Volume 4 Issue 3

Feature

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  Ushering a Silent Revolution through Augmentative and Alternative Communication
  

  A three-day international conference on Augmentative and Alternative Communication (A.A.C.) held in Chennai recently allowed the users and professionals in the filed to discuss issues involved in its indigenisation. Here is a report on this pioneering conference.

Interview

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  National Policy for Disabled People is more a compilation of programmes than a policy: Amita Dhanda
  

  Consultation with persons with disability has never been an article of faith or an integral component of government policy. It has always been something, which persons with disability have wrested from the government. The consultative fiasco on the National Policy is one more example of state authoritarianism in the field, says Dr. Amita Dhanda, disability law expert, in conversation with Parvinder Singh.

News

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  N.C.P.E.D.P. pitches for announcement of incentives in Union Budget 2006-07
  

  With the day for the announcement of Union Budget 2006-2007 approaching, disability sector has submitted a set of recommendations for consideration by Finance Minister P. Chidambaram to address the issue of neglect of disabled people when it comes to macro planning and resource allocation.

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  Will disabled people miss the train again?
  

  A decade after the Disability Act mandated that all form of public transport should be made accessible, Indian Railways, the country’s main artery, remains largely inaccessible and dangerous for disabled and old people.

• Stop discrimination against disabled civil services aspirants, N.C.P.E.D.P. urges Union Government
  

  Union Service Public Commission (U.P.S.C.) has starkly different norms for the number of attempts that are allowed to disabled category candidates as against their peers from social minority groups for appearing in the Civil Services Exams.

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  Karnataka High Court asks State Government to implement Disability Act
  

  The Karnataka High Court has directed the State Government to frame a scheme within the next six months for ensuring the implementation of the Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act 1995.

• District Rehabilitation Centre Scheme faces closure: Project Director’s Office
  

  The District Rehabilitation Centre Scheme launched by the Union Government in 1995, to provide comprehensive rehabilitation services to disabled people in rural areas, is likely to be discontinued with no budgetary allocation being made for the year 2006-2007.

• Bank staff versed with sign language attracts clients with hearing impairment
  

  The Vijaynagar branch of Bank of India in Indore has a new client base among hearing-impaired customers, courtesy its bank staff that has picked up basic sign language to understand its customers better.

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  Severely disabled people untouched by state education scheme in Himachal Pradesh
  

  A micro survey in Himachal Pradesh has revealed that severely disabled children in the state’s Mandi-Balh-Sundernagar belt are yet to be reached by the Integrated Education for Disabled (I.E.D.) under the Sarva Siksha Abhiyan (S.S.A.) or universal education scheme.

• Unique Project to provide employment to 100 hearing impaired people
  

  Greenfield Foundation, a Public Trust, and Delhi Association for the Deaf have entered into a primary understanding for launching a project that would provide employment to over 100 people with hearing impairment in the National Capital.

• India yet to wake up to the challenge of old-age related disabilities
  

  India’s demographic revolution is creating greater instances of age-related disabilities with increase in longevity, but the country seems to be ill prepared to face the fall out of this demographic transition.

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  Disabled people find seriousness missing from Mumbai Marathon
  

  At the recent Mumbai Marathon, disabled participants not only took part, shoulder-to-shoulder with the non-disabled participants, but also displayed an intense competitive spirit.