Centre for Internet and Society

Report on Training in Basic Computing with use of eSpeak and NVDA in Oriya

nirmita — 2015-06-03T01:24:53Z

This training was held at Orissa Association for the Blind at Bhubaneswar from February 8 to 10, 2015. Thirty six delegates attended the programme.

The highlight of the training was that we received an overwhelming response from the participants. The training had to be conducted in the main auditorium of the Orissa Association for the Blind, instead of the computer lab, which had only a capacity of seating 10 trainees. The participants acknowledged the importance of Oriya support for their career growth. There was a lot of excitement amongst the participants to know how to read and type in Oriya.

The eSpeak training was preceded by a Career Counseling Workshop, which highlighted the importance of Reading and Writing in the local vernacular language for a career growth. The main challenge faced during the training was that there was virtually no material available in Orriya on the internet in Unicode font, for the participants to practice reading. Hence the participants had to first learn typing and than create their own little lines to read.

The training was conducted by Ganshyam Mohante, who had also contributed as the tester for Oriya. The Inauguration was attended by the whole managing committee of Orissa Association for the Blind, who had specially assembled for the event.

The Orissa Association for the Blind is also very keen on organizing the 15 day follow up programme, where in more persons will be trained in reading and writing in Oriya, along with the knowledge for using basic computers.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/training-in-basic-computing-with-use-of-espeak-nvda-odia

Report on Training in Basic Computing with use of NVDA at NAB, Delhi

nirmita — 2015-06-04T01:19:28Z

The objective of the workshop was to help the staff members understand NVDA and its functioning with the Indian languages so that they efficiently attend to the queries of the visitors and the callers at help desk.

Five staff members lead by Mr. Ajay Sharma, Project Manager of the technical unit at National Association for the Blind, R.K Puram, Delhi had attended a training workshop. Concepts related to the NVDA were discussed in the workshop. It was an interactive workshop. Ms. Suman Dogra had conducted the workshop. The staff members had certain doubts with NVDA, that were cleared. Some new information was imparted to the staff members. The help desk was made to understand the functioning of the language section of NVDA. This will help callers to configure their native language on their machines.

Some tips were given to the staff members on imparting training in NVDA in coming training modules at National Association for the Blind. Object navigation was explained to the computer instructors. The team at National Association for the Blind is informed that they can inform about any of the problem in NVDA to the Indian development team.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/report-on-training-in-basic-computing-with-nvda-at-delhi

Report on Training in Basic Computing with use of NVDA and eSpeak in Tamil

nirmita — 2015-07-20T15:23:42Z

The training programme was conducted on January 27 and 28, 2015 at Karna Vidya Technology Centre, [KVTC] Guindy, Chennai. A total of 15 delegates attended the show.

We are extremely grateful to Raghuram, Coordinator, KVTC and Shankar from Bookshare, Chennai for organizing the Tamil training within 48 hours of notice, as the said workshop was originally planned at NIVH, Chennai. Due to last minute widrawal of NIVH, Raghu and Shankar excepted the challenge of hosting the training.

The 15 participants mainly comprised of computer teachers and students pursuing higher studies. The Tamil reading and writing training was conducted by E. Sakthivel and S. Pandiyaraj.

The follow up 15 day training for Tamil will be conducted at Coimbatore and it will be conducted by the above mentioned trainers. The 15 day event will be planned by Shankar and Raghuraman.

The participants of the workshop were also shown the assistive devices and made aware about the ADIP scheme. KVTC has now started registering persons with Blindness for the ADIP scheme and shall send in their data to Saksham Delhi.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/report-on-training-in-basic-computing-with-use-of-nvda-e-speak-in-tamil

Report on Training in Basic Computing with use of NVDA and eSpeak in Hindi

nirmita — 2015-06-04T01:58:34Z

The training programme was held on February 5 and 6, 2015 at National Association for the Blind in R.K. Puram, New Delhi. Fifteen delegates attended.

The training at NAB at Delhi had representations from organizations serving the blind from all across Delhi. Those who took part were either Heads of IT Department or computer instructors. The aim of inviting the IT heads and computer instructors was to promote the use of NVDA in their training programmes and also facilitate the reading and writing in Hindi.

The workshop at the Blind Relief Association was mainly attended by Special Educators for the Blind. The aim of promoting use of NVDA and knowledge of reading and writing in Hindi using eSpeak amongst these special educators was that these special educators would be working closely with the blind community. If the special educators are sensitized, the use of regional languages can be maximized.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/report-on-training-in-basic-computing-with-use-of-nvda-espeak-hindi

Report on eSpeak Tamil Computing with NVDA Training Workshop

nirmita — 2015-06-04T13:44:25Z

The training programme was held from May 25 to 29, 2015 at Differently Abled Children Section, District Central Library, Coimbatore. Twenty-one delegates attended.

Inauguration

The eSpeak Tamil Computing with NVDA Training workshop planned for 5 days (25^th May 2015 to 29^th May 2015) extensively for visually challenged school, college students and teachers was inaugurated on 25^th May 2015 morning by Mr. J. Karthikeyan. District Library Officer, Coimbatore. Mr. S. Shankar Subbiah, Assistive Technology Consultant and representative of National Association for Blind, New Delhi and The Centre for Internet & Society, Bangalore, the sponsors of the workshop gave the Welcome talk. He also explained the purpose of the Workshop with the need for Tamil computing becoming necessity among the visually challenged in the present educational and employment context. It is most required with the Government distributing Cost Free Laptops preloaded with NVDA and the equipment and technology cost becoming Nil. The Librarian of the District Central Library gave the Vote of thanks, thanking the sponsors, the District Library Officer for the opportunity to train visually challenged members of the Library on Tamil with NVDA, and placed a request to include the staff of the Children's section as they would be able to train the school going Children further.

The well-equipped and accessible section of the District Central Library, Coimbatore served as the venue for training. In order to facilitate the participants with more concentrated and time efforts, High Tea and Lunch were also served for the Training days at the Centre. There were volunteers to assist the Trainees and they served enthusiastically. Many of the students used their Laptops and those who did not have a laptop were given access through the computers available in the section. The participant trainees numbering to 21 including the section staff were from Coimbatore district and nearby districts like Tiruppur, and Erode of Tamilnadu state.

The workshop began with Resource persons, Mr. S. Shankar Subbiah and Mr. R. Jaganathan, a low vision employee of the Library and a resource export continuing with the training activities on their expertise areas.

Activities conducted during the training period:

Day 1 - 25/05/2015

Forenoon

The whole group of Trainees were installed or updated with the latest versions of NVDA

A general overview on Operating System, Applications available in Windows, various File formats, Screen Readers and other Assistive Technology like OCR, Scan and Read applications available for Visually Challenged were dealt with

The session was conducted in an interactive manner to understand and assess the computer skills of the participant trainees.

Afternoon

The major and sub menus of NVDA were explained to the trainees after few of them were new to that.

The Trainees were given hands on training by making them to change the settings, configurations by themselves and checking out the changes.

The trainees were given comprehensive passages to be read in NVDA to get accustomed to the voice modulation and asked questions based on it

Day 2 - 26/05/2015

Forenoon

Tamil keyboard layout mapping of Microsoft Windows for default Unicode Tamil Font typing were introduced to the trainees by the Resource person.

The whole group of Trainees were trained to identify the keys for vowels and consonants of Tamil language, type and practice by themselves with the volunteers supporting them, when they had difficulties.

Afternoon

The Trainees were trained to identify the keys for combinations of vowels and combinations with two letter, three letter, four letter word units given for typing and practicing by themselves as they picked up faster.

A play and learn session was organized to spell out connected words for typing practice.

To make the training workshop more live, the participants also were requested and exhibited their Tamil native talents and knowledge.

Day 3 - 27/05/2015

Forenoon

The Trainees were trained by giving large sets of five and bigger letter units of words to type and practice as a revision.

It was followed up by smaller phrases and then sentences to be typed by the Trainees.

The trainees at this point of time, introduced short cuts for navigation within the text, spell check, cut, copy, paste commands

Afternoon

The trainees were made to listen to the Tamil text paragraphs with the help of NVDA screen-reader supported by eSpeak voice

The trainees were suggested to type out the phrases listened on a separate document

Day 4 - 28/05/2015

Forenoon

The trainees were introduced to toggle language between English and Tamil for bilingual content typing and practice.

The trainees were trained on file operations like simple formatting, folder creation, saving the file in Unicode format to required folder and retrieval of the particular file. Similarly, for navigating, opening the file saved and continuing editing.

Afternoon

As a reinforcement on the learning process, a Quiz Programme was conducted to the Trainees on Microsoft Tamil layout and key strokes required for different Tamil words, phrases.

Introduction to HTML, various tags and formatting that can be done, Forms and fields, Email Clients and Browsers were given to the Trainees. Usage of Tamil in Internet, and the browsers supporting the Unicode formatted content and the NVDA development efforts to support Internet browsing was discussed.

The trainees were given HTML contents like Newspapers formatted to navigate and read for practice

The students were given downloaded online application Forms (as Internet was restricted to few computers in the library) and explained form navigation. They were assessed for their short cut using

Day 5 - 29/05/2015

Forenoon

Introduction on DAISY books and knowledge sharing on the available resources to read a DAISY book was done.

Demonstration on using Android based tablets and mobile phones to access the Tamil DAISY books given to the Trainees using Bookshare.org. The Trainees were also given information to subscribe for Bookshare membership and Book search and retrieval.

The trainees were also given information on different groups operating on Internet like Access India, Valluvan Paarvai online, the benefits and encouraged their participation for enriching their knowledge and practicing their language content writing, and development skills.

The Guest also had an interactive session assessing the participants Tamil computing skills by questions and also introduced them to one another Tamil keyboard Layout 'Anthaga Kavi' developed by visually challenged community. He recommended them to try that after practicing the present learned Microsoft layout for more easier typing experience.

The Valedictory Function

The eSpeak Tamil Computing with NVDA Training workshop conducted for 5 days (25^th May 2015 to 29^th May 2015) had a brief Valedictory function presided by Mr. G. Venkateshan, State Bank of India Zonal Office, Coimbatore and an experienced visually challenged person on Tamil computing who delivered the valedictory address and stressed on Tamil computing skills necessity for higher education and employment opportunities. The District Library Officer, Mr. J. Karthikeyan also felicitated the gathering and distributed the Certificates to the participants. Vote of thanks to CIS, NAB and the organizers was given by Mr. Muthu Venkatasubramanian, Co-ordinator for the Differently Abled Children section and a visually challenged participant. The training felt much useful and requested to extend in batches for more persons ended up with the National Anthem and Lunch served for all.

Feedback

Mr. Ashok, a student of Final year graduation felt how easy it was to learn Tamil typing and he is looking forward to eagerly participate in groups and though he had subscribed to Bookshare, he had not read Tamil books. But, now he is confident to download and read Tamil content.

Mr. S. Sabareesh, Student from Loyola College, Chennai felt that his vacation to his native town gave him a good learning experience on Tamil computing and various other concepts, shortcuts for efficiently using NVDA.

Mr. Jeeyawolhok, a Government School Teacher present felt that now it is necessity of visually challenged persons to work with Computers even in the field of Teaching profession and this Training gave him more confident as being a Tamil teacher.

Ms. Loganayaki, an English Literature student felt that she did not think Tamil typing was so easy before and now would read large volume of e-contents of Tamil novels available in the Library as well as practice her Tamil writing skills on Computer.

Mrs. Saraswathi, the mother of Mr. Shankar, 10^th Grade student and participant trainee gave a feedback that she was worried on how she had to read the whole Tamil books for her son. Reading it as e-content through NVDA and eSpeak voice becoming familiar to her son made her job easy. And, he could also practice and revise his lessons like any other child by typing the contents in Tamil as others do by writing. She thanked the organizers for the workshop and wanted one such run for school children with visual impairments from 8^th standard onwards conducted by school or at least in the Library regularly. This would help them in their higher standards and education for being more independent and not to depend on readers for their academic requirements.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/report-on-espeak-tamil-computing-with-nvda-training-workshop

Report on Training in Basic Computing for using eSpeak Hindi with NVDA

nirmita — 2015-06-08T02:28:25Z

The training was held at the Conference Hall and Computer Lab, Dr. Shakuntala Mishra National Rehabilitation University, Lucknow from January 20 to 22, 2015.

Guests who attended the inauguration

Dr. Nishith Rai (Vice Chancellor)
Dr. Akhilendra Kumar (Registrar of the University)
Dr. Avnish Chandra Mishra (HoD, Deptt of Special Education)
Dr. Adya Shakti Rai (Coordinator)
Dr. Vijay Shankar Sharma, Associate Professor
Sri Ashish Gupta

Number of participants: 50 students from various departments on the first day for the Bookshare and Training in Assistive devices and 20 during the eSpeak training.

The session on use of online libraries and use and demonstration of various assistive aids and appliances was done by Nirmal Verma from Perkins Products. This session was attended by the dignitaries, as it followed the inauguration.

Training in reading and writing using eSpeak Hindi was carried out on the 21st and 22nd of January. These sessions were attended by 20 students of the university. Most of the students were using JAWS as their primary screen reader till date. Hence NVDA was introduced in detail during the first session. All the participants were hand held in the installation and configuration of NVDA during this session.

The 2nd session on day 2 was dedicated to reading Hindi text using Espeak and NVDA. Most of the students were able to understand Espeak very easily, and were able to read and comprehend the given text.

The final day commenced with introduction of Hindi typing. The participants were guided for activating Hindi keyboard on their systems. This was followed by the introduction of the Hindi keyboard layout.

Important Achievements of the Training

A meeting was held with the Registrar and the HOD of Disability Cell of the University on the 2nd day of the training. The following points were agreed upon by the authorities during the meeting:

Formation of a dedicated Resource / Reading room for the Visually Challenged students of the University.
Permission was granted to the Visually Challenged students to utilize the main computer lab, till the establishment of the Resource room.
The University would allow the students to use Laptops for writing their own Exams in the future.
A 15 day training for new users of computers will be conducted in mid of March, after the semester exams are over.

The 2nd session was dedicated to typing in Hindi. The participants were able to type complex words by the end of the session. The training was concluded by solving queries of the participants and distribution of some softwares and participation certificates.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/report-on-training-using-espeak-hindi-with-nvda

May 2015 Bulletin

nirmita — 2015-07-29T14:29:08Z

Newsletter for the month of May can be accessed below.

Editor’s Note: After seven years of having used Inigo Tech headed by Khairil Yousuf for its email server, CIS shifted recently to Greenhost Projects, founded in 2001 by Mart van Santen and Sacha van Geffen. Greenhost offers a fresh approach to ICT and sustainability and also supports various projects in the fields of education, culture and journalism. While being grateful to Inigo Tech for providing secure services over the years, CIS takes this opportunity to welcome Greenhost on board. During this migration there was a total disruption of service and CIS couldn’t send its monthly bulletins earlier. CIS further apologises for the delay in the June newsletter which will also be sent shortly. From July onwards we will be back on track.

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Highlights
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G3ict and CIS jointly researched and published a report titled Inclusive Financial Services - Global Trends in Accessibility Requirements. The research paper comprises a Foreword and Introduction, four chapters — Barriers to Access for Persons with Disabilities and Diverse Abilities, International Framework, Integrating Accessibility into the System, and State of Practice - Impact of the Convention on Inclusive Finance and Accessibility Efforts around the Globe. Pina D’ Intino from Scotiabank and Mohan Tanksale of Indian Banks Association were also contributors to the report.
During the month NVDA team conducted training in basic computing with use of NVDA and eSpeak in Assamese and Tamil. NVDA team also conducted a 30 Days Summer Course on Basic Computer Competencies and Language Proficiency.

CIS has prepared an analysis of the commonalities in big-ticket patent infringement lawsuits pertaining to mobile devices.

The first public draft of the International Open Data Charter was released at the International Open Data Conference in Ottawa in May. CIS had contributed comments to a previous version of the draft, and also took part in the pre-release meeting of potential stewards of the Charter on May 26 in Ottawa.

The Fibreculture Journal has accepted an abstract from Sumandro Chattapadhyay for its upcoming issue on 'Computing the City.' The paper titled Mathematisation of the Urban and not Urbanisation of Mathematics: Smart Cities and the Primitive Accumulation of Data proposes that production, circulation, and ownership of data must be considered as a central problematique in the discussions of smart cities.

An abstract for a proposed chapter on 'making' in the humanities has been accepted for publication in a volume titled 'Making Humanities Matter'. This is part of a new book series titled 'Debates in the Digital Humanities 2015' to be published by University of Minnesota Press.
Chinmayi Arun has authored a research paper titled Paper-thin Safeguards and Mass Surveillance in India that tells readers of Indian government’s new mass surveillance systems and the threats it has on right to privacy.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), in March 2015 invited comments on its Consultation Paper for the regulation of over-the-top (OTT) services. In an unprecedented wave of public participation, TRAI received over a million e-mails in support of net neutrality. CIS has prepared a note which sets out the law in relation to the unauthorized disclosure of personal information.

Shyam Ponappa’s op-ed titled Stranded Capacities and Greater Expectations in the Business Standard on May 6 highlights India’s infrastructure problems.

► Vacancies at CIS

CIS is seeking applications for:

Intern (Pervasive Technologies Project)

Interns (Other Projects) for its offices in Bangalore and Delhi.

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Accessibility and Inclusion
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Under a grant from the Hans Foundation we are doing two projects. The first project is on creating a national resource kit of state-wise laws, policies and programmes on issues relating to persons with disabilities in India. CIS in partnership with CLPR (Centre for Law and Policy Research) compiled the National Compendium of Policies, Programmes and Schemes for Persons with Disabilities (29 states and 6 union territories). The project was completed, books in English and Hindi were printed and are being sent to ministries, departments, panchayats and NGOs around the country. The publication can be accessed on the project page. The second project is on developing text-to-speech software for 15 Indian languages. The progress made so far in the project can be accessed here.

►NVDA and eSpeak

Monthly Updates

May 2015 Report (Suman Dogra; April 30, 2015).

Training Programmes

eSpeak Tamil Computing with NVDA (Centre for Differently-abled Persons, Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirappalli; May 4 – 8, 2015). Seventeen delegates attended.

Training in Basic Computing with use of NVDA and eSpeak in Assamese (Monfort School, Guwahati; May 9 – 10, 2015). Eleven delegates attended.

Training in the Use of eSpeak for Indian Languages during TOT (Organized by Enable India; May 11 – 20, 2015; Blind Empowerment Association, Kolkata). Twenty-six delegates attended.

Tamil Language (Differently Abled Children Section, District Central Library, Coimbatore; May 25 – 29, 2015). Twenty-one delegates attended.

Training on the Use of eSpeak Hindi on Windows and Android Platforms (Indian Association for the Blind, Delhi; May 28, 2015).

Report on 30 Days Summer Course on Basic Computer Competencies and Language Proficiency (Karna Vidya Technology Centre, Thiru-Vi-Ka, Industrial Estate, Chennai, May 1 – 30, 2015). Twenty delegates attended.

# Blog Entry

Report on the Progress in Manipuri Language Testing (May 10, 2015). This blog post captures the key updates of the work done by CIS team for Manipuri language.

►Other

White Paper

Inclusive Financial Services - Global Trends in Accessibility Requirements (Nirmita Narasimhan; May 3, 2015).

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Access to Knowledge
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As part of the Access to Knowledge programme we are doing two projects. The first one (Pervasive Technologies) under a grant from the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) is for research on the complex interplay between pervasive technologies and intellectual property to support intellectual property norms that encourage the proliferation and development of such technologies as a social good. The second one (Wikipedia) under a grant from the Wikimedia Foundation is for the growth of Indic language communities and projects by designing community collaborations and partnerships that recruit and cultivate new editors and explore innovative approaches to building projects.

Blog Entries

Literature Survey: Patent Landscaping in the Indian Marketplace (Rohini Lakshané; December 31, 2014). This post has been updated.
2015 USTR Report: Old Wine in New Bottle (Anubha Sinha; May 11, 2015).
Call for Participation: Global Congress on Intellectual Property and the Public Interest (Anubha Sinha; May 14, 2015).
National IPR Policy Series: Who is a 'public authority' under the RTI Act? (Nehaa Chaudhari and Devrupa Rakshit; May 21, 2015).
Report: Global Intellectual Property Convention 2015 (Rohini Lakshané; May 22, 2015). Anna Liz Thomas and Nayana Dasgupta assisted with the making of this report.
National IPR Policy Series - CIS Letter to IPR Think Tank (Nehaa Chaudhari; May 26, 2015). CIS acknowledges Varun Baliga and Devrupa Rakshit for their research.
Joining the Dots in India's Big-Ticket Mobile Phone Patent Litigation (Rohini Lakshané; May 31, 2015).

Media Coverage
CIS gave inputs for the following:

One reason startups are moving out of India (Evelyn Fok and Varun Aggarwal; The Times of India; April 10, 2015). This was also mirrored in Economic Times.
Indian businesses crave IP certainty, but better patent values are tempting them overseas (IAM Magazine; April 28, 2015).

►Wikipedia

As part of the project grant from the Wikimedia Foundation we have reached out to more than 3500 people across India by organizing more than 100 outreach events and catalysed the release of encyclopaedic and other content under the Creative Commons (CC-BY-3.0) license in four Indian languages (21 books in Telugu, 13 in Odia, 4 volumes of encyclopaedia in Konkani and 6 volumes in Kannada, and 1 book on Odia language history in English).

Articles

Odia Wikipedia Set to Celebrate 13 Years of Volunteer Contributions (Subhashish Panigrahi; May 13, 2015).
ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିପିଡିଆ: ନୂତନ ଯୁଗର ଆରମ୍ଭ (Subhashish Panigrahi; May 31, 2015).
Odia Language Wikipedia Page Grows to 800K Page Views A Month (Subhashish Panigrahi; Opensource.com; May 31, 2015).

►Openness

Blog Entry

International Open Data Charter: First Public Draft (Sumandro Chattapadhyay; May 29, 2015).

Participation in Events

Open Street Map "Mapping Workshop" (Organized by Phandeeyar; Yangon; May 13, 2015). Sumandro Chattapadhyay conducted a workshop. Twenty delegates attended.
What is the Open Data Movement & Why Does it Matter? (Organized by Phandeeyar; Yangon; May 13, 2015). Twenty-five delegates attended. Sumandro Chattapadhyay gave a talk.

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Internet Governance
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As part of its research on privacy and free speech, CIS is engaged with two different projects. The first one (under a grant from Privacy International and International Development Research Centre (IDRC)) is on surveillance and freedom of expression (SAFEGUARDS). The second one (under a grant from MacArthur Foundation) is on studying the restrictions placed on freedom of expression online by the Indian government.

►Privacy

Blog Entry

Paper-thin Safeguards and Mass Surveillance in India (Chinmayi Arun; May 20, 2015).

► Other

Participation in Events

The Transformative Power of Online Activism (Organized by Hertie School of Governance; Berlin; May 4, 2015). Rohini Lakshané was a panelist. The event was part of the re:thinking tomorrow series.
Consilience (Organized by National Law School of India University, Bangalore; May 9 – 10, 2015).

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News & Media Coverage
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CIS gave its inputs to the following media coverage:

Definition of Net Neutrality should be flexible: Pranesh Prakash (Sanjay Vijaykumar; The Hindu; May 10, 2015).
Anti-harassment app wins hackathon for women (Sci Dev Net; May 15, 2015).
Indian music streaming service Gaana hacked, millions of users’ details exposed (Abhimanyu Ghoshal; TNW News; May 28, 2015).
Your phone is a surveillance device, your ISP a surveillance provider…: Pranesh Prakash (Dyanne Coelho; mxmindia.com; May 27, 2015).
Digital India: PM Modi to launch BJP's flagship programme likely in July (Jochelle Mendonca and Neha Alawadhi; Economic Times; May 29, 2015).
Digital India launch likely in July (Jochelle Mendonca and Neha Alawadhi; The Times of India; May 29, 2015).
Only digital sex, please (Prasun Chandhuri and Avijit Chatterjee; The Telegraph; May 31, 2015).

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Researchers at Work
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The Researchers at Work (RAW) programme is an interdisciplinary research initiative driven by contemporary concerns to understand the reconfigurations of social practices and structures through the Internet and digital media technologies, and vice versa. It is interested in producing local and contextual accounts of interactions, negotiations, and resolutions between the Internet, and socio-material and geo-political processes:

Blog Entries

Making in the Humanities – Some Questions and Conflicts (P.P. Sneha; May 22, 2015).
Mathematisation of the Urban and not Urbanisation of Mathematics: Smart Cities and the Primitive Accumulation of Data - Accepted Abstract (Sumandro Chattapadhyay; May 25, 2015).

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Telecom
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CIS is involved in promoting access and accessibility to telecommunications services and resources and has provided inputs to ongoing policy discussions and consultation papers published by TRAI. It has prepared reports on unlicensed spectrum and accessibility of mobile phones for persons with disabilities and also had worked with the USOF to include funding projects for persons with disabilities in its mandate:

Comments

TRAI and the Disclosure of Personal Information (Nehaa Chaudhari and Vidushi Marda; May 10, 2015).

Op-ed

Stranded Capacities & Greater Expectations (Shyam Ponappa; Business Standard; May 6, 2015 and Organizing India Blogspot; May 8, 2015).

Participation in Event

5G Technologies Workshop (Organized by IEEE Communications Society Bangalore Chapter; The Capitol Hotel, Bangalore; May 22 – 23, 2015). Rohini Lakshané attended the workshop.

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About CIS
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The Centre for Internet and Society is a non-profit research organization that works on policy issues relating to freedom of expression, privacy, accessibility for persons with disabilities, access to knowledge and IPR reform, and openness (including open government, FOSS, open standards, etc.), and engages in academic research on digital natives and digital humanities.

► Follow us elsewhere

Twitter: https://twitter.com/CISA2K

Visit us at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/India_Access_To_Knowledge

E-mail: a2k@cis-india.org

► Support Us

Please help us defend consumer / citizen rights on the Internet! Write a cheque in favour of ‘The Centre for Internet and Society’ and mail it to us at No. 194, 2nd ‘C’ Cross, Domlur, 2nd Stage, Bengaluru – 5600 71.

► Request for Collaboration:

We invite researchers, practitioners, and theoreticians, both organisationally and as individuals, to collaboratively engage with Internet and society and improve our understanding of this new field. To discuss the research collaborations, write to Sunil Abraham, Executive Director, at sunil@cis-india.org. To discuss collaborations on Indic language Wikipedia, write to Tanveer Hasan, Programme Officer, at tanveer@cis-india.org.

CIS is grateful to its primary donor the Kusuma Trust founded by Anurag Dikshit and Soma Pujari, philanthropists of Indian origin for its core funding and support for most of its projects. CIS is also grateful to its other donors, Wikimedia Foundation, Ford Foundation, Privacy International, UK, The Hans Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, and IDRC for funding its various projects.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/may-2015-bulletin

Report on eSpeak Tamil Computing with NVDA Training Workshop in Tirunelveli

nirmita — 2015-07-12T07:50:27Z

The training workshop by the NVDA team was held at Anne Jane Askwith Higher Secondary School for the Visually Impaired, Palayamkottai, Tirunelveli from June 3 - 7, 2015. Sixteen delegates attended the workshop.

Inauguration

The eSpeak Tamil Computing with NVDA Training workshop planned for 5 days (3^rd June 2015 to 7^th June 2015) extensively for visually challenged college students and teachers was inaugurated on 3^rd June 2015 morning by Mr. V. Jayakumar. District Project Officer for Rural Women Development, Tirunelveli. Mr. J Kingston James Paul, Principal of the School gave the Welcome Address. Mr. S. Shankar Subbiah, Assistive Technology Consultant and representative of National Association for Blind, New Delhi and The Centre for Internet & Society, Bangalore, the sponsors of the workshop explained the purpose of the Workshop with the need for Tamil computing becoming necessity among the visually challenged in the present educational and employment context. Mr. Periadurai, the Co-ordinator of the Workshop gave the Vote of Thanks and emphasized on using NVDA in Government given Cost Free Laptops as it is preloaded and supports Tamil language too. He thanked the sponsors as this is first of its kind organized in this region for the visually challenged students as hands on training.

The Training Hall in the School served as the venue for training. In order to facilitate the participants with more concentrated and time efforts, High Tea with Snacks and Lunch were also served for the Training days at the Venue. The Girl students numbering 10 who came from neighboring Districts were given free accommodation in the School. Morning breakfast and Evening Dinner was provided by the Organizers. There were volunteers from Smile Charitable Trust, Tirunelveli who gave Laptops to those students did not have and also assisted the Trainees, who were new to computer. The participant trainees numbering to 16 were from Tirunelveli district and nearby districts like Kanyakumari, Tuticorin, Virudhunagar and Ramanathapuram of Tamilnadu state.

Workshop Schedule

The workshop began with Resource persons, Mr. Pandiyaraj, Mr. G. Kumaresan and Mr. S Shankar Subbiah continuing with the training activities on their expertise areas. The below were the activities conducted during the training period.

Day 1: June 3, 2015

Forenoon

The whole group of Trainees had few who were new to computers, few with knowledge on operating until the level of Notepad and few in an advanced level working on MS Word and Internet.
A general overview on Operating System, Applications available in Windows, Screen readers and other Assistive Technology like OCR, Scan and Read applications available for Visually Challenged were dealt with.
NVDA was loaded in Laptops who did not have them installed previously and Tamil language keyboard settings was added.

Afternoon

The group was divided in to three groups. First without prior knowledge on computers were given training on Keyboard mapping and basic computer operation commands through NVDA.
The second group was given practices on NVDA shortcuts, Windows operations and an introduction to Word.
The third group was given exercises to work efficiently on using MS Word through Shortcuts and Tamil computing introduction through passages to read.

Day 2: June 4, 2015

Forenoon

Tamil keyboard layout mapping of Microsoft Windows for default Unicode Tamil Font typing were introduced to all the trainees by the Resource person and it was decided to use Notepad for uniform training.
The whole group of Trainees were trained to identify the keys for vowels and consonants of Tamil language, type and practice by themselves with the volunteers supporting them, when they had difficulties.

Afternoon

The Trainees were trained to identify the keys for combinations of vowels for typing and practicing by themselves as few of them wanted more time. Combinations with two letter, three letter, four letter word units given as dictation to those who were bit advanced in their typing skills.
A play and learn session was organized to say the keystrokes for vowels and consonants at the end for memorizing.

Day 3: June 5, 2015

Forenoon

The Trainees were trained by giving large sets of four, five and bigger letter units of words to type and practice as a revision.
It was followed up by smaller phrases and then sentences to be typed by the Trainees.
The trainees at this point of time, were introduced with short cuts for navigation within the text, spell check, cut, copy, paste commands. Almost everyone were in the same page at this point of time, regarding Tamil typing skills. And, now they were allowed to use Notepad or MS Word, whichever is comfortable for them.

Afternoon

The trainees were made to listen to the Tamil text paragraphs with the help of NVDA screen-reader supported by eSpeak voice.
The trainees were suggested to type out the phrases listened on a separate document.
The settings of NVDA to change Voice, rate and other settings were given for practice to do themselves as a revision.

Day 4: June 6, 2015

Forenoon

The trainees were introduced to toggle language between English and Tamil for bilingual content typing and practice.
Next training on file operations like simple formatting, folder creation, saving the file in Unicode format to required folder and retrieval of the particular file. Similarly, for navigating, opening the file saved and continuing editing.
The Trainees were given a home work to listen a Tamil content, type and save it as a separate file.

Afternoon

Introduction to HTML, various tags and formatting that can be done, Forms and fields, Email Clients and Browsers were given to the Trainees. Usage of Tamil in Internet, and the browsers supporting the Unicode formatted content and the NVDA development efforts to support Internet browsing was discussed.
Introduction on DAISY books and knowledge sharing on the available resources to read a DAISY book was done.
Demonstration on using Android based tablets and mobile phones to access the Tamil DAISY books given to the Trainees using Bookshare.org. The Trainees were also given information to subscribe for Bookshare membership and Book search and retrieval.

Day 5: June 7, 2015

Forenoon

The trainees were given information on Higher Education options available as well as career opportunities ahead in Government and Private Sector. The trainees were explained of various scholarship and assistive devices schemes as they had a request have a session on this.
This was followed up with a game based assessment for their Computer skills and Tamil computing knowledge imparted through training. It was a two hour session, with initial 45 minutes being spent as a chain to say the right keystrokes for letters, keystrokes for different words and make a sentence using the keystrokes for Tamil alone. The next 45 minutes concentrated on their bilingual word processing skills, shortcuts, file operations, formatting through interactive questions, and group quiz. These the students felt like a revision and practiced them on their Laptops too.

The Valedictory Function

After the Lunch, The eSpeak Tamil Computing with NVDA Training workshop conducted for 5 days (3^rd June 2015 to 7^th June 2015) had a great Valedictory function presided by Mr. T. Manoharan, District Officer for Welfare of Differently Abled, Tirunelveli. The District Officer, also felicitated the gathering and distributed the Certificates to the participants. Few students demonstrated their Tamil computing skills to the District Officer by operating on Laptop. He was happy to note that and informed the Trainees he would discuss with the higher authorities to organize more such Workshops during the holidays or after Laptop being distributed. He thanked the organizers for choosing Tirunelveli and invited the local TV media reporter immediately to make a record of it. This would be shared in his sensitization programme for Government officials to create awareness on potential capabilities of the Visually Impaired if training opportunities were given particularly in computers. The certificates were distributed to the Trainees thereafter. The Principal of the School, Mr. Kingston also gave a felicitation talk on how the training have to be further continued through practice. He thanked the sponsors and organizers for a timely measure to use the Summer holidays much useful for the Trainees by learning Tamil computing. Vote of thanks to CIS, NAB and the organizers was given by Mr. Periadurai, the Co-ordinator. The training that one such programme to be conducted in Tirunelveli as per the District Officer felt much useful and requested to extend in coming Holidays ended up with the National Anthem.

Previously, the Tamil equivalent ‘Dinamani’ of The New Indian Express covered with a one fourth page content of the Training programme interacting with the students and the coordinator. A scanned copy of this news is attached herewith.

Feedback

Ms. Gnanam, a Tamil Teacher felt it would be now easy to type her lesson plans in Tamil and she could read more e-text novels available in Tamil. Also, do emails in Tamil. She thanked the Organizers for a good stay in their old school and a useful training with her friends coming together.

Ms. Keerthika, a graduate who exhibited her typing talent to the Officer was happy and felt that this day was a markable in Life for her. The five days training introduced her to many shortcuts not known to her and also gave her more confidence now for using computers in her higher studies and career.

The mother of Ms. Anna Sundari, felt that it was a great opportunity for all the trainees as they were able to spend their time much useful. And, as mother is happy to see her Girl typing in Tamil all their names. She thanked the organizers for the workshop in a nearby district and wanted one such run regularly in the school. This would help the students in their education, reduce dependency on scribes, readers and work independently.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/report-on-training-using-espeak-tamil-with-nvda-training-tirunelveli

Report on training workshop at NAB Delhi R K Puram

nirmita — 2015-07-20T14:53:03Z

The workshop was held at the National Association for the Blind, Sector 5 R. K. Puram, New Delhi on December 17, 2014. The objective of the workshop was to help the staff members understand NVDA and its functioning with the Indian languages so that they efficiently attend to the queries of the visitors and the callers at helpdesk.

Five staff members lead by Mr. Ajay Sharma, Project Manager of the technical unit at NAB R.K Puram Delhi had attended aa training workshop. Concepts related to the NVDA were discussed in the workshop. It was an interactive workshop. Ms. Suman Dogra had conducted the workshop. The staff members had certain doubts with NVDA, that were cleared. Some new information was imparted to the staff members. The helpdesk was made to understand the functioning of the language section of NVDA. This will help callers to configure their native language on their machines.

Some tips were given to the staff members on imparting training in NVDA in coming training modules at NAB. Object navigation was explained to the computer instructors. The team at NAB is informed that they can inform about any of the problem in NVDA to the Indian development team.

The following individuals attended the workshop:

Ms. Bharti
Mr. Yogesh Chhabra
Mr. Rajesh
Mr. Rajneesh
Mr. Ajay Sharma

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/report-on-training-workshop-at-nab-delhi-rk-puram

Report on Training in the Use of eSpeak Gujarati with NVDA

nirmita — 2015-07-20T14:30:24Z

The training was imparted at Blind Peoples Association, Vastrapur, Ahmedabad on November 17 and 18, 2014. Thirteen delegates underwent the training. R.P.Soni was the local coordinator.

The participants were teachers for the blind, teaching various subjects like Computers, History, Languages, etc., representing 5 organizations.

Training Objectives

To identify at least two individuals who are conversant with typing in the local language and are also screen reader users; for conducting this training under supervision and then conduct similar trainings across the State of Gujarat.
To train the teachers of the blind in the use of reading and writing in the local language, with the help of eSpeak and NVDA.
To create awareness about the aids and appliances available for Persons with Blindness.
To share information about different resources for gaining knowledge.

Need for Training

The participants expressed the following reasons for attending the training:

Wanting to compose their own question papers for the subjects that they taught.
To read the newspapers in the local language for updating themselves in about current affairs.
To be able to write letters and communicate with the State machinery in the local language.
To scan and read material in local language.

Training Sessions

The following sessions were conducted during the 2 days of training:

Introduction of Participants.
Introduction of CIS and DFI.
Introduction to NVDA and Espeak.
Advantages of NVDA.
The Regional Language development programme in local language’s supported by CIS.
Gujarati Commprehension using Espeak
Interaction over phone with Mr. Praful Vyas [Tester for Gujarati Espeak]
How to configure NVDA, Language options in Windows, Selection of Keyboards etc.
Typping using Phonetic keyboard.
Typing using Traditional Keyboard.
Hands on demonstration of Aids and Appliances such as Smart Cane, Plextalk Vachak, HV Pro, Sonic Labeller, Liquid Level Indicator, Nexus 7 Tablet, Android phone, etc.
Information about the ADIP scheme and how to obtain the above mentioned devices.
Information about Bookshare and other sources of resource materials.

Future Trainers

The 2 individuals who were identified during the training as future trainers were:

Gignesh Pokar.
Mahendra Chudasma.

The following feedback was received from the participants on completion of the 2 day training:

Training was found to be very helpful.
The training met their expectations.
They were satisfied with the training content and style.
The inclusion of hands on demonstration of Aids and Appliances was appreciated.
They did not have complete information about the ADIP scheme and the participants found it to be useful.
The duration of the training was found to be adequate.
Only 2 of the participants were Bookshare members. The rest have shown a desire to join and 4 have already submitted their applications.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/report-on-training-in-e-speak-gujarati-with-nvda

Report on 15 days Training in Basic Computing at RNKS

nirmita — 2015-07-21T15:16:55Z

The NVDA team organized a 15 days training in basic computing at Rajasthan Natrahin Kalyan Sansthan (RNKS) in Jaipur. The training programme held from June 1 - 15, 2015 was attended by 12 delegates. Mrityunjay Kumar was the trainer. The basic training for computers was targeted for school going children of RNKS.

The aim was to enable them to at least start using a computer as a Tool for Reading and Writing in Hindi. Along with knowledge of Basic computer Operations, the participants were also taught about the use of Bookshare Online Library, Use of Android and other Assistive Devices.

Report from Master Trainer: Mritunjay Kumar

Day 1: We have learnt Keyboard orientation and Introduction to computer, like what is a computer, where do you use a computer and advantages of computer.
Day 2: We have learnt Typing and introduction of screen reader, what screen reader is and how many types of screen reader. Also discussed about input and output devices.
Day 3: We have played small game about typing, how do we use fingers do typing? Also explained desktop and taskbar concept.
Day 4: We have learnt about software and types of software, There are three types of software, also explained menu, what is menu? What types of menu?
Day 5: We have learnt Opening closing and saving the document, editing concept have also been discussed.
Day 6: We have learnt how to cutting, copying and pasting the text in documents. Also we discussed Hindi alphabet.
Day 8: We have done Hindi typing and we have written small story in Hindi language.
Day 9: We have learnt File folder management and explain concept of dialog box, what is dialog box, types of dialog box.
Day 10: We learnt find and replace feature using Microsoft word document. Also explained how to create table in Microsoft Word.
Day 11: We have learnt spelling tool.
Day 12: We have discussed brief history of internet, and how will be do Google search. Also we learnt how to open website using NVDA
Day 13: We discussed about book share website, then we have learnt how to open book share website, and how to download books. Also we explain about android.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/report-on-15-days-training-in-basic-computing-at-rnks

Report on Kannada eSpeak Training with NVDA

nirmita — 2015-07-22T02:14:39Z

NVDA team conducted a two day training programme at Mitra Jyothi in Bangalore (June 8 and 9, 2015). Forty-three delegates attended the training programme.

This workshop was successful in training 43 members in reading and typing in Kannada . It was a “Dream Come True “ feeling for many of them who were waiting to express their thoughts in the regional language. They are now happy as they can continue to write poems , stories etc in their regional language without any external help to type or read.

For the job seekers it is an added advantage as in many government jobs they expect them to make reports and type documents in the official language and visually impaired are now equipped with those skills. It is very important for promotional examinations at various levels during the career. It was indeed a very useful workshop for the visually impaired students and professionals in Karnataka. This training also included some telugu and hindi speaking students who were trained to read and write in their regional language.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/report-on-kannada-espeak-training-with-nvda

Comments on the draft Policy on IT Accessibility for People with Disabilities

nirmita — 2017-05-19T15:33:41Z

The Centre for Internet & Society gave inputs on a document on implementing digital accessibility to Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology on May 2, 2017.

We welcome the initiative of the MEITY to formulate a policy/ set of guidelines to implement electronic accessibility for persons with disabilities within the government and provide our comments to the draft document below:

Accessibility of the document:

The present document is not completely accessible. The first two Annexures cannot be read at all using a screen reader and there is also scope for improving accessibility in the rest of the document. Given the government’s policy requiring electronic accessibility and the nature of this document itself, this error may be rectified immediately. A good resource for creating accessible electronic documents is available at https://help.rnib.org.uk/help/daily-living/technology/accessible-documents

Title and content presentation:

The present title reads- ‘Policy for IT Accessibility for people with disabilities”. This may be rephrased to - Policy for Implementing IT accessibility for persons with disabilities so that its purpose is clear and differentiated from the National Policy on Universal Electronics Accessibility. The policy may be broadly divided into four main aspects- Content and communication, technology, training and procurement, since these are the four areas where specific interventions are required and have different needs and associated standards.

Preliminary sections:

The policy would benefit from clearly articulated vision, objectives, scope, applicability and statement.

Content and communication:

All communication, including documents and publications, whether print or electronic, should be universally accessible. This could include documents, mails, invoices, leaflets etc. We recommend use of Unicode, EPUB 3, EPUB 3 Accessibility Guidelines and WCAG 2.0 (level AA) as the standards to be followed while creating and publishing electronic documents and information. The need to use Unicode for regional languages is especially emphasised, as also the need to provide alternatives in case of scanned notifications and documents. We would also like to stress the need to use alternate modes of communication for transactions such as Alternative mode of authentication other than visual captcha (IE: One time password (OTP), logical reasoning (2+2) etc.)

Accessibility of technologies:

ICT accessibility interventions for different disabilities- This section should be circulated to experts of different disabilities to get their inputs. Attention may be given to also providing technology options such as the screen reader NVDA which are open source, efficient and work with indian languages. Overall, it is recommended that this section, recognises that persons with disabilities be provided with suitable assistive technologies and accessible technologies to enable them to work efficiently. The illustrative list of disabilitywise technologies may be provided as annexures to the policy/ guidelines and not be part of the main document.

Click to read the full submission here; and see the Policy and Guidelines here

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/comments-on-the-draft-policy-on-it-accessibility-for-people-with-disabilities

Universal Service for Persons with Disabilities: A Global Survey of Policy Interventions and Good Practices

nirmita — 2012-10-08T05:43:46Z

The Global Initiative for Inclusive Information and Communication Technologies and the Centre for Internet and Societies in cooperation with the Hans Foundation have published the Universal Service for Persons with Disabilities: A Global Survey of Policy Interventions and Good Practices. The book consists of a Foreword by Axel Leblois, an Introduction and four chapters. Deepti Bharthur, Axel Leblois and Nirmita Narasimhan have contributed to the chapters.

Foreword

Universal Service definitions have been developed by 125 countries and are the foundation for policies and programs ensuring that telecommunications are available to all categories of population. Universal service funds are the main vehicle used to fund those programs, primarily addressing imbalances such as lack of availability of services in rural areas. While geographic coverage has vastly improved over the past decade with wireless infrastructure, the scope of Universal Service has expanded to include other categories of underserved populations.

Among those, persons with disabilities and senior citizens, who represent 15% of the world population[1] are an increasing concern for legislators and regulators. Basic accessibility features for public telephone booths, fixed line or wireless handsets, customer services in alternate formats such as Braille, or assistive services such as relay services for hard of hearing or deaf persons are in fact not implemented in a majority countries.[2]

To address those issues, several countries have expanded the scope of their national definition of Universal Service Obligation to include persons with disabilities allowing programs promoting the accessibility of information and communication technologies to be covered by Universal Service Funds.

The adoption of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities by over 150 countries since March 31st, 2007 will likely accelerate this trend: States Parties have an obligation to ensure that Information and Communication Technologies and Services are made accessible to persons with disabilities. This can be done by aligning the definition of Universal Service Obligation with article 9 of the Convention and expanding the charter of Universal Service Funds to cover programs promoting accessibility for persons with disabilities. This report is the first attempt to document how Universal Service definitions and related policies and programs have been implemented by various countries to ensure that persons with disabilities have full access, on an equal basis with others,to telecommunication services.G3ict would like to express its sincere appreciation to the Center for Internet and Society for its support of this project, to Nirmita Narasimhan for researching and editing this report;to the International Telecommunication Union for providing references and helping identify countries to be surveyed, and to the Hans Foundation for funding the print version of the report. Promoting universal service for persons with disabilities can affect positively the lives of millions of users around the world. We hope that this report may serve as a useful reference for policy makers, operators, organizations of persons with disabilities, and as a framework for good practice sharing among countries currently implementing the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

Axel Leblois
Executive Director
G3ict – Global Initiative for Inclusive ICTs

Introduction

The advent of the Internet and accessible information and communication technologies (ICT) has opened up exciting possibilities and opportunities for persons with disabilities.The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (the ‘UNCRPD’)3 has explicitly recognized the right of persons with disabilities to seek, receive and impart information on an equal basis with others4 and has placed specific obligations on member states to ensure that all ICT based facilities and services (which include telecommunications services) must be made available and accessible to all. To this end, member states are required to formulate and implement appropriate laws and policies at national, regional and global levels. In an age where almost all spheres of life are inextricably woven with and dependent on ICT, Article 9 of the UNCRPD on Accessibility is possibly one of the most powerful and critical tools in the hands of policy makers to ensure that persons with disabilities are assured of basic human rights such as education, health, employment and access to information and participation.While the lack of awareness amongst governments is undeniably a serious impediment to implementing accessible ICT in any country, an equally serious and perhaps more realistic problem is the lack of resources which is plaguing many countries, especially developing nations. The fact that governments are already struggling to ensure basic human rights for all citizens by judiciously dividing their limited resources for the whole gamut of needs makes it difficult for them to outlay separate and substantial budgets which may be required for implementing ICT accessibility. In such a scenario it becomes very important to look around and identify sources of funding, new or existing, which can be leveraged by governments to fulfill their obligation towards making all ICT based applications and services accessible and promoting assistive technologies for persons with disabilities.

This report aims to highlight the extreme suitability of leveraging the Universal Service Fund (USF) to implement accessibility and assistive technologies in telecommunications. It examines the evolution of the concept of USF, its minimum mandate and scope, funding sources, as well as project implementation mechanisms and showcases countries which are using the USF to fund accessibility projects through policies and programmes.

[1].WHO Global Report on Disability, June 2011 - http://www.who.int/disabilities/world_report/2011/en/index.html

[2].CRPD Progress Report on ICT Accessibility – 2010 by G3ict - http://g3ict.org/resource_center/publications_and_reports

Click here for the Braille format
Download the Daisy version here
Download the book here PDF [302 KB]

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/universal-service-for-persons-with-disabilities

Right to Knowledge for Persons with Print Impairment: A Proposal to Amend the Indian Copyright Regime

praskrishna — 2009-12-04T10:18:45Z

This research paper details the need for an amendment of the present provisions of Copyright laws and help enable the print impaired gain access to published works. The paper was submitted to the Ministry of Human Resource and Development in November to appraise it of the needs of the print disabled community. The paper is up for public comments and we welcome your feedback for this ongoing campaign.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/accessibility/publications/uploads/Case%20for%20Amendment%20of%20Copyright%20Regime%20in%20India%20November%2022-%202009.pdf