Centre for Internet and Society

Talk on Justice and Difference

sachia — 2011-04-05T04:44:07Z

Centre for Internet & Society

& monster album OF feminist stories

invite you to

a public talk by

Dr. Shefali Moitra

Justice and Difference

Traditionally justice and impartiality are thought to be inseparable. In a pluralistic context there is a demand for making justice difference-sensitive. This may appear an attempt at squaring the circle. Many feminists think difference can be accommodated without compromising justice. The speaker will critically examine this thesis.

Day, Date & Time: Friday, 14^th November, 2008, 4:00 pm
Venue: Centre for Internet and Society

No. D2, 3rd Floor, Sheriff Chambers
14, Cunningham Road, Bangalore,
Karnataka 560052,
Phone: (+91)-080-4092-6283‎

About the Speaker: Dr. Shefali Moitra received her Ph.D. in Philosophy from Visva-Bharati, Santiniketan, and joined the Department of Philosophy at Jadavpur University in 1979. She has occupied various positions in the university during her time there, as Director of the School of Women's Studies, as Co-ordinator of the Centre for Psychological Counselling and Studies in Self-Development, and as involved teacher to many generations of students. Her research interests lie in the areas of Feminist Philosophy, Ethics and the Philosophy of Language. Her key publications have included Feminist Thought: Androcentrism, Communication and Objectivity (2002), Women, Heritage and Violence, (Ed.1996), and Communication, Identity and Self-Expression, (Ed. 1984).

Map: Google Maps

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/events/talk-on-justice-and-difference

Technology and the Mediation of Place

sachia — 2011-04-05T04:37:18Z

Talk by Emma Ota

When mediated space surrounds us and our sense of place is increasingly constructed through technology, how do we locate ourselves? Challenging notions of location and locality, Emma Ota will present an overview of two years of research into the mediation of place through technology and the developments of media art in Asia.

We carry many locations with us, virtual, physical, psychological and cultural locations which have a complex relation to each other; this presentation will consider the impact of new media upon the construction of these locations and how they interact with each other, as these technologies increasingly become part of the reality of our located experience, no longer separate apparatus, not merely a portal to elsewhere but part of our encounter of place.

When identity, community and culture are formulated upon mediated experiences we are led back to Benjamin’s discussion of the loss of aura, debating what meaning can still lie in the original; yet, arguably, such an original state has never existed, all phenomena encountered and assimilated through one form of mediation or another. But to be mediated is to transform and, as Heidegger has demonstrated, technology presents an enframing of its content, which may lead to new revealings but also a loss of that which lies beyond the frame. We have perhaps reached a stage where we can no longer comment upon mediated localities, but must turn to the localities of mediation.

These are just some of the critical debates which Ota has been investigating in her research. While pursuing theoretical research into this topic, Ota has also followed studies in Japan, Korea, China, Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore and Indonesia in an examination of new media art provision and development in East/South East Asia. Interviewing artists, curators, theorists etc. over the course of a year, a large body of documentation has been accumulated which will be presented as a small glimpse into the new media condition of the region.

Speaker

Emma Ota is a curator and researcher based in Tokyo, the Director of Dislocate, Project for Art, Technology and Locality, and a Researcher at Musashino Art University, Department of Visual Imaging and Sciences. Her practices focus upon media arts and international exchange. She has worked for the media arts organization Trampoline, based in Germany and the UK and co-curated the Radiator Festival for Art and Technology in 2005. She initiated the project Traversing Territories, fostering collaboration between students and young artists in Japan and the UK (which has since continued annually). In 2006 she established the project Dislocate for art, technology and locality which brings together international artists and experts in the discussion and debate of the role of new media in relation to our surrounding environment.

Ota is guest curator at Ginza Art Lab, an independent artist run space and was also co-curator of Space Rabi Adesso, Koenji in 2008. Ota is highly concerned with promoting international cross-cultural communication between children and is co-founder of Inter-play, an organization which runs collaborative workshops and projects between children in Japan and other countries around the world.

Other projects have included ‘The Moon’, a groundbreaking contemporary art exhibition of Japanese and UK artists held in the historic gardens of Kodaiji Temple, Kyoto, and ‘A Gift to Those who Contemplate the Wonders of Cities and the Marvels of Travelling’, an artist in residency exchange project with participant artists Erika Tan (UK) and Mio Shirai (Japan).

As a researcher Ota is investigating the development of media arts in Asia and its relation to specific social and cultural contexts, in particular ideas of place, these investigations have led her to China, Korea, India, Vietnam, Singapore, Thailand and Indonesia. For more information please see www.dis-locate.net and www.eonsbetween.net.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/events/technology-and-the-mediation-of-place

DigiActive Meetup

sachia — 2011-04-05T04:40:21Z

Chilling for Digital Activism--Meeting with Mary Joyce

Are you interested in using the Internet and mobile phones as part of a campaign for political and social change? Do you have a story to share about your own experience using these tools? CIS invites you to an informal interaction with Mary Joyce, co-founder of DigiActive.org, an organization dedicated to promoting digital activism around the world.

Mary Joyce is the co-founder of DigiActive.org, was also New Media Operations Manager for Barack Obama's presidential campaign, and has been a master's student at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and a Research Assistant for the Internet and Democracy Project at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society. Mary also works as a consultant in the field of technology and social change.

Time and Date

Thursday, 26 February, 2009; 4.00-5.30 pm

Venue

Centre for Internet and Society, No. D2, 3rd Floor, Sheriff Chambers, 14, Cunningham Road, Bangalore - 560052

Map

For a map, please click here.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/events/technology-for-activism

'The Dark Face of Google'

sachia — 2009-03-24T06:51:47Z

Talk by Patrice Riemens

The extraordinary rise of Google Inc. from a 'confidential' search site in the late nineties, the heydays of Altavista, to its present preminent status on the internet, has attracted a lot of attention. The admirers see Google as the incarnation of things to come, not only in information retrieval & management, and not even on the Internet only, but in the economy and society as a whole. The nay-sayers variously view Google as a flattening behemoth of digital information, or as a cultural war machine, bent on the Americanisation of the planet, and generally as a mendacious commercial monopoly pretending to 'do no evil' while hypocritically promoting open source, access, and life in general.

Outside this discussion stand an ever growing mass of millions of users who ask no questions, profess neither admiration or hatred (and if so, rather the former), but are happy to use the search engine and the many other services provided by Google. That they hereby gladly if unwittingly contribute to reinforcing the assets of Google, in the words of Yann Moulier Boutang, "the only company in the world that is able to make 14 million people work for it at any given moment, for free", is one of the many starkly under-lighted aspects of this Internet giant's operative mode.

'The Dark Face of Google' is the title of the book written two years ago by the Italian Ippolita Collective, which Patrice Riemens is currently translating. Ippolita's brief is neither eulogizing nor demonising Google, but to understand it, especially in its less advertised aspects. Their aim is to educate Google's users, not to wean them away from it, and to politicise the discussion about search, digital services, and the management of information and knowledge in general. Patrice Riemens will discuss a few points in this context.

* The ways in which Google determines, undermines, or enforces existing power and knowledge structures

* The Google Books Project and how it reinforces IPR tyranny

* Google's local policies and how they affect fundamental civil liberties

This talk, like Ippolita's book, is intended as a general, informed introduction to an issue that has been insufficiently discussed, due to media hype, and the apparent innocuousness of a readily available, extremely fast and effective, free, Internet service.

Speaker

Patrice Riemens is a social geographer by education and a private intellectual and internet activist by choice. He is a promoter of Open Knowledge and Free Software, and has been involved as a "FLOSSopher" (a 'philosopher' of the Free/Libre and Open Source Software movements) at the Asia Source and Africa Source camps, held to promote FLOSS among non-governmental organisations. He is a member of the Dutch hackers' group Hippies from hell.

He has formerly worked with De Waag Center for Old and New Media, an institute housed in an old castle in Amsterdam, on the cutting edge of technology, culture, education and industry. Patrice has also been on the staff of Multitudes, a French philosophical, political and artistic monthly journal founded in 2000 by Yann Moulier-Boutang.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/events/the-dark-face-of-google

The Internet and Illusions of Space and Liberty

sachia — 2011-04-05T04:40:05Z

Talk by Kiran Sahi

The Centre for Internet and Society invites you to a talk by Kiran Sahi on 'The Internet and Illusions of Space and Liberty'. Kiran will use this talk as an opportunity to look at the parallels that can be drawn between the spatial elements of the mind, corporal physical space, and the virtual domains of the internet. Reflecting on the roles of these parallel domains, we can discuss how dissident elements within society, traditionally found in geographical wildernesses, have found new opportunities for freedom in the realms of the internet. The talk will also explore the idea of the internet as a heterotopia, a safe space for displaced realities, and the pressures which make it adopt a panoptic structure.

Speaker

Kiran Sahi is is a designer and educator working from his home in a village north of Bangalore. His work involves presenting and interpreting the changing socio-political geography of his locality for teachers and students visiting from international academic institutions and education authorities. He also advises on local education development projects. Kiran works as a consultant design faculty, teaching materials and sculptural design, and runs a ceramic studio that produces large scale ceramic murals for public spaces. His previous work has involved exploring cultural narratives and their visual representations. He has been interested in exploring the possibilities of a collaborative community based business involving professional designers and local craftsmen.

Time and Date

Saturday, 7 March, 2009; 5.00-6.30 pm

Venue

Centre for Internet and Society, No. D2, 3rd Floor, Sheriff Chambers, 14, Cunningham Road, Bangalore - 560052

Map

For a map, please click here.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/events/the-internet-and-illusions-of-space-and-liberty

Using Social Media for Mobilisation

sachia — 2011-04-05T04:33:30Z

Panel discussion with Dina Mehta and Peter Griffin

For some time now, blogs, facebook and other forms of social media have been used extensively for rallying people around an issue or a cause. However, what makes some of these campaigns more successful than others? Does the workability of social media for mobilisation depend on the manner in which information is designed and/or disseminated?

This panel brings together two well-known names from the world of social media, Dina Mehta and Peter Griffin, to explore "meme engineering" and understand what makes some forms of use of social media more effective than others.

Speakers

Dina Mehta is a founder and Managing Director of Mosoci India. She has spent twenty years specializing in qualitative research and ethnography. She is at the forefront of technology trend research in India and works with a global portfolio of companies; including learning journeys, and immersions for innovation teams. She brings her unique perspective to understanding the emerging social aspects of new technology and the impact of new media on youth and mobility. Her work has led her to study the impact of technology in rural markets, follow trend-setting youth in urban settings, dig deep into motivations and possible triggers across a wide range of demographic and psychographic groups, explore and identify underlying value propositions and key drivers/barriers in several categories.

Peter Griffin is a well-known blogger and has been involved with a number of collaborative projects, including the South-East Asia Earthquake and Tsunami blog (also known as TsunamiHelp), MumbaiHelp, Think Bombay, and the WorldWideHelp group and its associated projects. All of these project have been concerned with bringing together the web and free tools on one hand, and concerned web natives and public goodwill on the other, to assist in disaster relief. Peter is also the co-founder, joint editor and co-moderator of the writing community, Caferati. He is currently associated with a national business magazine in the capacity of editor, special features.

Time and Date

Friday, 19 June, 2009; 6.30-8.00 pm

Venue

Centre for Internet and Society, No. D2, 3rd Floor, Sheriff Chambers, 14, Cunningham Road, Bangalore - 560052

Map

For a map, please click here.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/events/using-social-media-for-mobilisation

Wikipedia and Free Culture

sachia — 2011-10-21T08:31:01Z

Bangalore International Centre, in collaboration with the Centre for Internet and Society, hosts a discussion focusing on Wikipedia and free culture, with Jimmy Wales (Founder, Wikipedia) and Sue Gardner (Wikimedia Foundation)

Bangalore International Centre, in collaboration with the Centre for Internet and Society,

cordially invites you to an interactive discussion

Wikipedia and Free Culture

with

Jimmy "Jimbo" Wales

Founder, Wikipedia

and

Sue Gardner

Executive Director, Wikimedia Foundation

Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia, will deliver a presentation about the history, growth, and prominence of Wikipedia on the internet today. Since its inception in 2001, Wikipedia has risen quickly to become the largest information resource and free knowledge repository in history, now with over 11 million articles in over 250 unique language editions.

Sue Gardner, Executive Director of the Wikimedia Foundation, will speak on the origins of the Wikimedia Foundation, the San Francisco based non profit organisation that operates Wikimedia and other free knowledge projects.

Lawrence Liang, member, Alternative Law Forum, and author of A Guide to Open Content Licences, will steer the discussions.

Date and Time: Saturday, 13 December 2008, 6.00 pm-8.00 pm

Venue:

Bangalore International Centre Auditorium

TERI Complex,

4th Main, 2nd Cross,

Domlur II Stage,

Bangalore 560 071

Registration:

Please register for the event with the Bangalore International Centre (phone: +91 80 2535 9680).

Videos

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/events/wikipedia-and-free-culture

Workshop for Web Developers on Web Accessibility

sachia — 2011-08-31T10:51:35Z

Solution Exchange, an initiative of the United Nations Agencies in India, and the Centre for Internet and Society are organizing a workshop on web accessibility for web developers from organizations in the public and private sector, with the support of The National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI). The workshop will be held in Delhi from February 16^th-18^th, 2009. CIS' media partner for the event is Disability News India.

This workshop, which will feature seven trainers and about thirty participants, is the first one of its kind, bringing together practitioners from NIC and other government departments, as well as from small and medium enterprises across the country. The primary aim of this workshop is to demonstrate the importance of creating accessible web sites and to educate the developers of government and private web sites on how to incorporate accessibility features into new as well as existing web sites.

The training will comprise both theory-oriented and practical sessions. The trainers will be specialists in various aspects of web accessibility. The main focus will be on WCAG 2.0 guidelines. The participants will be persons already involved in developing web sites with good knowledge of HTML, XML, CSS, etc. The workshop will in a sense not only help in training web developers in accessibility, but will also attempt to increase capacity building by training potential accessibility trainers. There will also be a session where key persons involved in the working groups on accessibility, e-governance architecture and open standards will share the National Informatics Centre perspective.

Many of the sessions will be documented as lessons on accessibility and put up on the CIS web site. As part of the outcome of the workshop, five inaccessible government web sites will be identified and taken up for retrofitting with accessibility features within the next few months.

In its move to support web accessibility, NIXI has already undertaken the translation of the WCAG 2.0 standards into Hindi--the first translation of the WCAG into any Indian language. This is intended to aid web developers in the need for creating accessible web sites.

Please click on the links for more information about the proposed sessions to be held at the workshop and the participating trainers.

The workshop will be held in the Human Resource Development Centre Building of the CSIR in Ghaziabad (HRDC building, CSIR, Sector 19, Central Government Enclave, Kamla Nehru Nagar, Ghaziabad-201002, UP).

Map

Please refer to the map as necessary.

Participants

Click here for a complete list of participants and their organisational affiliations.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/events/workshop-for-web-developers-on-web-accessibility

Report on National Workshop on Web Accessibility

sachia — 2011-08-17T08:50:36Z

This entry contains links to download a report on a workshop on web accessibility organised by CIS for web developers (16-18 February 2009).

The first National Workshop on web accessibility for web developers from different sectors around the country was held at the CSIR premises in Ghaziabad from 16-18February 2009. The workshop was organized by the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS), Bangalore, and the UN Solution Exchange, and sponsored by NIXI. 29 participants attended the workshop on all the three days.

Please use the relevant links below to read a report on the workshop in the format you prefer.

PDF format: click here to download.

MS Word format: click here to download.

Open Document format: click here to download.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/report-on-national-workshop-on-web-accessibility

Hindi Translation of Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0

sachia — 2011-08-17T08:50:41Z

A Hindi translation of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 was commissioned by the National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI) and is now available for download.

The National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI) has supported the Centre for Internet and Society and its campaign for web accessibility for the disabled. In addition to sponsoring the first National Workshop on Web Accessibility to train web developers, held in February 2009, the NIXI has now brought out a Hindi translation of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0. It is hoped that this translated version will help Indian web developers to get a better understanding of the guidelines for creating accessible web pages.

To view a copy of the translated guidelines, in HTML format, click here.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/hindi-translation-of-web-content-accessibility-guidelines-2.0

Access India Meet-Up, 16 May 2009

sachia — 2011-08-17T08:50:46Z

We reproduce a brief report on the meeting of the Access India mailing list hosted at the office of the Centre for Internet and Society on 16 May 2009, between 2.00 pm and 5.00 pm.

The second annual meeting of the members of the Access India mailing list (Bangalore chapter) was held at the office of the Centre for Internet and Society office on 16 May 2009. The meeting was attended by 28 participants.

The agenda included a presentation by representatives from AreaPal, a Bangalore-based social networking group founded by students. AreaPal allows users to locate and connect with people on the basis of their area and neighborhood. It is a genuine neighbourhood networking service. Apart from that, they also provide user-generated news, events and marketplace based information about a user’s area. For further information, please visit www.areapal.com.

This was followed by a presentation by representatives from 3I Infotech, a company which recently launched e-Mudhra, an initiative to roll out digital signatures. The main focus of the discussion was the accessibility of their product. For additional information, please visit http://www.e-mudhra.com/

The next presentation scheduled was by representatives from iVolunteer, an organization that matches volunteers seeking volunteering opportunities with organizations and individuals looking for volunteers in Bangalore. To learn more about the organization, please visit www.ivolunteer.in

The final presentation was an introduction to Inclusive Planet. Inclusive Planet is in the process of building the largest online portal for disabled persons in India. It is intended to be a comprehensive portal containing various resources including employment resources, educational resources, a match-making channel, accessible books section, discussion boards, resources for medical facilities, sports and entertainment center, etc. Please visit http://www.inclusiveplanet.org/

One of the participants wrote a report on the meeting for the mailing list, and we reproduce this below:

The Bangalore offline Access India meeting, which took place today at the CIS (Centre for Internet and Society) campus, was a resounding success. About 30 AI members from different parts of the country were present to listen to four presentations made by IVolunteer, 3i Infotec, Area Pal and Inclusive Planet. All the presenters spoke about their services/products/organisations, and this proved to be useful for those present. For instance, the IVolunteer presentation opened the way for many to request volunteer help (as disability services is one of 12 areas for which the organisation helped with volunteers). Obviously, those present were interested in volunteers willing to read/scan books for them and other similar services.

Interestingly, the idea of digital signatures, which the 3i Infotec representative dealt with, prompted discussion on using digital signatures as a means of certifying disabled persons who wanted to buy railway tickets online. Sanjeev, the representative, was positive that this can be done.

Kavi Raj, who is from Area Pal, explained how their online platform linked people in the same neighbourhood/campus helped them exchange news and information relevant to them. Rounding up the interesting evening was Sachin from Inclusive Planet, who spoke about readable.in, an accessible online space where (visually impaired) people can upload/download books and share the books they have. He said the site already contains about 15,000 ebooks and asked for contributions. Inclusive Planet, which looks at services from the disability perspective, is poised to introduce spaces for restaurant/public place ratings (on the basis of their accessibility) and matrimonial services for the disabled where the emphasis will be on their abilities.

The evening was made more fun and interesting by our hostess Nirmita Narasimhan (attending on behalf of CIS), who introduced her organisation to the audience and gave us a chance to hear each other's voices for the first time (by letting us introduce ourselves). Thanks to Nirmita and Geetha's efforts and hard work, the event was a success. And, of course, we shouldn't forget the space and snacks provided by CIS and the wonderful support their staff provided in escorting us back and forth in the office building.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/access-india-meet-up-16-may-2009

Seminar on Exceptions and Limitations in Copyright

sachia — 2011-08-17T08:50:52Z

This is a report on a seminar organised by the Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Human Resource Development, and Government of India on 14 and 15 May 2009, in Kochi, Kerala, to look at exceptions and limitations in copyright. Programme Manager Nirmita Narsimhan, of the Centre for Internet and Society, attended the seminar.

CIS Programme Manager Nirmita Narsimhan attended a seminar on exceptions and limitations in copyright, organised by the Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Human Resource Development, and Government of India on 14 and 15 May 2009, in Kochi, Kerala. The seminar was intended to bring up key issues affecting access to knowledge, which are to be taken up by the Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR) at the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) later this month. Resource persons identified for different topics were eminent scholars, academicians and practitioners across India. The seminar covered eight topics. On each topic, a paper was presented by a resource person with commentary by an expert in the field, after which there was an open discussion.

The first day featured, amongst others, a paper presented by Lawrence Liang, Distinguished Fellow, CIS. He spoke at length on the exceptions and limitations for education.

The second day featured a paper by Mr. Madhukar Sinha, former Registrar of Copyright. Mr. Sinha presented on the topic 'Use of works by visually impaired and other miscellaneous exceptions of use of works under Indian Copyright Act: Section 52(1) (q), (r), (s), (t), (u), (v), and (x), (y), (z)'. His paper went into great length on definitions of visual disability and tried to evolve an economic model to support conversion of books into accessible formats for the visually challenged. The paper drew parallels with existing laws and best practices in different countries, made a detailed analysis of exceptions for the blind in the light of the Berne three-step test and the TRIPS agreement, and concluded by recommending that the Copyright Act should be amended to include exceptions and limitations which would permit conversion of books into formats in certain special cases. Mr. Sinha also recommended that India should look at solutions which go beyond the limits of the Copyright Act to solve such problems.

The response to this was prepared by Mr. Rahul Cherian of Indo Juris Law offices. The response paper drew attention to the fact that half of the total blind population of the world is in India and that amounts to a population of more than a crore. In the light of the economic and logistic considerations of our country, the Copyright Act should

Expressly include a limitation to permit conversion of books into accessible formats for visually challenged persons;
Permit conversion by stakeholder organizations as well as interested family members and friends of beneficiaries;
Adopt a functional definition of disability and not a medical one as is currently the case in the Persons with Disabilities Act 1995, and extend the benefit of the exception to all persons, who by reason of any disability are unable to access the work in its original format;and
Not restrict conversion only to those formats which are exclusively for the use of blind persons. Visually challenged persons should be able to make use of available mainstream formats like PDFs or Word as well.

The paper also dealt extensively with the Treaty for Improved access for the Blind, Visually Impaired and Other Reading Disabled, which was proposed by the World Blind Union in WIPO last year and is coming up again for discussion later this month.

Please click here to see the complete text of the paper.

The seminar was extremely productive because there was a strong recommendation and support for the inclusion of a limitation for conversion into accessible formats for persons with disabilities in the Indian Copyright Act. All the members present came to a consensus that the Indian Government should take a supportive stand towards the Treaty for the Blind proposed by the WBU at the SCCR this month. A representative of a leading publishing house committed himself to working towards providing books to certain organizations for the blind, if they could assure him that those books would be circulated only to blind persons and not to others.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/seminar-on-exceptions-and-limitations-in-copyright

Report on the Internet Governance Forum

sachia — 2011-08-23T04:51:55Z

CIS attended the UN Internet Governance Forum in Hyderabad, December 3-7, 2008.

As an outcome of the UN Internet Governance Forum (IGF) which took place in Hyderabad from December 3-7, 2008,

(a) CIS entered into an agreement with the W3C to make translations of the WCAG 2.0 guidelines into some Indian languages; and

(b) CIS, the UN Solutions Exchange group and the Daisy Forum of India (DFI) decided to work together on the web accessibility issue and form a core group of organizations across the disability sector for this purpose.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/igf-report-1

Follow-up Letter in Support of WIPO Treaty for Reading Disabled

sachia — 2011-08-25T08:43:42Z

CIS has sent another letter to the Department of Higher Education, Ministry for Human Resource Development, petitioning it to support the WIPO Treaty for the reading disabled.

In November last year, CIS launched a nation wide signature campaign to support the treaty for the blind, visually impaired and other reading disabled proposed by the World Blind Union to the WIPO. Since then, the list of signatories was updated. In May 2009, WIPO's Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR) held another meeting, and in light of this, the endorsement of the treaty and appeal to the government to support it was resubmitted, by an increased number of signatories, including members of the DAISY Forum of India.

The letter and list of signatories is available below.

Mr. R. P. Aggarwal
Secretary

Department of Higher Education
Ministry of Human Resource Development
‘C’ Wing, Shastri Bhavan
New Delhi-110001

Dear Sir,

Re: Letter of support for the proposed Treaty for the blind and visually impaired submitted by the World Blind Union.

We were extremely gratified that the Government took note of our letter in November, 2008, containing endorsements of 16 organisations urging the government to support the Treaty for the Blind, which was proposed by the World Blind Union in the WIPO SCCR meeting from Nov 1^st-6^th,2008. In light of the fact that there is another SCCR meeting scheduled from May 25^th-29^th, where this issue is to be taken up, we are resubmitting our endorsement and urgent plea to the Government to actively support this treaty, since it will be extremely beneficial to all blind, visually challenged and print disabled persons in India. The list of endorsers has expanded to include about 50 more organizations. There are many more who have verbally expressed support. We look forward to an active response from the Government on this. Thanking you,

Yours Faithfully,

Nirmita Narasimhan
Programme Manager
(Centre for Internet and Society)

Sr. No	Name of Organization	Contact Person
1	Akhil Bharatiya Drishtiheen Kalyan Sangh,	Mr. Ajay M. Joshi
2	Amulya Sahara	Sh. Ashok Kumar Goyal
3	Andhjan Kalyan Trust,	Mr. Praful N. Vyas
4	Arushi	Sh. Anil Mudgal
5	Astha	Ms Radhika M. Alkazi,
6	Atmajyoti Vikas Samitee	Mrs. Priti Yadav
7	Blind People's Association (Ahmedabad)	Mr. R.P. Soni
8	Blind Person's Association (Kolkata)	Mr. Amiyo Biswas
9	Blind Welfare Council	Sh. Yusuf Kapadiya
10	Centre For Internet And Society	Sunil Abraham,
11	Devnar Foundation for the Blind	Dr. A. Saibaba Goud
12	Discipleship Centre	Mr. John A
13	Farook College	Prof. K. Kuttialikutty
14	Hans Raj Mahila Maha Vidyalaya	Ms. Prabha Puran Sharma
15	Human Development Institute	Ms. R.C. Meena
16	Indian Association for the Blind	Mr. S.M.A. Jinnah,
17	Indira Mahila Mandal Hudco New Nandeds	Sh. Nagnath Ramji Kadam
18	Jamia Millia Islamia	Prof. Zubair Meenal,
19	Janta Adarsh Andh Vidyalaya	Mrs. Kalpana Sharma
20	Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya	Rajesh Gupta
21	Jyoti Sroat School	Bertha G. Dkhar
22	L.V. Prasad Eye Institute	Mr./Ms. Beula Christy
23	Lakshmi Bai College	Dr. Nalini Govind
24	Maulana AzadLibrary(AligarhMuslim Universit)	Mr. Shakeel Ahmad Khan Mr. Shakeel Ahmad Khan
25	Mitra Jyothi	Ms. Madhu Singhal
26	Montfort Centre For Education	Mr. Michael Mathew
27	National Association for the Blind, Delhi
28	NAB-Phiroze &NoshirMerwanjiRehabilitationCentre for the Blind (Mount Abu)	Sh. Vimal Kumar Dengla
29	National Association for the Blind (Uttarakhand)	Mr. Shyam Dhanak,
30	National Association for the Blind (Chandigarh)	Sh. Vinod Chadha
31	National Association for the Blind (H.)	Ms. Shalini Vats Kimta
32	National Association for the Blind (India)	Sh. Suhas V. Karnik
33	National Association for the Blind(Jharkhand)	Sh. Ar. Sahay
34	National Association for the Blind(Junagad)	Ms. Rinaben V. Jasani
35	National Association for the Blind (Karnataka),	(Mrs.) Saroja Ramachandra
36	National Association for the Blind (Kerala)	Sh. Manoj Kurian
37	National Association for the Blind (Sikkim Branch)	Mr. Rajesh Verma
38	National Association for the Blind(West Bengal)	Sh. Arup Chakroborty
39	National Federation of the Blind (Guwahati)	Mohd. Imran Ali
40	North Ex. Blind Welfare & Educational Society	Sh. Subhash Garg
41	Orissa Association for the Blind	Sh. Bihari Nayak
42	Rajasthan Netraheen Kalyan Sangh	Sh. Jitendra Bhargava
43	Ramakrishna Mission Blind Boys' Academy	Sh. Sunilbaran Pattanayak
44	Saksham	Ms. Deepika Sood,
45	Salwan Public School	Mrs. Vandana Puri
46	Samarthanam Trust for the Disabled	Sh. Ganesh
47	Samrita Trust	Sh. Seetarama Sastry Nori
48	School for the Deaf Mutes Society	Dr. Homiyar Mobedji
49	Score Foundation,	George Abraham
50	Shikshit Yuva Sewa Samiti Basti	Mr. Gopal Krishna Agarwal
51	Shree Andhjan Vividhlaxi Talim Kendra,	Sh. Prakash Mankodi
52	Shri Navchetan Andhjan Mandal,	Sh. Himanshu Sampura
53	Shri Venkateswara College	Ayesha Maliwal
54	Shri Vrajlal Durlabhji Parekh Andh Mahila Vikas Grah,	Sh. P.J. Mankodi
55	Shruti Information Centre of Yashoda Charitable Trust	Ms. Sonal Sena
56	Shubham	Dr. Sangeeta Agarwal
57	Springdales School	Ms. Sonali Bose
58	St. Mary's School
59	Tagore International School,	Ms. Aparna Sharma
60	The Blind Relief Association (Delhi)	Sh. Kailash Chandra Pande
61	University of Hyderabad	Dr. Madhireddy Anjaneyulu
62	Venu Eye Institute & Research Centre	Ms. Tanuja Joshi
63	Victoria Memorial School for the Blind	Mrs. Radha Subrahmanian
64	Welfare Centre For Visually Handicapped,	Mr. Profulla Kumar Rout
65	Welfare Society for the Blind,	Smt. Jharna Sur
66	Xavier's Resource Centre for the Visually Challenged (XRCVC)	Dr. Sam Taraporevala
67	Sense International (India)	Akhil Paul
68	N. Krishnaswamy Barrier Break Technologies (Mumbai)	Shilpi Kapoor
69	National Association for the Blind (NAB) Bangalore	Mr. Pruthviraj
70	National Federation for the Blind (Delhi)	S.K.Rungta
71	Mitrajyoti (Bangalore)	Madhu Singhal
72	Accessability (New Delhi)	Vikas Sharma
73	Alternative Law Forum (Bangalore)	Lawrence Liang
74	Acrodelon Technologies Pvt Ltd(Chennai)	Rahul Cherian
75	Enable India	Shanthi Raghavan
76	College Students and Graduates Association of the Blind(Chennai)	Ponmudi
77	Indian Association for the Blind(Chennai)	S.M.A. Jinnah
78	Prayatna(Chennai & Bangalore)	Aruna Sankaranarayanan
79	Worth Trust, Katpadi (TN)	Venki/Mike

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/follow-up-letter-in-support-of-wipo-treaty-for-reading-disabled

Report on Second National Workshop on Web Accessibility, 5-7 June 2009

sachia — 2013-02-04T05:52:05Z

Nirmita Narsimhan reports on the second National Workshop on Web Accessibility for web developers, hosted by CIS in Bangalore from 5 to 7 June 2009, and attended by 15 participants.

The second National Workshop on Web Accessibility for web developers was held at the CIS office in Bangalore, 5-7 June 2009. Although this was intended to be more a city-based workshop, we still got participants from other states such as Kerala, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. There were in all 15 participants predominantly from the web development and web designing backgrounds, college students and even a person from the academic field and 3 trainers. There were also some who had already prior knowledge of accessibility and this helped to raise the level of issues which were being discussed from a basic level to a more advanced level. Overall, the workshop was extremely well received and many of the participants expressed their willingness to participate in more such workshops in the future.

The workshop was structured differently from the last one--the sessions were more practical-oriented and the trainers stressed a lot on group work. There were sessions on understanding disability, WCAG 2.0 principles and group exercises of designing accessible pages. This workshop featured some additional topics such as Flash accessibility, accessibility in documents and role play exercises for problem solving for different disabilities. For instance, in one of the sessions, the participants were asked to prepare a caption for a one minute video. One of the participants, already working on accessibility, demonstrated Orca for Linux.

Specific Outcomes

1. The participants understood the importance of creating accessible web pages and learnt about various techniques, tools and resources for accessibility.
2. All the presentations and lectures were video documented.
3. The participants filled up feed back forms and action points to be undertaken after the workshop. CIS distributed T-Shirts and certificates to all the participants.

To download a complete report on the workshop in pdf format, please click here.

Video

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/second-national-workshop