An app to tell you which public places are accessible

Want to know which malls, restaurants are disabled-friendly? Soon, an app will tell you

Monday, February 17, 2014 - 06:00 IST | Agency: DNA

Want to know if a restaurant, mall, cinema or a public promenade is friendly for the differently abled? Or whether the lifts in a public building can be used seamlessly by those confined to a wheelchair?

Help may soon be at hand with the state information technology (IT) department planning to develop an app and a linked website which will enable the physically challenged to record their feedback about whether facilities and public spaces are disabled friendly.

Rajesh Aggarwal, principal secretary, IT, told dna that they were working on developing an app to indicate disabled-friendly areas and facilities. "Users will be actually keying in the data," said Aggarwal, adding that this could even cover issues like whether a wheelchair could be accommodated in a cinema hall, mall, multiplex or a walkway.

This facility will also raise awareness about buildings and facilities which are disabled friendly and also compel those which are not suitable for the physically handicapped to re-engineer themselves accordingly to fit the requirements.

The IT department plans to launch the app on Android platforms to be accessed by smart phone users while a corresponding website will be developed for those who do not use smartphones. Aggarwal said they would also request Microsoft to help get the app on the Windows platform.

Welcoming the idea, HK Savla, managing trustee, Jeevan Jyot Cancer Relief and Care Trust, which works for cancer patients and the disabled, said this initiative would raise awareness about the need to make public spaces more disabled friendly. He pointed out that only a few buildings had ramps for the disabled or even toilets to meet their requirements. Savla also recalled an instance where a girl working in a post office was unable to take her wheelchair into the building or even to the toilet.

The department is also developing apps for MahaNews and Lokrajya and has come out with an app to enable users to view the government resolutions (GR) issued by the state government. While MahaNews is the state government's official news and information website, Lokrajya is the state government's official magazine and mouthpiece. The magazine will be available in Marathi, English and Urdu on the app.

Source: DNA India

Best Pratice: Innovating Teaching makes learning a fun for school kids

Village teacher makes learning fun

Vijaysinh Parmar,TNN | Feb 4, 2014, 05.11 AM IST

RAJKOT: Kamlesh Zapadia, a primary school teacher in a remote village of the district, struggles with erratic power supply at his house. But he did not mind travelling 20km to Jasdan daily for a cybercafe to give shape to his innovative teaching aid that makes studying less burdensome. 

Zapadia (35) has converted the entire syllabus from class 1 to 10 in a quiz format - he likens it to Kaun Banega Crorepati (KCB) - so that children don't have to cram textbooks for exams and enjoy studies. 

Zapadia and his friends have developed a website - www.edusafar.com - and uploaded the entire syllabus in the quiz format, a feat that has also been recognized by India's premier business school - Indian Institute of Management - Ahmedabad (IIM-A). 

Zapadia will be among 100 teachers who will be felicitated by Gujarat Innovative Education Council and Gujarat Council of Educational Research and Training, for their innovative ideas in education, in Gandhinagar on February 5. 

"Playing a quiz online is always fun. If the same can be done with syllabus, children will learn faster and enjoy it too," Zapadia told TOI. "Moreover, the entire syllabus in quiz format can be downloaded free of cost from our website. Most schools have computers now and they can utilize it to the maximum," he said. 

Last week, District Institute of Education and Training (DIET) conducted a special workshop on this project. "We are keen to carry Zapadia's idea forward and implementing it in all 1,420 schools. We have already distributed the CDs to all the primary schools in the district," said M V Nagani, principal, DIET.

Source : Times of India 

NCERT Study reveals RTE has failed to meet disabled children's needs

This study shared by NCERT and published by Indian Express reveals serious lapses in the implementation of RTE across the country.

RTE has failed to enable the disabled: Study

Written by Anubhuti Vishnoi | New Delhi | January 27, 2014 1:58 am

Three years after the RTE Act came into effect promising free and compulsory education to children aged six to 14 years and special focus on admission and retention of children with disabilities, an NCERT study has found that disabled children in schools across states still face serious infrastructure and pedagogy handicaps.
Apart from absence of ramps and friendly toilets in schools, the larger problem that almost all disabled children face in the classroom is the absence of special teaching material and sensitive trained teachers.
In Gujarat’s Kheda district, a child with locomotor disability said he never leaves his wheelchair due to non-availability of a friendly toilet in his school.

The NCERT report — ‘Status of Implementation of RTE Act in context of disadvantaged children at elementary stage’ — says that “poor infrastructure, non-availability of appropriate furniture for children with disabilities, non-availability of special aids and appliances, poor quality of aids and appliances for children with locomotor disabilities are major challenges in the fulfilment of RTE to these children”.

The study adds that “educational materials for children with disabilities were non-existent in most sample schools. States/ UTs have very limited vision of arranging different types of educational materials for children with various disabilities”.

The 2012-13 study on children with disabilities had revealed that while 99 per cent of these children liked attending regular schools but 57 per cent of teachers were not trained to understand their special needs.
The study was conducted by the NCERT’s department of elementary education in Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Jharkhand, Orissa, Gujarat, Uttarakhand and the Union Territories of Puducherry and Andaman & Nicobar islands through questionnaires and interviews with school teachers, parents of disabled children and disabled students.
Respondents in Visakhapatnam and East Godavari districts said there were no Braille books, no assistive devices, no educational materials and no full-time special teachers making it extremely difficult to ensure RTE to children with visual impairments. In Visakhapatnam district, ramps and friendly toilets for children with locomotors disabilities were not appropriate.

Almost all respondents in Almora district of Uttarakhand said their schools did not have facilities and the hilly terrain further complicated their movements. In Orissa, the NCERT study says, there is unhappiness over poor quality of wheelchairs and non-supply of Braille aids despite repeated reminders.

“Wheelchairs and tricycles are supplied to children with locomotors disabilities, though these cannot be used by them due to difficult terrain in Almora district”.

“Special shoes are supplied after one year of assessment, resulting in inappropriate sizes due to growth of feet. Complaint was sent but no satisfactory action was taken,” respondents are quoted in the NCERT study.

In Kerala, children have not been provided teaching-learning materials individually despite the fact that the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan has a provision for Rs 3,000 per disabled child per year.

The report notes that functionaries and teachers at state-, district- and block-levels were aware of provisions of the RTE Act to a great extent but “orientation of teachers for RTE (except in Orissa) did not include information about disadvantaged and children with disabilities”.

In Jharkhand, respondents pointed out how “there were no special teachers at school level to help children with disabilities; teachers have not been trained to teach children with disabilities; and parents do not bring their children with disabilities to school regularly”.

Sixteen of 25 head teachers/teachers in four districts of Gujarat maintained that it was extremely difficult to teach children with severe mental challenges and multiple disabilities in the classroom.

In Andhra Pradesh, teachers said that “it is difficult to ensure RTE to children with mental disabilities due to behaviour problems and very limited ability to learn. They maintained that these children should be sent to special schools. Respondents in Visakhapatnam and East Godavari districts said there were no Braille books, no assistive devices, no educational materials and no full-time special teachers”.

The report notes that in Kerala “almost all respondents in both the districts said they encountered difficulties in teaching different categories of children with disabilities. They said that behaviour problem of children with mental disabilities (challenges) makes it difficult to manage classroom teaching. These teachers do not have any special training and they find themselves helpless in dealing with children with mental challenges. Two of the teachers said that in a class of 50 children, it is extremely difficult to pay attention to children with a mental challenge and they try to help these children by explaining to them personally”.

A Comedian with Disability committed to disability awareness: Maysoon Zayid

Dear Friends,

I am greatly impressed by the eloquence of this Palestinian woman from New Jersey Ms. Maysoon Zayid - a writer, actor, comedian and co-founder of New York Arab-American Comedy Festival.

She shatters the myths and stereotypes associated with persons with disabilities in no time and you can not but return much more sensitized and knowledgeable about yourself, about your own beliefs about persons with disabilities and their abilities.

I am sure you would love to see this embeded video herein below:

Lack of Political Will disables Persons with Disabilities

Here is a balanced piece from Economic and Political Weekly

Disabled by Lack of Political Will
The government’s failure to table the Disabilities Bill in Parliament is unforgivable.

For the estimated 70 million disabled people in India, the government’s failure to table the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Bill in Parliament in the winter session was another act of cruel neglect and one that their representative organisations are gearing up to tackle. For the four years that it took for the bill to be drafted, disability rights’ advocacy groups and activists kept the pressure up. The approval of the draft bill by the union cabinet on 12 December 2013 raised their hopes only to be dashed. With general elections looming ahead and the uncertainty of how much legislative business will be conducted at the next session, these activists fear that their efforts would simply be washed away. Protests and agitations were held to demand that the bill should be taken up in the February session even as the disabled bitterly pointed out that politicians do not seem to count them as a valued vote bank.

The disabled in India are “invisible”, not to politicians alone; society at large disregards the disabled. Since they do not easily fit into the sociocultural expectations of what “normal” men and women should be like, the disabled are either to be pitied and dealt with charitably or shunned and ignored. To a certain extent, this
attitude was challenged by the Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act, 1995 which was considered landmark legislation at the time. However, while this Act did go a small distance in ensuring greater acceptance of the rights of the disabled to employment, not only its implementation but also its scope left much to be desired. It relies too much on the state’s initiative in framing schemes for the disabled while emphasising their vulnerabilities rather than on enhancing their capabilities. It also leans heavily towards the medical approach, emphasising the physical disabilities and tending to view
welfare measures as the solution. It is a familiar experience that most government schemes aimed at a particular section of society suffer from lack of coordination and dovetailing of the efforts of the various agencies at work. Another area that needs attention is the one to do with the socio-economic vulnerabilities of the parents/ guardians/caregivers of the disabled.

A number of crucial areas are also out of the 1995 Act’s ambit, like the problems faced by disabled women, disabled persons’ accessibility to cultural activities and sports, their preschool and higher education, the rights of the mentally ill (here too the women have special vulnerabilities) and many other nuanced rights that are taken for granted by the non-disabled. Disability rights’ groups wanted a comprehensive legislation that would be in keeping with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities which India has ratified and which stresses fundamental rights. Also, this new legislation would have to be hinged on the non-negotiable rights approach rather than doling out concessions. The Ministry of Social Justice and
Empowerment’s proposal to amend the 1995 Act came under fire and thus work began on drafting the new bill.

The 1995 Act however helped to bring the rights and problems of the disabled into public and media discourse and also helped different rights groups to band together on a common platform to a large extent. It must also be noted here that this law suffers from the usual problem of implementation which depends again to a great extent on a sensitive bureaucracy and committed politicians. While looking at the general rights approach however, the gargantuan problems faced by the disabled in finding employment cannot be ignored. Recently, the Supreme Court (SC) ordered a minimum of 3% reservation for them in all central and state government jobs. The significance of the SC’s order lies in the fact that it quashed the central government’s 2005 office memorandum and claim that reservation for the disabled must be restricted to “identifi ed” posts. The apex court ruled that the reservation must be on the basis of the total number of vacancies in a particular cadre rather than posts identified by the government. The SC pointed out that employment is an important
feature of empowerment and inclusion of the disabled and it was lack of employment that forced this section to live in poverty and fail to contribute to family and community.

The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Bill 2012 has won the thumbs up on most counts since it has tried to do away with the shortcomings in the 1995 Act. However, there are a few aspects like that of inclusive education of the disabled and their employment in certain identifi ed posts that have been flagged by some
disability rights advocates as areas that need to be reworked. These and related issues need to be discussed widely once the bill is tabled in Parliament. Will the government ensure that the hopes and aspirations of the disabled are not dashed and the efforts of all those who have worked on the bill do not go in vain?

Source:  Economic and Political Weekly