashishth, Advocate
To read the news from source, click on the news title here: 'We need a national advisor to PM on disability'
In order to ensure the rights of people with disabilities, there is a need for a national advisor on the subject to the prime minister, former chief justice of the Delhi High Court Ajit Prakash Shah said Thursday.
'There is a need for a national advisor on disability to the prime minister, as it will help in bridging the gap between policies and ground realities,' Shah said at the inauguration of a two-day meet on the disability sector in the capital.
'This step will also help India fully implement the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disability (CRPD) of which it is a signatory,' he added.
The CRPD requires its signatories to promote, protect, and ensure the full enjoyment of human rights by people with disabilities and ensure that they enjoy full equality under the law.
According to government estimates, there are approximately 20-30 million disabled people in India. However, NGOs estimate the numbers are around 60-70 million.
In contrast to the population, NGOs like the National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People (NCPEDP) say that only a handful of them are educated and employed.