Centre for Internet and Society

Central Government Schemes

anandi — 2014-05-07T01:20:35Z

The various central government schemes are compiled in this blog post. This research was done by the Centre for Law and Policy Research and Anandhi Viswanathan.

General Entitlements

Persons with disabilities are eligible for income tax deduction under Section 80U. Deduction of Rs. 50,000 is provided to those with disability in the range of 40 per cent to 80 per cent. Deduction of Rs. 1,00,000 is provided to those with more than 80 per cent disability.
Legal guardians of dependant persons with disabilities are eligible for income tax deduction under section 80DD for expenditures incurred on medical care, training and rehabilitation expenses or annuity paid. Deduction of Rs. 50,000 can be claimed for dependents with 40 per cent to 80 per cent disability and Rs. 1,00,000 can be claimed for dependants with 80 per cent or more disabilities.

3. Persons with disabilities are exempted from payment of professional tax.

Sl. No.	Notification / Scheme	Issuing Authority	Notification No / Date
	Deduction under 80U	Ministry of Finance
	Deduction under 80DD	Ministry of Finance
	Exemption from professional tax	Ministry of Finance

Women and Children with Disabilities

The government is yet to implement schemes / notifications in this category.

Education

Scheme of National Scholarship for Persons with Disabilities – Scholarship is awarded for pursueing post matric / professional / technical courses of duration more than one year. For students with autism / cerebral palsy / mental retardation / multiple disabilities the scholarship is provided from Class 9 onwards. Advertisements are placed in all national dailies and on the MSJE website in the month of June. Applicants are eligible if they have disability above 40 per cent and the total family income does not exceed Rs. 15,000 per month.

Category Day Scholars Hostelers

Graduate / PG courses in Professional / Technical Rs. 700 Rs. 1000

Diploma / Certificate level professional courses Rs. 400 Rs. 700

Fees up to Rs. 10,000 are reimbursed every year. Financial assistance is provided for procuring computer with editing software for students with visual impairment / hearing impairment pursueing graduate / post graduate professional courses and support access software for students with cerebral palsy.
Students with disabilities are provided three per cent reservation in seats in government and government aided educational institutes.
Comprehensive Education Scheme for Disabled Children – The scheme provides for accessible and barrier free built-in infrastructure and transport facilities, supply of books, uniforms and stationery, specialised learning aids and scholarships for students with disabilities. Other provisions in the scheme include exemption from mathematics and pictoral questions for visually impaired students, use of scribes / readers for students with visual impairment / orthopaedic disabilities / learning disabilities, extra time in examinations for disabled students, exemption from third language and modification of curriculum to facilitate inclusive education.
Inclusive Education for the Disabled at Secondary Stage (IEDSS) – This scheme supports children with disabilities aged 14 or above for completing their secondary education from Class 9 to Class 12 in government, local body and government aided schools. The scheme provides for identification of children with disabilities moving from elementary school to secondary and providing them with aids and appliances for their disabilities, access to learning material, transport facilities, hostel facilities, scholarships, books, assistive technologies and provision of scribes and readers.
Rajiv Gandhi Fellowship scheme – This scheme provides scholarships to persons with disabilities to pursue higher education such as M Phil / Ph D. The scheme offers 200 fellowships every year and covers all the universities and institutions covered by the University Grants Commission. All students with disabilities admitted to M. Phil / Ph. D programmes of any university or academic institution are eligible to receive the fellowship provided they meet the requirements of the scheme. The fellowship will be awarded for a maximum of five years.

Category	Day Scholars	Hostelers
Graduate / PG courses in Professional / Technical	Rs. 700	Rs. 1000
Diploma / Certificate level professional courses	Rs. 400	Rs. 700

Sl. No.	Notification / Scheme	Issuing Authority	Notification No. / Date
1	Scheme of National Scholarship for Persons with Disabilities	Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment
2	3% reservation in govt / govt aided institutes	Ministry of Edication
3	Comprehensive Education Scheme for Disabled Children	Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment	2005
4	Integrated Education for the Disabled in the Secondary Stage.	Department of Education
5	Rajiv Gandhi Fellowship to pursue higher education	T – Department of Disability Affairs	04. 2012

Employment

The government has reserved three per cent posts in Groups A, B, C and Group D positions in government services, public sector banks and government undertakings for persons with disabilities. The reservations are provided as:

Category Reservation

Visually Impaired One Per cent

Hearing Impaired One Per cent

Physically disabled One Per cent
A roster of 100 points is prescribed for reserving positions for persons with disabilities in government employment. Points on the roster are reserved as given below for every year:

Category Roster Point

Visually Impaired 34

Hearing Impaired 67

Physically disabled 100
IF for any year the vacancies reserved for persons with disabilities are not filled, the vacancies are required to be carried forward for three consecutive years until a suitable candidate is found. If a suitable candidate is not found even after three years, the vacancies may be filled through interchanging between disabilities after which the reservation ceases to exist.
Persons with disabilities are given an age relaxation of up to ten years in the upper age limit for recruitment to government positions. They are also exempted from payment of application fees and examination fees.
The government provides that persons with disabilities should not be denied promotion in their employment on account of the disability / medical fitness if they are otherwise medically fit and can discharge their duties satisfactorily.
The government has identified positions in various departments and sections that are to be reserved for persons with disabilities based on their ability to perform the work of the position.
The government provides that persons with disabilities recruited to Group C and Group D employment on regional basis may be given postings, as far as possible under administrative constraints, nearest to their native places within the region. Requests from disabled employees for transfers to offices in or nearest to their native places may also be given priority.
The government has established special employment exchanges for persons with disabilities in all state capitals and special employment cells have been set up in all district headquarters for recruitment to government posts reserved for persons with disabilities. In places where special employment exchanges have not been established, special employment cells have been set up within regular employment exchanges. Persons with disabilities are required to register themselves with the special employment exchanges / cells to be eligible for government employment under reservation. Special employment registrations can also be done at the 17 vocational rehabilitation centres for persons with disabilities.
The government provides for employment of persons with disabilities in the private sector through incentives to employers. The government pays the employer’s contribution of the disabled employee’s provident fund and employee state insurance up to three years for employment of persons with disabilities with a minimum salary of Rs. 25,000 per month.
The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas has reserved 7.5 per cent of all types of dealership agencies of public sector oil companies for persons with physical disabilities. This does not include defence personnel injured while on service. The dealership is advertised in one English daily and one regional language daily having maximum circulation in the district where the dealership is located. Applicants should be Indian citizens, aged between 21 years to 30 years, should have a minimum educational qualification of matriculation or equivalent, should produce disability certificate with minimum 40 percent disability of either upper limb or lower limb or both limbs considered together. Persons with partial hearing impairment are also eligible to apply. Persons with total visual impairment are eligible to apply for retail outlets, kerosene / LDO dealerships but are not eligible to apply for LPG dealership. Total family income of applicant should not exceed Rs. 50,000 per annum.
The National Handicapped Finance and Development Corporation provides loans to persons with disabilities for self employment. The details of the schemes are given as under:

Category	Reservation
Visually Impaired	One Per cent
Hearing Impaired	One Per cent
Physically disabled	One Per cent

Category	Roster Point
Visually Impaired	34
Hearing Impaired	67
Physically disabled	100

For setting up small business in service / trading sector – loan of Rs. 3,00,000 (Three lakh)
For setting up small business in sales / trading sector – Rs. 5,00,000 (five lakh)
For agriculture / allied activities – Loan of up to Rs. 10,00,000 (ten lakh)
Purchase of vehicle for commercial hiring – Loan of Rs. 10,00,000 (ten lakh)
For setting up small industries unit – Loan of Rs. 25,00,000 (25 lakh)
For professionally educated / trained persons with disabilities for self-employment – Rs. 25,00,000 (25 lakh)
For building business premises on own land for employment – Rs. 3,00,000 (three lakh)

The business for which financial assistance is sought should be directly operated by the applicant. In case of persons with autism, cerebral palsy or mental retardation, the parent / spouse / legal guardian of the applicant is authorised to enter into contract with NHFDC on behalf of the applicant. Applicant should fulfil the following eligibility criteria:

Should have disability of minimum 40 percent

Should be an Indian citizen

Should have required professional / technical qualification for the business undertaken

Loans should be repaid by a maximum of 10 years.

Sl. No.	Notification / Scheme	Issuing Authority	Notification No. / Date
1	3% reservation in employment	Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pension
2	Roster system for reservation	Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pension
3	Carry forward of employment reservation	Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pension
4	Age relaxation for direct recruitment	Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pension
5	Non denial of promotion	Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pension
6	Identification of jobs	Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pension
7	Postings / Transfer of disabled employees	Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions – Department of Personnel and Training	O.M.No.14017/41/90
8	Special employment exchanges
9	Incentives for private employers	Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment – Department of Disability Affairs
10	Award of dealership / agency by oil companies	Department of Petroleum and Natural Gas
11	Financial assistance from NHFDC	National Handicapped Finance & Development Corporation	2013

Social Security, Health, Rehabilitation and Recreation

The Indira Gandhi National Disability Pension Scheme: This was inserted as a component of the National Social Assistance Programme on 17th February, 2009 by the Secretary, Ministry for Rural Development. Under IGNDPS, central assistance of Rs. 300 p.m. per beneficiary is provided to persons with severe or multiple disabilities in the age group of 18-79 years and belonging to a household living BPL as per criteria prescribed by Government of India. This scheme has been implemented in 8 districts of Manipur and a total of Rs 13.4 lakhs has been received by the State Government for this scheme in 2010-11.
Composite Regional Centres for Persons with Disabilities (CRCs): Due to lack of adequate facilities for rehabilitation of Persons with Disabilities, the Ministry has set up multiple Composite Regional Centres for Persons with Disabilities at Srinagar, Sundernagar (Himachal Pradesh), Lucknow, Bhopal, Kozhikode, Ahmedabad (No. 6-9/2009-NIs) and Guwahati to provide both preventive and promotional aspects of rehabilitation like education, health, employment and vocational training, research and manpower development, rehabilitation for persons with disabilities etc.
District Disability Rehabilitation Centres (DDRCs): The Ministry with active support of State Governments is facilitating setting up District Disability Rehabilitation Centres (DDRCs) to provide rehabilitation services to persons with disabilities. Centres are being set up in unreached and unserved districts of the country in a phased manner. These centres are to provide services for prevention and early detection, referral for medical intervention and surgical correction, fitment of artificial aids and appliances, therapeutical services such as physiotherapy, occupational and speech therapy, provision of training for acquisition of skills through vocational training, job placement in local industries etc. at district headquarters as well as through camp approach.
Assistance to Disabled Persons for Purchase /Fitting of Aids and Appliances (ADIP Scheme): The main objective of the scheme is to assist needy persons with disabilities in procuring durable sophisticated and scientifically manufactured, modern, standard aids and appliances that can promote their physical, social and psychological rehabilitation by reducing the effects of disabilities and enhance their economic potential. Aids and appliances which do not cost less than Rs. 50 and not more than Rs. 6,000 are covered under the scheme. Further travelling cost would be admissible and limited to a bus fare in the ordinary class or railway by second class sleeper subject to a limit of Rs. 250 for the beneficiary irrespective of the number of visits to a medical centre.[1]
Public Sector Banks: Under the ‘Scheme for Public Sector Banks for Orphanages, Women’s Homes and Physically Handicapped Persons’, the benefits of the differential rate of interest are available to physically handicapped persons as well as institutions working for the welfare of the handicapped. Rate of interest will be uniformly charged at 4% per annum keeping in view the social objectives. Under the scheme of Financing Small Scale Industries, a special provision has been made in the rate of interest for the physically handicapped person (0.5% concession) for availing capital limit up to Rs.2,00,000/-.
The National Handicapped Finance and Development Corporation (NHFDC): This corporation has been set up by the Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment, Government of India on 24th January 1997. The company is registered under Section 25 of the Companies Act, 1956 as a Company not for profit. It is wholly owned by Government of India and has an authorised share capital of Rs. 400 crores (Rupees Four Hundred Crore only). The NHFDC functions as an Apex institution for channelising the funds to persons with disabilities through the State Channelising Agencies (SCAs) nominated by the State Government(s). The schemes include loans for setting up small business in service/trading/industrial units, for higher studies/professional training, for manufacturing /production of assistive devices for disabled persons, for agricultural activities, for self employment amongst persons with mental retardation, Cerebral Palsy and Autism.
Deendayal Disabled Rehabilitation Scheme (DDRS): Replaced the earlier ‘Scheme to Promote Voluntary Action for Persons with Disabilities’ on 01.04.2009. Under this scheme financial assistance is provided through NGOs for various projects for providing education, vocational training and rehabilitation of persons with disabilities. It is a scheme to promote voluntary action for persons with disabilities. The maximum level of support could be up to 90% of the eligible amount of grant for the project. During the 10th Five Year Plan grant-in-aid to the extent of Rs. 335.4 cr. was released to NGOs under the revised DDRS.[2]
Indira Awaas Yojana: It is a centrally sponsored housing scheme for providing dwelling units free of cost to the rural poor living below the poverty line at a unit cost of Rs. 20,000 in plain areas and Rs. 22, 000 in the hill/difficult areas. Three percent of its funds are reserved for the benefit of disabled persons living below the poverty line in rural areas.[3]
Scheme of National Awards for the Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities: In order to recognise their effort and encourage others to strive to achieve excellence in this field, separate awards are being presented to the most efficient/outstanding employees with disabilities, best employers, best placement agency/officer, outstanding individuals, outstanding institutions, role models, outstanding creative disabled individuals and for outstanding technological innovation and adaptation of innovation to provide cost effective technology. Awards are also given to Government Sector, Public Sector Undertakings and private enterprises for creating barrier free environment for the persons with disabilities, the best district in the field of disability rehabilitation, best Local Level Committee of the National Trust and to the best State Channelising Agency (SCA) of the National Handicapped Finance and Development Corporation (NHFDC). Preference is given to the placement of women with disabilities, particularly, from the rural areas and self-employed women.[4]
Trust Fund for the Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities: The Supreme Court in its order dated 16th April, 2004 in the Civil Appeals No.4655 and 5218 of 2000 had directed that the banks, who had collected an estimated excess amount of Rs.723.79 crores annually from the borrowers through rounding off in collection of interest tax, should transfer it to a trust which would be used for welfare of persons with disabilities. The Court had constituted a Committee under the chairmanship of Comptroller and Auditor General of India with Finance Secretary and Law Secretary as members. The Ministry had sought directions of the Apex court for transfer of these funds to the National Trust for Welfare of persons with Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Mental Retardation and Multiple Disabilities for purposeful utilization. The Supreme Court is yet to take a view on the request of the Ministry but in the meantime the trust has been set up and the banks have been advised by the Banking Division of the Ministry of Finance to deposit the due amount in the Trust account.
Technology Development Projects in Mission Mode: With a view to provide suitable and cost effective aids and appliances through the application of technology and to increase their employment opportunities and integration in society of the physically disabled, the above scheme was started during 1990-91. Under the scheme, suitable R&D projects are identified and funded for developing aids and appliances. The scheme is implemented through the IITs. Educational Institutes, Research Agencies and Voluntary Organisations etc. Financial assistance is provided on 100% basis. The four Technical Advisory Groups monitor the selection of the projects and also their progress at different stages in areas of disabilities, namely, Orthopaedic (including Cerebral Palsy), Visual, Speech and Hearing and Mental. All the projects those are recommended by the respective Technical Advisory Groups placed before the Apex Level Committee headed by Secretary, Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment.[5]

Sl. No.	Description	Issuing Authority	Date Issued
1	The Indira Gandhi National Disability Pension Scheme (IGNDP) D.O.J.-11013/2/2007-NSAP	Ministry of Rural Development	February, 2009
2	Composite Regional Centres for Persons with Disabilities (CRCs)	Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment
3	District Disability Rehabilitation Centres (DDRCs)	Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment	1995
4	Assistance to Disabled Persons for Purchase /Fitting of Aids and Appliances (ADIP Scheme)	Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment	01.04.2005
5	‘Scheme of Public Sector Banks for Orphanages, Women's Home and Physically Handicapped persons' D.O.No.F.301/89-SCT (B) dated 8.9.89	Department of Economic Affairs & Ministry of Welfare	08.09.1989
6	The National Handicapped Finance and Development Corporation (NHFDC)	Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment	24.01.1997
7	Deendayal Disabled Rehabilitation Scheme (DDRS)	Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment	01.04.2009
8	Indira Awaas Yojana	Ministry of Rural Development	May, 1985
9	Scheme of National Awards for the Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities	Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment	2012
10	Trust Fund for the Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities via Civil Appeals No.4655 and 5218 of 2000	Supreme Court of India	16.04.2004
11	Technology Development Projects in Mission Mode	Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment

Accessibility

Guidelines and Space Standards for Barrier Free Built Environment for Disabled and Elderly Persons[6] : In order to create a barrier free environment in consonance with the provisions of the Act, the Government of India (Ministry of Urban Affairs & Employment) is currently engaged in the process of amending/modifying the existing building bye-laws which would be applicable to all buildings and facilities used by the public. With this intention to ensure that everyone, including the physically disabled and elderly persons ,will have equal access in everyday life in the city, the Min. of UA&E has constituted a committee under the chairmanship of DG(W), CPWD with the following members for the purpose of developing comprehensive Guide lines and space Standards for barrier free built environment for disabled and elderly persons.

Sl. No.	Description	Issuing Authority	Date Issued
1	Guidelines for Space Standards for Barrier Free Built Environment for Disabled and Elderly Persons	Central Public Works Department	1998

Certification

Guidelines for issue of Disability Certificates: the Persons with Disabilities Rules, 1996 provide the broad guidelines for issue of the disability certificates. The Rules lay down that a Medical Board, duly constituted by the Central and the State Government, shall issue a Disability Certificate. The certificate issued by the Medical Board makes a person eligible to apply for facilities, concessions and benefits admissible under schemes of the Governments or Non-Governmental Organisations, subject to such conditions as the Central or the State Government may impose. It is for this reason that the Central Government has issued these guidelines with the aim of simplifying the procedures for issue of disability certificates. It has also created some additional guidelines for the issue of disability certificates to students with disabilities.
Guidelines for evaluation of various disabilities and procedure for certification: The Government has notified the guidelines for evaluation of locomotor, visual, hearing, mental retardation and multiple disabilities and the procedure for certification, formulated by the Expert Committees set up by the Government, under the Chairmanship of Director General Health Services (DGHS), vide notification No. 16-18/97-NI I dated 1st June, 2001. As per the guidelines, the Director General of Health Services, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare is the final authority, should there arise any controversy / doubt regarding the interpretation of the definitions/classifications / evaluations tests etc. Therefore, for any problems relating to evaluation of various disabilities and procedure for certification, Director General of Health Services, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Nirman Bhawan, New Delhi may be approached.

Sl. No.	Description	Issuing Authority	Date Issued
1	Guidelines for Issue of Disability Certificates No. 16-18/97-NI	Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment
2	Guidelines for Evaluation of Various Disabilities and Procedure for Certification via D.O.No.F.301/89-SCT (B) DATED 8.9.89	Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment

Grants and Schemes for Organisations & Individuals for Disabilities

There are no schemes / notifications under this category.

[1].http://socialjustice.nic.in/pdf/adipsch.pdf

[2].http://socialjustice.nic.in/ddrs.php

[3].http://iay.nic.in/netiay/IAY%20revised%20guidelines%20july%202013.pdf

[4].http://socialjustice.nic.in/pdf/nawardeng2012.pdf

[5].http://www.socialjustice.nic.in/pdf/glinerpdd.pdf

[6]. cpwd.gov.in/Publication/Buildings_aged.pdf

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/central-government-schemes

Celebrating 5 Years of CIS

praskrishna — 2014-02-25T09:15:58Z

The Centre for Internet & Society (CIS) is celebrating 5 years of its existence with an exhibition showcasing its activities and accomplishments. The exhibition will be held at its offices in Bangalore and Delhi from May 20 to 23, 2013.

Download all the posters exhibited during the recent exhibition here.

As a move to promote transparency, CIS is inviting the general public to be its auditors by throwing open its account books and contracts which show how it has spent the Rs. 13.13 crores received from its donors. The four-day event will see renowned artists like Kiran Subbaiah, Tara Kelton, Navin Thomas and Abhishek Hazra featuring their work and also giving live demonstrations.

Agenda

Open exhibition on all the 4 days from 10.00 a.m. to 8.00 p.m., in Bangalore and Delhi. The evening programmes will be held in Bangalore. Dinner will be served right afterwards.

Evening Programmes

May 20, 2013

18.00 19.00	Why did I buy a set-top box?: What we know, don't know and need to know about Digitalisation — A Talk by Vibodh Parthasarathi Why are we being asked to install set-top boxes? How will this change what we want, and pay for, on TV? Grappling with these questions, the talk will evaluate the rationale of the digital migration in cable currently underway, and the less talked about digital migration being planned for the public broadcaster. These scarcely debated and often contentious issues form the core of a recent Country Report on the Media in India, anchored by the speaker. The India Country Report, the first inter-sectoral and policy oriented study of our electronic media landscape, finds the ongoing digitalisation of cable, the infusion of digital tools in the press and the proposed digital switchover of the public broadcaster, posing varied challenges not only to journalism but to public interest at large. This report is part of a global initiative, Mapping Digital Media, examining opportunities and risks amidst the transitions to a digital media ecology across 50 countries. Video
19.00 19.30	Film Screening on Cyber Cafes of Rural India by Video Volunteers Video Volunteers in partnership with CIS have been documenting the cyber cafes of rural India. Kamini Menon and Christy Raj will do the screening of seven 2-minute films: Cyber Cafe Trends Slowly Changing in Imphal by Achungmei Kamei (Manipur) Transgender Interaction with Cyber Cafes by Christy Raj (Karnataka) Cyber Cafes Prevail Over Mobile Phones in Nagaland by Meribeni Kikon (Nagaland) Mobile Technology Threatens Cyber Cafes in HP by Avdhesh Negi (Himachal Pradesh) Cyber Cafe Visit - A Day's Journey by Saroj Paraste (Madhya Pradesh) The Challenges of Establishing Cyber Cafes by Rohini Pawar (Maharashtra) The Community Service Centre - Myth or Reality? by Neeru Rathod (Gujarat) Video
19.30 20.00	Hindustani Classical Performance by Aditya Dipankar
20.00	Dinner
RSVP: Bernadette Längle (bernadette@cis-india.org), Ph: +91 80 4092 6283 Prasad Krishna (prasad@cis-india.org).

May 21, 2013

18.00 19.00	Screening of Sabaka A young elephant trainer in India vows revenge against the cult that killed his family. He seeks help from the local Maharajah who refuses, and he sets out alone to battle the enemy... Sabaka is a 1954 film produced and directed by Frank Ferrin starring Boris Karloff, Reginald Denny, June Foray, et.al.
19.00 20.00	Slouching towards Tlön: An Encyclopedia for the 2nd century of Indian cinema — A Talk by Lawrence Liang Ashish Rajadhyaksha and Paul Willemen’s Encyclopedia of Indian cinema (1994) marked an important moment for the study of Indian film history. In the two decades since its publication we have seen a rise in the academic community working on Indian film history along with the rise of various new archival initiatives online. Materials that were hitherto unavailable have also made their way into the public domain via the efforts of film historians, cinephiles and other enthusiasts. It is perhaps fitting to think about what a collaborative encyclopedia of Indian cinema for the 21st century may look like. Using Rajadhayksha and Willemen’s Encyclopedia as a base, Lawrence has been working on an online version that incorporates moving images, photographs and archival materials and his presentation will open up questions of how one thinks of an online encyclopedia as well as larger conceptual questions of the relationship between the encyclopedias, the internet and moving image archives. Video
20.00	Dinner
RSVP: Bernadette Längle (bernadette@cis-india.org), Ph: +91 80 4092 6283, Prasad Krishna (prasad@cis-india.org).

May 22, 2013

Cybersecurity, Privacy and Surveillance

18.00 18.30	“The Indian Surveillance State”— A Talk by Maria Xynou The Central Monitoring System confirms that, starting from last month ‘Big Brother’ is a reality in India. But how do authorities get the tech to spy on us? Maria has started investigating surveillance technology companies operating in India. So far, 76 companies have been detected which are producing and selling different types of surveillance gear to Indian law enforcement agencies. Join us to see India´s first investigation of who is aiding our watchers! Video
18.30 19.00	Why Privacy and How? A Talk by Bernadette Langle "But I have nothing to hide!" That's what most people think. Are you sure? What about all the services you use for free, don't you think the service provider has to spend money on that, and that he needs to earn it somehow? Bernadette will show some alternatives and also how easy it can be, to put your messages in a virtual private envelope as you use to do with messages on paper. Video
19.00 19.45	Cyber Security Preview — Presentation by Laird Brown and Purba Sarkar CIS in cooperation with Citizen Lab, Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto, is developing a film project on cyber security in India from a civil society perspective. Laird will show the preview of the project. The preview will include an overview of the project along with a video footage from the first series of interviews. Video
19.45 20.00	Faking of Fingerprints: A Presentation by Bernadette Langle Bernadette will give a brief presentation on how easy it is to fake a fingerprint. Afterwards you can get hands-on. Fake a fingerprint yourself and take it with you to your home. Video Video
20.00	Dinner
RSVP: Bernadette Längle (bernadette@cis-india.org), Ph: +91 80 4092 6283, Prasad Krishna (prasad@cis-india.org).

May 23, 2013

Kannada Language and IT

18.00 18.15	Kannada in Modern Era: A Guest Talk by Dr. Chandrashekhara Kambara Dr. Chandrashekhara will be the chief guest for this session and will give a guest lecture. Video
18.15 19.30	From Palm Leaf to Tablet – Journey of Kannada: A Talk by Dr. U.B. Pavanaja Kannada language which has a history of 2000 years and quite rich in literature started on palm leaves. Kannada advanced with modern times adopting the marvels of Information Technology. This is accomplished by successfully implementing Kannada in various facets of IT. It is being used everywhere from data driven applications to websites to hand held devices like tablets. These aspects will be brought out during the talk. Summary in Kannada: ತಾಳೆಗರಿಯಿಂದ ಟ್ಯಾಬ್ಲೆಟ್ ತನಕ ಕನ್ನಡದ ಪಯಣ ಸುಮಾರು ಎರಡು ಸಾವಿರ ವರ್ಷಗಳ ಭವ್ಯ ಇತಿಹಾಸವಿರುವ ಕನ್ನಡ ಸಾಹಿತ್ಯದ ಉಗಮ ತಾಳೆಗರಿಗಳ ಮೇಲೆ ಆಯಿತು. ಕನ್ನಡ ಭಾಷೆಯು ಆಧುನಿಕ ಮಾಹಿತಿ ತಂತ್ರಜ್ಞಾನದ ಅದ್ಭುತ ಕೊಡುಗೆಗಳನ್ನು ತನ್ನದಾಗಿಸಿಕೊಂಡು ಬೆಳೆಯಿತು. ಮಾಹಿತಿ ತಂತ್ರಜ್ಞಾನದ ಎಲ್ಲ ಅಂಗಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ಕನ್ನಡವನ್ನು ಅಳವಡಿಸಿ ಬಳಸಿಕೊಳ್ಳುವುದರ ಮೂಲಕ ಇದು ಸಾಧ್ಯವಾಯಿತು. ಆನ್ವಯಿಕ ತಂತ್ರಾಂಶವಿರಲಿ, ಪ್ರತಿಸ್ಪಂದನಾತ್ಮಕ ಜಾಲತಾಣವಿರಲಿ, ಕೈಯಲ್ಲಿ ಹಿಡಿದು ಕೆಲಸ ಮಾಡುವ ಟ್ಯಾಬ್ಲೆಟ್ ಇರಲಿ –ಎಲ್ಲ ಕಡೆ ಕನ್ನಡದ ಬಳಕೆ ಆಗುತ್ತಿದೆ. ಈ ಎಲ್ಲ ವಿಷಯಗಳ ಕಡೆ ಒಂದು ಪಕ್ಷಿನೋಟವನ್ನು ಈ ಭಾಷಣದಲ್ಲಿ ನೀಡಲಾಗುವುದು. Video
19.30 20.00	Carnatic Music Performance by Nirmita Narasimhan Video
20.00	Dinner
RSVP: Bernadette Längle (bernadette@cis-india.org), Ph: +91 80 4092 6283 Prasad Krishna (prasad@cis-india.org).

About the Speakers

Vibodh Parthasarathi	Vibodh Parthasarathi works with the Centre for Culture and Media Governance, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi. He is also a Board Member at the Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore. He maintains a multidisciplinary interest in media and development policy, business history of creative industries, and governance of media infrastructure. At the Centre for Culture, Media & Governance, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, his ongoing research addresses media policy literacy, the TV news industry and the digital switchover in India. He is the co-editor of the critically acclaimed tri-series on Communication Process (Sage).
Lawrence Liang	Lawrence Liang is the Chairman of the Board at the Centre for Internet and Society. He is a graduate of the National Law School. He subsequently pursued his Masters degree in Law and Development at Warwick, on a Chevening Scholarship. His key areas of interest are law, technology and culture, the politics of copyright and he has been working closely with Sarai, New Delhi on a joint research project Intellectual Property and the Knowledge/Culture Commons. A keen follower of the open source movement in software, Lawrence has been working on ways of translating the open source ideas into the cultural domain. He has written extensively on these issues and is the author of The Public is Watching: Sex, Laws and Videotape and A Guide to Open Content Licenses. Lawrence has taught at NLS, the Asian College of Journalism, NALSAR, etc., and is currently working on a Ph.D. on the idea of cinematic justice at Jawaharlal Nehru University.
Maria Xynou	Maria Xynou is a Policy Associate on the Privacy Project at the CIS. She has previously interned with Privacy International and with the Parliament of Greece. Maria holds a Master of Science in Security Studies from the University College London (UCL).
Bernadette Langle	Bernadette Längle recently graduated in social and cultural anthropology, philosophy and computer science. She is also a so-called hacktivist together with one of the oldest hacker associations of the world, the Chaos Computer Club, having a lot of influence in German politics. As one of the core-team organizer of Chaos Communication Congress in Germany she also has a lot of experience in organizing events.
Laird Brown	Laird Brown is a strategic planner and writer. His core competencies are brand analysis, public relations, and resource management. Laird has worked at the United Nations in New York; high-tech ventures in North America, Europe, and India; and, is a guest speaker at ICT conferences internationally. He is currently working on a film project for CIS on cyber security in India with Purba Sarkar.
Purba Sarkar	Purba Sarkar is an associate producer with the cyber security film project. She holds a Bachelor in Technology degree from West Bengal University of Technology. Purba worked as a strategic advisor in the field of SAP Retail for 4 years before joining CIS in January, 2013.
Dr.Chandrashekhara Kambara	Dr. Chandrashekhara Kambara is a prominent poet, playwriter, folklorist, film director in Kannada language. He is also the founder-vice-chancellor of Kannada University in Hampi. He is known for his effective usage of North Karnataka dialect of Kannada language in his plays and poems and is often compared with D.R. Bendre. He has been conferred with many prestigious awards including the Jnanpith Award (the highest literary honour conferred in India) in 2011 for the year 2010, the Sahitya Akademi Award, the Padma Shri by Government of India, Kabir Samman, Kalidas Samman and Pampa Award. After his retirement, Kambara was nominated Member of Karnataka Legislative Council, to which he made significant contributions through his interventions.
Dr. U.B. Pavanaja	Dr U B Pavanaja holds a Master’s degree from Mysore University and Ph.D. from Mumbai University. He was a scientist at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai, for about 15 years. He has done advanced research in Taiwan. He resigned from BARC in 1997 and dedicated himself fully for the cause of Computer and Indian languages. He has to his credit many firsts, viz., first Kannada website, first Kannada online magazine, first Indian language (Kannada) website to receive Golden Web Award, first Indian language (Kannada) editor for Palm OS, first Indian language (Kannada) editor for WinCE device (HP Jornado 720), first Indian language version (Kannada) of universally popular Logo (programming language for children) software, etc. His Kannada logo won the Manthan Award for the year 2006. He was a member of the technical advisory committee setup by the Govt. of Karnataka for Standardization of Kannada on Computers (2000). He is also a member of the Kannada Software Committee of Govt. of Karnataka (2008-current).

The Artists

Kiran Subbaiah	Kiran Subbaiah studied sculpture at Santiniketan, MSU Baroda and the RCA London. He was an artist in residence at the Rijksakademie Amsterdam where he worked on art that incorporated informatics and electro-mechanics. He is also known for making videos using custom-built tools that enable him to perform multi-person film-making tasks single-handed. His art is shown extensively in India and abroad. Subbaiah is based in Bangalore and is represented by the Chatterjee and Lal gallery in Mumbai. Kiran will present the Spectator, a robot that can sense the presence of human beings around it. It tries to appreciate them as works of art.
Tara Kelton	Tara Kelton is an artist and designer. She has been living in Brooklyn, USA and Bangalore, India for the last three years. She received her MFA from the Yale School of Art in 2009. Kelton’s video, print, and web-based works investigate moments in which technology alters our perception of the physical world. Kelton has taught at the Srishti School of Art, Design, and Technology and has recently exhibited her work at Vox Populi (USA), Franklin Street Works (USA), GALLERYSKE (Bangalore) and the India Design Forum (Mumbai). Tara will present Trace, a surveillance camera feed drawn in real-time by anonymous online workers.
Navin Thomas	Navin Thomas is a multimedia artist and a professional scrap market junkie, he spends a good quality of his precious time looking for obscure cultural misfits... after destroying most of himself in the 90's, he now spends his time restoring your mother's brother’s tin space toys and other unusual situations.
Abhishek Hazra	Abhishek Hazra approaches his art with a particular emphasis on the study of the historiography of science. He uses videos and prints that often integrate textual fragments drawn from real and fictional scenarios. He has previously exhibited and performed at Science Gallery, Dublin, HEART Herning Museum of Contemporary Art, Denmark, Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art, Oslo, Casino Luxembourg Forum d’art Contemporain, Experiment Marathon Reykjavik, Reykjavik Art Museum and Kunstmuseum Bern. Abhishek was most recently an artist in residence at SymbioticA, the Centre for Excellence in Biological Arts, University of Western Australia, Perth. It was first performed as part of Beam Me Up, curated by Reinhard Storz and Gitanjali Dang, which was acknowledged by Pro Helvetia, New Delhi and German Book Office, New Delhi. Abhishek will be presenting #cloudrumble56 (attempted to re-animate sections of the Indian parliamentary archives — specifically, the transcripts of the scientist M.N. Saha's (1893-1956) interventions — through a performance that was transmitted only through live tweets on Twitter).
Aditya Dipankar	Aditya Dipankar started fiddling with music at the age of 4 when he started learning the tabla and then went on to play it for a long time. Years later, he discovered his strong inclination towards singing. Now, under the noble guidance of Pandit Vijay Sardeshmukh (Senior disciple of Pandit Kumar Gandharva), he is trying to understand the simplicity and spontaneity in the rich tradition of Hindustani classical music.
Nirmita Narasimhan	Nirmita Narasimhan is a Policy Director at CIS and works on accessibility for persons with disabilities. She was awarded the national award for empowerment of persons with disabilities by the President of India and also received the NIVH Excellence Award. Nirmita Narasimhan is a disciple of Dr. Radha Venkatachalam and renowned maestro Prof. T.R. Subramanyam. She began learning music at the age of 5 and went on to complete her Ph.D. in this subject from the Delhi University. Nirmita has been performing since 1995 and received several accolades such as the Sahitya Kala Parishad Scholarship and prizes in several competitions. She received the Gold medal in MA for standing first in the University and also stood first in MPhil. She has released a CD on Ponnayya Pillai compositions and also sung in an album of varnams. Nirmita has performed in different places in India such as Delhi, Chennai, Tirupathi and Bangalore as well as in Singapore and has also given several thematic concerts such as Eka Raga Sandhya and Pallavi concerts.
Sharath Chandra Ram	Sharath Chandra Ram (Sharathchandra Ramakrishnan) has interests in multimodal art, cognitive science, accessibility, digital humanities and network cultures. He is a faculty at the Centre for Experimental Media Arts at the Srishti School of Art Design and Technology. At the Centre for Internet and Society he helped set up and manage activities at the Metaculture Media Lab : an open hackerspace and alternative platform for research and exchange. His writings and musings at CIS maybe found here: http://cis-india.org/author/sharath He graduated from the University of Edinburgh with a degree in Artificial Intelligence specializing in interactive virtual environments. Previously as a Research Associate at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences he received a special mention award at the International Conference on Consciousness (2012) held at the National Institute of Advanced Studies for his work on ‘Cross modal Integration’. As an amateur radio broadcaster, he is a proponent of the free use of airwaves for relief work, education and transmission art. He has also been a development related radio journalist (PANOS @ Nepal, Voices UNDP@Bangalore), speaker at the International Ham Radio Convention (Port Blair, 2006) and as a film enthusiast has been a Press Reviewer for the Edinburgh International Film Festival.

Locations

Bangalore

Centre for Internet and Society
No. 194, Second 'C' Cross, Domlur,
2nd Stage, Bangalore - 560071,
Karnataka, India
Ph: +91 80 4092 6283
Fax: +91 80 2535 0955

Delhi

Centre for Internet and Society
G 15, Top floor
Behind Hauz Khas, G Block Market
Hauz Khas,
New Delhi 110016
Ph: + 91 011 40503285

Event Brochure

Event Flier

Event Posters/Banners and Videos

Accessibility

National Resource Kit (PDF, PNG)
NVDA E-Speak (PDF, PNG)
International Collaborations (PDF, PNG)
Partners (PDF, PNG)
Publications (PDF, PNG)
Timeline (PDF, PNG)
Inclusive Planet (PDF, PNG)

In the below video Anandhi Viswanathan gives a demo of the National Resource Kit project and Rameshwar Nagar gives a demo of the NVDA and ESpeak (Text-to-Speech) project during the exhibition.

Access to Knowledge

Broadcast Treaty (PDF, PNG)
Copyright (PDF, PNG)
Software Patent 1 (PDF, PNG)
Software Patent 2 (PDF, PNG)
Pervasive Technologies (PDF, PNG)

Access to Knowledge (Wikipedia)

Factsheet (PDF, PNG)
Reaching Out (PDF, PNG)
Outreach (PDF, PNG)
Bridging Gender Gap (PDF, PNG)
Press Coverage (PDF, PNG)
Education Programmes (PDF, PNG)
Team Achievements (PDF, PNG)
Visualization (PDF, PNG)

Openness

Open Access to Scholarly Literature (PDF, PNG)
Open Access to Law (PDF, PNG)
Open Standards (PDF, PNG)
Free/Open Source Software (PDF, PNG)

Internet Governance (Free Speech)

Blocking of Websites (PDF, PNG)
Freedom of Speech (PDF, PNG)
Intermediary Liability (PDF, PNG)
Internet Governance Forum (PDF, PNG)

Internet Governance (Privacy)

Privacy Events (PDF, PNG)
Timeline (PDF, PNG)
UID (1) (PDF, PNG)
UID (2) (PDF, PNG)
DNA (1) (PDF, PNG)
DNA (2) (PDF, PNG)

Telecom

Institutional Framework for Indian Telecommunication (PDF, PNG)
Growth of Telecom Industry in India (PDF, PNG)
Delicensed Spectrum (PDF, PNG)
Spectrum Sharing (PDF, PNG)

RAW Monographs

Archives and Access (PDF, PNG)
Internet, Society and Space in Indian Cities (PDF, PNG)
The Last Cultural Mile (PDF, PNG)
Porn, Law, Video Technology (PDF, PNG)
Re:Wiring Bodies (PDF, PNG)
Community Informatics and Open Government Data (Special Issue) (PDF, PNG)

News and Media

Media Coverage (PDF, PNG)
Organizational Chart (PDF)

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/events/celebrating-5-years-of-cis

Can’t read, so use new tech to let books speak

praskrishna — 2011-04-02T13:43:27Z

An article in the Times of India about the Right to Read campaign organised by the Centre for Internet & Society at Pragati Maidan in New Delhi as the world book fair kicked off.

Fifteen-year-old Ravi has never read a book. Diagnosed with a brain disorder when he was just three years old, he was taught how to read in a school for special children. But apart from some local newspapers and occasional letters from his family, he could never manage to enjoy a book because reading printed words was never comfortable to him.

On Saturday, Ravi was among the 300 print-impaired people — all dressed in identical blue sweatshirts and suffering from various disabilities like blindness, autism, dyslexia etc — who gathered at Pragati Maidan as the World Book Fair kicked off. Taking part in ‘Right to Read’ campaign organized by Centre for Internet and Society (CIS), they tried to create awareness about the plight of nearly 70 million people in the country who cannot read but, nevertheless, have the ability to enjoy a book or get information if book publishers take care to use the technology.

‘‘We want that people with disabilities should also be able to enjoy popular books like White Tiger or Five Point Someone. But for this, a lot needs to be done. The outdated copyright act needs to be amended so books can be converted to form which is accessible like audio books. Many publishers and writers do not give permission to have their books converted,’’ says Nirmita Narasimhan, programme manager of CIS.
As Amina flashes her wide grin, she seems just like any other normal 12-year-old child. However, a learning disorder stopped future studies for her and now her parents want to get her ‘‘settled’’ in life. ‘‘I want to study further,’’ was all she said. Amina has come from a small town in Bihar and is in Delhi with an NGO that is helping her adjust to life as a dyslexic.

Another participant in the campaign, Manoj, is blind. While he learned braille several years ago, his biggest regret is that because of his disability, he cannot enjoy the latest bestsellers. ‘‘I read whatever books are available in braille. Popular books are never accessible to me,’’ he said. The nationwide campaign began last year and since then has taken place in Kolkata and Mumbai, with Delhi being the third destination.
‘‘The campaign seeks to draw attention to the fact that out of nearly one lakh books that are published each year, barely 700 are available to people who cannot read print. The books can be converted into formats like braille, audio and large print to make them accessible to disabled people using screen readers (talking software) but it’s rarely done,’’ said a campaign volunteer.

Members of the campaign claimed that according to World Blind Union nearly 5% books are available to print-impaired persons in the developed countries. But in India the number of such books is just .5%. Javed Abidi, convener of Disabled Rights Group and one of the key-note speakers in the campaign, said: ‘‘Mostly it’s the visually impaired who have carry out the task to make the books more accessible to them. They have to scan the book and convert it and so that they can enjoy it. This needs to be changed. The onus should be on the publishers so books are made accessible to everyone.’’

The leaders of the campaign approached Union HRD minister Kapil Sibal when he came to speak at the inauguration ceremony of the fair. The minister said he has already done a lot for disabled citizens. Since the campaign was launched, over 600 authors and publishers have pledged their support to the campaign. ‘‘While technology has enabled the print-impaired community to access print materials in electronic formats that can be read using assistive technologies, converting books to these formats is not permitted by the law. The campaign also seeks necessary amendments in the Indian Copyright Act,’’ said Narasimhan.

For original article on The Times of India

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/new-tech-to-let-books-speak

Can you read me?

sachia — 2011-04-02T16:11:00Z

Article by Sahana Charan in the Bangalore Mirror, 11 March 2009

Over 90% of govt websites can’t be accessed by people with disabilities; A Bangalore-based social research organisation has now initiated a nation wide campaign to make the web more accessible to them.

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Would it come as a shock to you that more than 90 per cent of government websites, including those dealing with social welfare issues, can be of no use to visually or hearing impaired persons or even some senior citizens? At least, that is what the Bangalore-based Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) found out when it did a random check on 23 websites of important government organisations. Of the 23 websites that were checked, 21 failed to meet basic standards which could make them accessible to persons with disabilities including those with visual and hearing impairment and motor disabilities.

The study revealed that The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the Indian Institute of Management-Bangalore (IIM-B) websites were the only ones that were designed to meet the needs of all persons including those with disabilities.

When Nirmitha Narasimhan, Programme Manager at CIS, who is visually-impaired herself, ran an automated tool over these websites, she found that most of them failed to meet basic standards. “We carried out accessibility testing on the homepages of 23 sites using an automated tool and of these 21 failed automated verification and only the RBI and IIM-B websites passed verification on the basis of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) Priority 1 checkpoints. But even these websites had some problems. Overall the sites that failed the fewest tests were RBI, IIM-B, RTI and CMC Vellore,” she said.

Access for All

Considering that some of the websites that failed the accessibility test were important for all citizens, including the Railways, Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha, RTI and National Informatics Centre (NIC) websites, the research organisation decided to take this exercise forward by launching a national campaign for electronic accessibility. Their campaign has been so successful that they are now in talks with the central government to formulate a draft policy on electronic accessibility.

“Persons who have disabilities such as blindness or low vision, deafness, cognitive impairment and so on are unable to browse through websites like other persons, since they are unable to see graphics, flash presentations, hear audio clips etc. They use technologies such as screen readers (like Jaws and NVDA which read out whatever appears on the screen for a blind user) or other kinds of devices to perform the functionalities associated with using the computers. For deaf persons, it is necessary to have captioning for an audio clip to tell them what is being played,” says Nirmitha. But she adds that even for assistive technologies to be used, the websites need to have built-in features that will make them accessible to everyone.

Guidelines

“Most websites have features such as graphics which cannot be interpreted by technologies such as screen readers. In such a case, the website creator has to take care to give alternative texts which describe what the graphic is about. For instance, under a picture of a dog on a website, there should also be a line describing the picture,” adds Nirmitha, who is now working with web developers across the country to create awareness about guidelines for creating a website.

The World Wide Web Consortium (www) has come out with guidelines on how to build websites which are accessible to persons using assistive technologies. These guidelines are called the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) and address the needs of all disabilities and inabilities. “In the US, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Germany and many other countries, it is mandatory to implement these guidelines for all websites. Since ours is an internet-savvy nation, it is high time these rules were made mandatory here,” says Nirmitha.

CIS has conducted a series of workshops for web developers from organisations including NIC, JNU and many voluntary agencies so that they could incorporate WCAG. In Karnataka, all government websites are designed by NIC, so it goes without saying that none of them are disabled-friendly.

Their Own Site Too

Karnataka has over 9.4 lakh persons with disabilities of whom at least 10-15 per cent are able to use assistive technology and can access the net. In Bangalore city alone, close to one lakh persons are disabled and quite a few of them have knowledge of computers.

But it is a pity that the website of the Directorate for the Welfare of the Disabled and Senior Citizens cannot be accessed by people who need to use it the most.

Forget being disabled-friendly, the website has not been updated since 2007 and the gallery section still shows pictures of former chief minister H D Kumaraswamy.

What the guidelines say

For sites which have graphics, alternative text should be given at the bottom describing the graphic for the benefit of visually impaired persons.

For the hearing impaired, video clips should be accompanied by text running at the bottom of the clip so that they will know what is being said.
Flickering text that cannot be deciphered by a screen reader (a technology used by the visually impaired that reads out test on the computer screen aloud) should be avoided.
For those with motor impairment, options can be given to avoid the use of mouse and where only one single key could be used.

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To read the article at the Bangalore Mirror website, click here.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/can-you-read-me

Campaigners for Inclusion to Organise Awareness Raising Event at Kolkata International Book Fair on February 6

praskrishna — 2011-08-31T10:43:29Z

Campaigners for Inclusion is organising an awareness raising event on Right to Read at the Kolkata International Book Fair on February 6, 2010.

Campaigners for Inclusion (a voluntary citizen group imitative of Sruti Disability Rights Centre & CRY) had introduced the Right to Read Campaign in Kolkata last November. The programme was hosted by National University of Juridical Sciences (NUJS) where Nirmita Narsimhan from CIS and Rahul Cherian of Bookbole were present. Senior academicians like Dr. S. Das, Vice chancellor, University of Calcutta, Senior Journalists from The Telegraph as well as the Principal of Blind Boys Academy participated in a panel discussion and interacted with the audience which comprised of BPOs, DPOs, NGOs and students.

In continuance with the programme, an awareness raising event is being organised in the famous Kolkata International Book Fair on 6 February 2010. The volunteer group will be meeting in front of the Publishers Guild office at 2 p.m. Different Disability groups are expected to join them there—they will tour the entire Book Fair complex, with posters and leaflets, and end the tour in front of the Publishers Guild Office. The campaigners will then give a memorandum to the officials of the Guild.

More than one lakh people visit Kolkata Book Fair every day, so please join us to bring in awareness on non- availability of books for the print impaired.

For further information, please call:

Agni Srinivasan@ 09831477703, or

Moumita Chakraborty@ 09804364095

Video

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/events/awareness-raising-event-Kolkata

Call for Case Studies on ICT

praskrishna — 2011-04-02T11:12:44Z

CIS invites organisations to participate in a study focusing on best practices in the use of ICTs in education for persons with disabilities.

The study aims to document best practices in the use of ICT tools and platforms in developing countries, especially in the South, to make educational resources accessible to disabled persons. We are interested in looking at new and creative ways of knowledge building and sharing, development and deployment of low cost technologies, and innovative ways in which mainstream resources are made available to students with disabilities in the digital age. The study is intended to serve as a learning tool for educators facing similar challenges in developing countries. If you feel that your organisation could serve as a good example for others, and would like to be featured in our study, please contact Nirmita Narasimhan at nirmita@cis-india.org before 15th August.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/call-for-case-studies-ict

Bridging the Divide

Prasad — 2011-04-02T13:56:32Z

Video clipping of the National Conference on ICT's for the differently abled held in Loyola College, Chennai from 1 December to 3 December, 2009.

NDTVHindu Channel covers the National Conference on ICT's for the differently-abled three minutes into the video footage.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/bridging-the-divide

Bridging the Digital Divide

praskrishna — 2016-08-24T16:50:41Z

Nirmita Narasimhan will be a panelist at an annual event called "All Hands Meet" organized by Wipro on August 25, 2016 in Bangalore.

Nirmita Narasimhan will be speaking on digital accessibility. The session will be moderated by Rama Chari, Director DEOC. For more info contact sucheta.narang@wipro.com

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/accessibility/news/bridging-the-digital-divide

Breaking News on Electronic Accessibility

Rahul Cherian — 2012-09-28T03:57:27Z

The Parliamentary Standing Committee constituted to study the Electronic Delivery of Services Bill has in its report explicitly recognized the concept of electronic accessibility and reasonable accommodation. This is the first time in the country that these two concepts have been reflected at the level of a Parliamentary Standing Committee in relation to a non-disability specific law.

This Bill, which deals with the electronic delivery of public services, had several drawbacks when it came to access of public services by persons with disabilities. Inclusive Planet Centre for Disability Law and Policy (www.inclusiveplanet.org.in) had submitted a note with inputs from 30 organisations, to submit to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on the Electronic Delivery of Services Bill. The submissions to the Standing Committee included the concerns of persons with disabilities and the possible solutions to address the gaps in the Bill. The submissions are available here (http://tinyurl.com/d79sn7e).

The Report of the Committee has now been made public. The Standing Committee has accepted the points made in the submissions.

The three major changes recommended by the Committee based on the submissions are the given below. The relevant extracts of the Committee’s report have been compiled by Vaishnavi Jayakumar and are available here (http://goo.gl/P3CKX).

a. Recognition of Electronic Accessibility

In response the questions raised by the Committee based on the input that was submitted, it is now proposed to amend the definition of “assisted access” from “assistance to access electronic services” to “assistance to access electronic services by the users including users with special needs” This is the first time that electronic access for persons with disabilities could be recognized by a non-disability specific legislation in India.

b. Recognition of the Necessity of Providing Various Forms of Assistance

The Committee emphasized that the specific needs of the differently-abled persons like providing hard copy documents/forms in Braille and large print or for using thumb impressions instead of signatures while submitting the form or receiving the services/provision for providing intermediaries/professional sign language, interpreters, locations for offices for availing services for the purpose of EDS at the ground floor, etc., should specifically be taken care of while formulating rules.

c. No Removal of Commissioners on the Ground of Disability Without Providing Reasonable Accommodation

The Committee has concluded that in light of India’s obligations under the UNCRPD, though the clauses relating to removal of Commissioners were on par with those in other Statutes, appropriate rules/amendments to the Bill could be moved to mandate reasonable accommodation. This again is potentially the first time that a non-disability specific legislation will include the prerequisite for reasonable accommodation to be provided to a person holding a statutory post who has a disability/becomes disabled during the course of his tenure.

News reports indicate that this Bill will be introduced in the winter session of Parliament. This Bill, if passed, will be a welcome precedent for the disability sector to replicate in other legislations.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/accessibility/breaking-news-on-electronic-accessibility

Bookshare.org Seminar

sachia — 2011-08-31T10:49:34Z

A demonstration of Bookshare.org, an online digital library for people with print disabilities

Books without Barriers

Bookshare.org is an online digital library with over 7,500 books in English in accessible formats for people with print disabilities. Members can read books using any assistive technology such as DAISY, BRF and text file for only Rs. 400 per year.

Publishers and Authors in our Collection:

We have books from East West publications, Seasons Publishing, Orient Blackswan and authors such as Charles Dickens, Shakespeare, Ashokamitran and many more.

Watch a Demonstration and Try Bookshare!

If you have a visual impairment, physical disability, such as cerebral palsy, or a learning disability, such as dyslexia, you can become a member and access our library! Come and see the many books available for you on 1 July 2009 at the CIS office.

Time and Date

Wednesday, 1 July, 2009; 11.00 am-1.00 pm

Venue

Centre for Internet and Society, No. D2, 3rd Floor, Shariff Chambers (Wockhardt Hospital building), 14, Cunningham Road, Bangalore - 560052

Map

For a map, please click here.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/events/bookshare.org-seminar

Books shut by law blinkers

radha — 2011-04-02T14:20:16Z

An article in The Telegraph (Kolkata) by Chandrima S Bhattacharya - 6th December, 2009

Imagine a life without books. Try to imagine it, really, said Moiz Tundawala, a student at the National University of Juridical Sciences (NUJS). He cannot read: he has lost his eyesight slowly over the years. He can only distinguish between light and dark now. But he is one of the toppers in his class and he initiated the meeting on the “Right to Read” campaign at the NUJS last month.

The campaign aims to amend the Indian copyright law, so that Moiz and millions like him in the country have far greater access to books. Now Moiz uses JAWS, a software that reads out the text from a computer screen. Sruti Disability Rights Centre, Calcutta, organised the programme that was hosted by the NUJS and launched “Right to Read” campaign in Calcutta, after The Centre for Internet and Society from Bangalore had launched it in Chennai.

Technology has helped the visually impaired tremendously over the past decade or so. But not enough, certainly not enough people in India, which is home to the world’s largest number of blind people.

Of the 37 million people across the globe who are blind, over 15 million are Indians. One problem India faces is that such software is expensive. JAWS costs Rs 50,000 for every user. It is difficult for most to afford the software. So most use demo versions. The price also encourages piracy. And when the text is read out in English, since the software often comes from the US, the voice uses an American accent, said S.B. Patnaik, the principal of the Blind Boys’ Academy, Narendrapur, part of a panel that discussed technology as an aid to the visually impaired at the NUJS event. Many Indians find that accent difficult to follow.

The biggest problem is access to Indian texts. The Indian copyright law does not allow the conversion of all texts into formats accessible to the blind, such as in large print, audio, Braille or any electronic format. Nirmita Narasimhan of the Centre for Internet and Society said only a small percentage of Indian texts are now accessible to the visually impaired.
With her was Rahul Cherian of eBookbole, a website that encourages visually impaired and print-disabled people to connect and share books that have been converted into an accessible format.

The amendment of the copyright law is additionally important since India has already ratified the United Nations Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD).

The UN convention broadens the definition of accessibility for disabled persons considerably compared with its definition in Indian law. The activists are also demanding a change in the Persons with Disabilities Act, which defines access only in terms of built-in environment. They want to extend the definition of access, by taking it beyond the purely physical.
The UN convention extends the idea of access to many freedoms, and not only access to information, but to freedom of speech and expression and the right to culture and the right to leisure. In other words, it requires the written word to be fully available to the visually impaired, in whatever format the user is friendly with.

“India is under the obligation to implement the UN convention, since it has ratified it,” said Rukmini Sen, who teaches at the NUJS and was part of the panel.

Link to the original article

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/books-shut-by-law-blinkers

Best Practices in Digital Accessibility

praskrishna — 2016-12-16T22:35:44Z

Nirmita Narasimhan will be part of a discussion on the best practices in digital accessibility to be organized by the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore (IIMB) on 19 December 2016 in Bengaluru.

IIMB is also inviting few select panel members who work in organizations to talk about specifics such as their tangible activities, success stories, and needs.The outcome of this discussion will be featured in the journal - IIMB Management Review. Nirmita will be attending as a special audience invitee.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/accessibility/news/best-practices-in-digital-accessibility

Bengalureans to receive Helen Keller award

Admin — 2018-01-01T16:24:49Z

Three Bengalureans and two organisations from the city have been selected this year for the Helen Keller awards, given by the National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People (NCPEDP) and Mindtree.

The article was published by Deccan Herald on November 30, 2017

The awards, instated in 1999 to encourage the creation of employment for persons with disabilities (PwD), will be presented on December 2, in Delhi, on the eve of World Disability Day. A total of 10 awards are given - six to individuals and four to role-model organisations.

In the Role Model-Disabled Person category, Pradip Sinha, an executive in Dell-EMC in Bengaluru is one of the individuals awarded. In spite of being hearing and visually impaired, Pradip works independently without an interpreter. He also teaches deaf-blind children at Helen Keller Institute for the Deaf Blind (HKIDB).

Dr Nirmita Narasimhan, the founding member of Centre for Internet and Society in Bengaluru, has also been awarded in this category. Nirmita is partially visually disabled and has worked with disability organisations, governments and UN bodies advocating for digital accessibility, promoting universal design and open source assistive technology.

In the role model, non-disabled person category, Swaminathan Subramanian, a manager at ANZ Bengaluru Service Centre has won. He has been working for inclusion of PwD and his efforts have resulted in the hiring of 220 persons with disabilities in the company.

City-based coffee chain Hatti Kaapi has been awarded as a role model organisation for providing employment to PwD, senior citizens, and people from rural areas. It has partnered with various NGOs to look for people with disabilities such as autism, physical disability, and visual disability. Inspired by the award, the company has decided to dedicate one of their outlets to be run and managed exclusively by disabled employees from December 2.

Vindhya E-Infomedia Private Limited, BPO in the city which has a large proportion of PwD in their staff has also been awarded. In their Bengaluru centre, about 58% of employees are disabled while the Hyderabad centre has only PwD as staff.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/accessibility/news/deccan-herald-november-30-2017-bengalureans-to-receive-helen-keller-award

Bengali eSpeak Aids in Disaster Management

anirudh — 2013-11-07T09:21:07Z

Software developed on the eSpeak was deployed in Bangladesh and helped its citizens for disaster management.

The Bangla e-Speak text to speech synthesizer which was developed as part of a project funded by The Hans Foundation and executed by CIS in partnership with other partner organizations from the Daisy Forum of India was recently deployed in Bangladesh during cyclone Mahasen to read out messages which were sent during the emergency. A lot of organizations are working on TTS and their usefulness has already been established by Mahiti when they developed the Bangla Bol eSpeak. The text-to- speech (TTS) software is a very important technology for the visually impaired in that it gives a voice to text, enabling access to a whole host of information.[1]

Currently, a lot of proprietary TTS programmes are available like Balabolka, and Ultra Hal TTS reader but this TTS is an inexpensive alternative for the visually impaired.[2] This is because eSpeak is an open source compact software speech synthesizer. It is currently not available in many local Indian languages but it is possible to add new languages and even new dialects. The Bangla TTS project converted speech into Bengali.[3]

This programme was used in an innovative and useful way by applying it in disaster situations. In the case of a disaster, whether natural or national security related, the news media do not provide information in an accessible format. It is extremely important in these situations for the visually impaired to have clear access to ongoing events, get updates about things like rescue plans. The main work in order to be useful in these scenarios involved integrating national Geographic Information System (GIS), mobile phone networks and fax for the different stakeholders that need to interact before the disaster and for the responses after the disaster.[4]

The Bangla TTS was also integrated into the National Disaster Response system in Bangladesh, a country that is geographically vulnerable to many natural disasters like floods.

In order to integrate the TTS into the National Disaster Response system of Bangladesh, within the framework of the established philosophy, the entire disaster management system was built on an open-source stack. The automated bulk outward calling provision that was built for alerting people about an impending disaster had to broadcast the messages of which the text-to-voice conversion also had to be automated. During the process, many open source tools were tried but eSpeak was finally tried as it has a really low memory footprint and is very efficient for a large scale of operation. During the cyclone Mahasen, this proved decisive as the call volumes were very high and eSpeak scaled to meet the huge demand. All the pre-emptive alerts that were sent through the disaster management system were sent through this TTS. The programme helped a large size of the population and a diverse demographic. The Entire coastal Bangladeshi population benefited from the system. During the peak load, the system handled 27,000 calls, which shows that it has the capacity to deliver in the most difficult situations.

Mahiti,along with a partner in Bangladesh, was the organization responsible for developing this software. There are currently a few Bangla Text to Speech softwares on the internet like Kathak TTS but the Bangla Bol has some unique features.[5]

It’s an eSpeak Bangla language support which is open-source and is based on the”formant synthesis" method. This method enables the integration of many languages without modifying the underlying framework. It also enables language experts with even no programming knowledge to add or improve the language supported in eSpeak which is the most important feature of eSpeak. eSpeak was not just chosen because of its technical strengths, but also because it’s a part of a project to develop and integrate into a Non-Visual Desktop Access (NVDA) open-source project which aims to enable computer desktop accessibility (screen reader functionality) to the blind. This is so that it can be used in many local Indian languages. Bangla was part of the first set of four languages that was completed by Mahiti (Hindi, Telugu and Malayalam were the remaining three). Therefore, while the far reaching consequences of the development work under this project being carried on in India to benefit its own marginalized populations and that of neighboring countries was never in doubt, this recent usage in Bangladesh adds fresh impetus to the work and underscores the criticality of this work.

[1]. Sen, Prasanjit. "Reading without Seeing: Mahiti's work on eSpeak." Mahiti Blog. Mahiti, 27 08 2013. Web. 2 Oct. 2013.

[2]. Alam, Firoj , and Mumit Khan. "Text To Speech for Bangla Language using Festival." BRAC University, Bangladesh . (2007): n. page. Web. 8 Oct. 2013.

[3]. Sen, Prasanjit. "Mahiti launches 'Bangla Bola' eSpeak (Bengali Speaking eSpeak) ." Mahiti Blog. Mahiti, 28 08 2013. Web. 2 Oct. 2013.

[4]. "Our Work- mproving National Disaster response."Mahiti.org. Mahiti, n.d. Web. 2 Oct 2013.

[5]. See footnote 2.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/bengali-e-speak-aids-in-disaster-management

Banking and Accessibility in India: A Study on Banking Accessibility in India — Call for Comments

Vrinda Maheshwari — 2012-10-30T04:50:56Z

The adoption of accessible features and technologies by banks in India is low despite there being legislative and executive push for it. It is important for the banks to understand not just their obligations but also the benefits that will accrue to them if they follow the suggested guidelines.

Executive Summary

India is a signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Peoples with Disability, and has an obligation to provide equal opportunities and facilities to everyone, irrespective of any disabilities they might suffer from. This is guaranteed in the right to equality and the right to life, which are enshrined in the Fundamental Rights in the Constitution of India. There are also specific Reserve Bank of India notifications that mandate banks offer banking facilities in a non-discriminatory manner to all customers. However, there are still many problems faced by people with disabilities when accessing banking and financial services in India. Many banks and ATMs aren’t physically accessible, the staff has no training or expertise in dealing with customers who have special needs, and despite the existence of the technology, ATMs are not equipped to be used by people with disabilities.

There are several guidelines which are in place internationally which can be referred to when formulating policy on banking and accessibility in India. These include guidelines on ATM construction and modification (USA) and guidelines on making websites accessible for people with disabilities (the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines), as well as voluntary standards that have been taken up by Banking Associations in countries like Australia and New Zealand in order to making banking more accessible to people with disabilities and the older population.

Currently the adoption of accessible features and technologies in banks in India is very low, despite there being a legislative as well as executive push for the same. Banks which do not follow these guidelines are not meeting their legal requirements, and it is important for them to understand not just their obligations, but also the benefits that will accrue to them if they follow the suggested guidelines. To that end, this report looks at the current notifications and guidelines that govern this area, the problems faced by people with disabilities, and looks at guidelines from other countries to suggest solutions that can be incorporated by different banks in India.

The full report can be accessed by clicking on the link below:

Banking and Accessibility Report [PDF, 555Kb]

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/banking-and-accessibility-in-india