Centre for Internet and Society

Now, online books for disabled persons

radha — 2011-04-02T14:58:42Z

An article by L Subramani – Deccan Herald (6th Sept, 2009)

Bangalore: DAISY Forum of India (DFI), who promote talking books in DAISY (Digitally Accessible Information System) format for persons with disability, has provided an accessible consolidated list of DAISY books online for disabled persons across the country to browse.
“At the moment, we have catalogues from Saksham Trust (Delhi), NAB, Mitra Jyoti (Bangalore), BPA (Ahmedabad), Blind Persons Association (Calcutta) and Discipleship Centre. We would get more catalogues in the near future,” said Dipendra Manocha, President DSI, in an email announcement.
Bookbole.com, an online portal designed for persons with disability, is hosting the catalogue. “We have about 600 books in total,” said Nirmita Narasimhan, Project Manager with city-based Centre for Internet and Society (CIS), who have partnered in creating bookbole.
“Accessibility, especially books and printed materials has been a problem for persons with vision challenge. Daisy Talking Books (DTB) have been created to address the dearth of information in accessible format,” Nirmita said. Persons who access the catalogue at bookbole.com can contact the concerned organisation directly and get the book from them.
“On receiving the request for books, we would burn it on a CD (in DAISY format) and post it to the concerned individual. This is the first time we have a consolidated list of DAISY books in the country, which is good for both people looking for books and organisations like us who have been developing them,” Madhu Singhal, Managing Trustee of Bangalore-based Mitra Jyothi.
DAISY format allows readers to access the books both in text and audio format. It is also easier for the readers to understand certain finer aspects of the book such as page numbers. “If someone wants to re-read a particular page in a book, it is entirely not possible in traditional audio format. Whereas, DAISY format lets them know exactly the place they are reading and let them go back and forth quite the same way as an able-bodied person would do with the printed page,” Madhu said.

-DH News Service

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/now-online-books-for-disabled-persons

Not Quite Right

radha — 2009-10-22T09:50:56Z

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/home-images/right-to-read-campaign-kolkata/New%20-%20Not%20Quite%20Right.jpg

NCIDEEE

radha — 2011-08-22T13:16:49Z

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/accessibility/publications/Consolidated%20Programme.pdf

Native plays

radha — 2012-01-03T11:08:46Z

Online activist groups are helping change perceptions about the internet generation, says Shweta Taneja, Time Out Bengaluru.

In May 2008, Anivar Aravind, a Bangalore-based software consultant, came up with a strategy to petition for the release of Binayak Sen, the human rights activist who had been jailed by the Chhattisgarh government exactly a year before, in May 2007. Sen, who is known for his efforts in defending the rights of tribal and underprivileged people, had been held for alleged unlawful activities, and the detention was declared in breach of international Amnesty laws. Aravind’s ploy, to hasten Sen’s release, was entirely based in the online sphere. He created the website www.binayeksen.net, where he sought to bring together different groups of people protesting against the arrest. “By that time, it had been a year since Sen had been in jail,” said the 26-year-old, “and activists had exhausted all strategies to no avail. The movement needed to be reintroduced imaginatively.”

The website, said Aravind, was a way of using the digital space and creating an information channel to reactivate people towards the cause of freeing Sen. The website’s team went on to populate pages on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, to call for nationwide protests on specific dates. “We even provided posters and updates on local protests to facilitate people getting together,” said Aravind. Two years after the activist’s arrest, the online movement had resulted in over 60 different protest events. Sixteen of these protests were held outside the country, observed by NRIs outside various Indian embassies. On May 25 this year, Sen was released on bail. “It was the combination of mobilisation of audiences on the web and taking that protest offline and onto the streets that worked,” reflected Aravind.

For Nishant Shah, director of research at the city’s Centre for Internet and Society, Aravind is one among a strain of online users who fall under the banner of “digital natives”. “People like Aravind, who claim to live within, on, through and by the internet and digital technologies are [called] digital natives,” explained Shah. “You might be connected online, but still not be a person whose crucial social, cultural, political and economic activities, as well as imaginations, are informed by new technologies.”

In an attempt to unravel the concept, the CIS recently conducted an extensive research on the subject. “The available definitions of the term ‘digital native’ were simply based on age – children born after the ’80s, or young power-users of technology from a particular class-bracket,” explained Shah. But that was clearly not the case, realised Shah. To help with the study, CIS collaborated with The Knowledge Programme, led by the Humanist Institute for Development Cooperation, a Dutch organisation. The study aimed to examine the identity of digital natives and to understand the manner in which these natives had turned into “e-agents” of change, constantly finding new ways of engaging with different socio-cultural and political crises through digital technologies.

To explore concerns of such web usage in India, CIS recently conducted a workshop at Ranga Shankara, which involved school children, parents, teachers, activists and artists, before releasing a paper titled “Digital Natives with a Cause?” While the study attempts at busting the perception that digital users are a privileged, upper-class, English-speaking group of people who use the internet only for pleasure, it also helped subvert the idea of a generation that is believed to be largely disconnected from reality and lives in bubbles of social networks and online groups. “This new generation is not being taken seriously enough,” said Shah.

CIS has now announced an international conference – to be held next year – that will invite scholars, academics, NGOs, practitioners, policy makers and activists to explore the various contexts occupied by digital natives. The plan also includes a book that will document various successful campaigns of the kind from across the globe. “The study is a first resource tool that hopes to help researchers and practitioners formulate projects that work on youth-technology relationships,” explained Shah.

The paper “Digital Natives with a Cause?” is available as a free download at www.cis-india.org.

Link to the original article

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/native-plays

National workshop on Web Accessibility - Thiruvananthapuram (Report)

radha — 2011-08-17T08:45:16Z

The third National Workshop on Web Accessibility for Web developers was organised by CIS at Thiruvananthapuram in collaboration with SPACE.

(CIS) and Society for Promotion of Alternative Computing and Employment (SPACE) organized a workshop on web accessibility for web developers from the public and private sector on September 25 to 26, 2009. The workshop took place at Christ Nagar International School, Kowdiar, Thiruvananthapuram.

About the Host Organizations

The Centre for Internet and Society
The Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) is a Bangalore based non-profit, bringing together a team of practitioners, theoreticians, researchers and artists to work on the emerging field of Internet and Society in order to critically engage with concerns of digital pluralism, public accountability and pedagogic practices, with particular emphasis on South-South dialogues and exchange. We focus on areas such as Anonymity/Privacy, Censorship, Surveillance, Free and Open Source Software, Open Standards, Open Access, Family, Sexual practices, Addiction, Intellectual Property Rights and Trade, Piracy, ICT4D, Digital and Participation Divide and Digital Communities and Movements.

Society For Promotion of Alternative Computing and Employment
Society For Promotion of Alternative Computing and Employment (SPACE) is a registered society that has members from academia, the IT industry, professional societies such as IEEE and Computer Society of India, and the IT Administration of the Government of Kerala. The vision of SPACE is to promote the use of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) in academics, governance, corporate and individual use, and to support the use FOSS for employment generation in Kerala. The primary thrust are of the intervention are:

Promote the use of FOSS in the public, private, and governmental sectors as well as for personal/home use
Develop a model for FOSS- based employment generation that is appropriate to Kerala's context, by identifying appropriate business opportunities and providing support services including training and micro business incubation
Carry out R & D activities for the development of essential prototypes that bridge existing gaps in software, so as to enable widespread use of FLOSS
Ensure that Kerala is able to develop sufficient numbers of high-quality human resources in the FLOSS domain

Kerala State IT Mission

Kerala State Information Technology Mission (KSITM) is a Society registered under the Travancore Cochin Literary Scientific & Charitable Societies Registration Act. It is an autonomous nodal IT implementation agency for Department of Information Technology, Government of Kerala which provides managerial support to various initiatives of the Department.

About the Resource Persons

Rahul Gonsalves
Rahul has been building accessible websites since 2005 (sample work at http://rahulgonsalves.com/projects/ [1] ). He has been activiely involved in promoting web and accessibility standards. He spoke at the first international accessibility and technology conference in India, Techshare 2008, where he made out a case for accessibility and conducted a workshop on retrofitting accessibility to existing websites, a concern for most large institutions with an existing online presence (slides available at http://www.barrierbreak.com/events-conference/techshare_presentations200... [2])

In September 2008, he presented a paper examining ways in which People with various impairments - both physical and mental - engage with online content, and demonstrated practical ways in which authors can make online content accessible at the National Conference on ICT for Differently Abled People. He is a supporter of the push for having a national policy for governing electronic accessibility in India.

Srinivasu Chakravartula
Srinivasu Chakravarthula - graduated in Computer Science and is certified in 'assistive technologies'. He started his career as Head of the Braille Production Unit at National Association for the Blind, Bangalore. He then moved on and taught Computer Science at the Manik Public School, Bidar and also set up the Computer Training Centre at Hyderabad and Maniknagar, Bidar.

In the year 2005, he began to specialize in accessibility and started working for Net Systems Informatics and its subsidiary - BarrierBreak Technologies, Mumbai. During his stint at Net Systems, he was instrumental in setting up an accessibility process, imparting accessibility training to Corporates, creating awareness about accessibility and assistive technologies. Srinivasu played an innovative role in organizing Techshare India 2008 - India's 1st Accessibility and Assistive Technologies Conference and Exhibition. He was also Program Coordinator for Magazine, a3 that talked about Ability, Accessibility and Adaptability.

Srinivasu is currently working for Yahoo! India as Accessibility Manager and is responsible to lead and evangelize accessibility and its initiatives across Yahoo! India and South East Asia. He is also a member of the core committee for Yahoo! Employee Foundation India (YEFI). Srinivasu is associated with the social sector through the National Association for the Blind, India; Enable India, Shri Manik Prabhu Sikshan Samiti and Success World. His hobbies include blogging, tweeting, listening to classical music, playing chess and swimming.

Schedule of the Workshop

Day I

Introductory Session

Disability - 5 major types
The W3C and the WCAG
How people with disabilities use computers

Group Exercise/Discussion

Split participants into small groups and give them questions/problems to talk about and solve
Example: If your friend is deaf, how do you make sure that she/he understands what a video is about? OR How does someone who can't see or hear answer/check their email? OR X lost his hands in a car accident. How does he do a Google search?

Session 1 - Building an Accessible Website

Laying Accessible Foundations
Table-less layouts
Well-structured markup
Valid Code

Lecture/Demonstration of Accessibility Features under GNU/Linux by Arky

Lecture/Demonstration of NVDA Screen Reader

Lunch

Session 2 - Building an Accessible Website

Removing Barriers
Guideline 1 - Perception
Non-text content
Audio/Visual content
Adaptability
Contrast

Group Exercise: Guideline 1 - Translate a offline newspaper into an online one, and ensure that structure and information are retained when the content is adapted.

Wrap Session - Feedback and Clarifications

Day II

Lecture/Demonstration of ARIA features on selected websites

Session 3 - Guideline 2

Operable
Keyboard Access
Enough Time
Seizures
Navigable

LUNCH

Session 4 - Guideline 3 and 4

Understandable
Natural Language
Predictable
Input Assistance
Robust
Compatible

Session 5 - Accessibility Testing

Automated Testing + Tools
Manual Testing

Wrap Session - Feedback and Clarifications

Participants List

1. Mr. Vibeesh P - Team Leader, Rainconcert

2. Mr. Sunil S - Computer Programmer, ANERT

3. Mr. Vineet Pratap - Parallel Programmer, NIIST

4. Mr. Binsun N T - Software Engineer, Keltron

5. Mr. M.L. Antony - Manager (Software/Web Services), Keltron

6. Mr. Rojilal M. L - Programmer, KSEB

7. Ms. Dhanya Balakrishnan - Graduate Apprentice, Kerala State IT Mission

8. Ms. Indu Reghunath - Developer, SPACE

9. Mr. Jithin Babu B - Web Programmer, Freelance

10. Mr. Hareesh Mohan - Developer, SPACE

11. Mr. Sujith Sureshan - Developer, SPACE

12. Mr. Vinu C R - Web Programmer, IT@School

13. Mr. Cherian P Thomas - Programmer, KSEB

14. Mr. B Vijayakumar - Programmer, KSEB

15. Mr. Sunil Kumar - Governement Employee, Kerala Khadi and Village Industries Board

16. Mr. Anil Kumar - Akshaya, PA-MIS

17. Mr. Shanavas Khan - Programmer, Freelance

18. Ms. Shatti Raj - Scientist 'C', National Informatics Center

19. Ms. Rameena M - Developer, SPACE

20. Ms. Gita Brajesh - PSA, National Informatics Center

21. Ms. Indusekhar M S - System Analyst, National Informatics Center

22. Ms. Somi P Thomas - Scientist 'B', National Informatics Center

23. Ms. Nissy George - System Analyst, National Informatics Center

24. Ms. Susy M - Software Development, National Informatics Center

25. Ms. Jisy V K - Technical Apprentice, Kerala State IT Mission

26. Ms. Sandhya Devi T - Project Associate, IT@School

27. Ms. Saritha D R - Project Associate Executive, IT@School

28. Mr. Shaik Mohamed - System Analyst, National Informatics Center

29. Mr. Shibin Shah K J - Student, RSCS

30. Mr. Aneesh Bhadran - Student. RIT

31. Mr. Thomas K S - Assistant Manager, Camputec

32. Mr. Anil S - Member, SDS

33. Mr. John Panicker - Website Designer

34. Ms. Teenamol L - Information Kerala Mission

35. Mr. Shine A R - Information Kerala Mission

36. Mr. Jayahari K V

37. Mr. Naveen P L

38. Mr. Jijo Mathew

39. Mr. Antony Rodrugues

40. Mr. Satheeh S

41. Mr. Sajeevan C - Student, INSIGHT

Feedback

Session I

Title: Building an Accessible Website

Topics Covered: Laying Accessible Foundations, Table-less layouts, Well-structured markup, Valid Code

Content

	Excellent	Good	Need Improvement	Not Applicable
Covered Useful Materials	11	12	0	1
Practical to my needs and interest	9	11	3	1
Well Organized	12	9	1	2
Presented at the right level	14	9	0	1
Use Visual Aids	12	10	0	2

Presentation

	Excellent	Good	Need Improvement	Not Applicable
Instructor's Knowledge	20	3	0	1
Instructor's Presentation Style	16	7	0	1
Instructor Covered Materials Clearly	12	11	0	1
Instructor Responded Well to questions	18	5	0	1

Title: Lecture/Demonstration of Accessibility Features under GNU/Linux by Arky

Content

	Excellent	Good	Need Improvement	Not Applicable
Covered Useful Materials	12	8	1	3
Practical to my needs and interest	7	13	2	2
Well Organized	12	10	0	2
Presented at the right level	11	11	0	2
Use Visual Aids	9	11	1	3

Presentation

	Excellent	Good	Need Improvement	Not Applicable
Instructor's Knowledge	13	10	0	1
Instructor's Presentation Style	9	14	0	1
Instructor Covered Materials Clearly	9	14	0	1
Instructor Responded Well to questions	13	10	0	1

Title : Lecture/Demonstration of NVDA Screen Reader

Content

	Excellent	Good	Need Improvement	Not Applicable
Covered Useful Materials	7	14	1	2
Practical to my needs and interest	7	10	3	4
Well Organized	8	11	2	3
Presented at the right level	8	10	3	3
Use Visual Aids	7	12	3	2

Presentation

	Excellent	Good	Need Improvement	Not Applicable
Instructor's Knowledge	10	12	0	2
Instructor's Presentation Style	9	11	1	3
Instructor Covered Materials Clearly	7	14	1	2
Instructor Responded Well to questions	11	10	0	3

Session II

Title : Building an Accessible Website

Topics Covered : Removing Barriers, Guideline 1 - Perception, Non-text content, Audio/Visual content, Adaptability, Contrast

Content

	Excellent	Good	Need Improvement	Not Applicable
Covered Useful Materials	12	10	1	1
Practical to my needs and interest	11	11	1	1
Well Organized	12	9	2	1
Presented at the right level	15	8	0	1
Use Visual Aids	12	10	1	1

Presentation

	Excellent	Good	Need Improvement	Not Applicable
Instructor's Knowledge	15	7	0	2
Instructor's Presentation Style	11	11	0	2
Instructor Covered Materials Clearly	11	11	0	2
Instructor Responded Well to questions	13	9	0	2

Session III

Title :Guideline 2

Topics Covered: Operable, Keyboard Access, Enough Time, Seizures, Navigable

Content

	Excellent	Good	Need Improvement	Not Applicable
Covered Useful Materials	11	10	0	3
Practical to my needs and interest	10	11	0	3
Well Organized	9	12	0	3
Presented at the right level	8	12	1	3
Use Visual Aids	9	11	1	3

Presentation

	Excellent	Good	Need Improvement	Not Applicable
Instructor's Knowledge	12	9	0	3
Instructor's Presentation Style	10	11	0	3
Instructor Covered Materials Clearly	9	11	1	3
Instructor Responded Well to questions	11	10	0	3

Session IV

Title : Guideline 3 and 4

Topics Covered : Understandable, Natural Language, Predictable, Input Assistance, Robust, Compatible

Content

	Excellent	Good	Need Improvement	Not Applicable
Covered Useful Materials	10	11	2	1
Practical to my needs and interest	9	13	0	2
Well Organized	12	11	0	1
Presented at the right level	14	8	0	2
Use Visual Aids	12	10	1	1

Presentation

	Excellent	Good	Need Improvement	Not Applicable
Instructor's Knowledge	13	8	0	3
Instructor's Presentation Style	11	10	0	3
Instructor Covered Materials Clearly	12	9	0	3
Instructor Responded Well to questions	13	8	0	3

Session V

Title :Accessibility Testing

Topics Covered: Automated Testing + Tools, Manual Testing

Content

	Excellent	Good	Need Improvement	Not Applicable
Covered Useful Materials	15	9	0	0
Practical to my needs and interest	14	9	1	0
Well Organized	13	11	0	0
Presented at the right level	13	11	0	0
Use Visual Aids	14	9	1	0

Presentation

	Excellent	Good	Need Improvement	Not Applicable
Instructor's Knowledge	17	7	0	3
Instructor's Presentation Style	14	10	0	3
Instructor Covered Materials Clearly	14	9	0	1
Instructor Responded Well to questions	16	7	1	3

Workshop Organizers

Ms Nirmita Narsimhan (Programme Manager)
The Centre for Internet and Society
No. D2, 3rd Floor, Sheriff Chambers
14, Cunningham Road, Bangalore,
Karnataka 560052,
India

Phone: (+91)-080-4092-6283‎
Fax: (+91)-080-4114-8130
Email: nirmita@cis-india.org

Mr. Thomas Abraham (Training Coordinator)
Society for Promotion of Alternative Computing and Employment
C-11, Elankom Gardens,
Vellayambalam, Thiruvananthapuram
Kerala, India

Mobile: +91 94964 13317 Office Phone: +91 47123 18997
Email: tomuhs@gmail.com, contact@space-kerala.org

Consolidated Expenses of Web Accessibility Workshop, Trivandrum

Budget Head		Amount (Rs.)

Rent of lab and set up		15200
Accomodation		4963
Stationery		10285
Communication		507
Food		7535
Travel		6235
Coordination		10000
Total		54725

Please click here for the complete report.

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

National Workshop on Web Accessibility

radha — 2011-08-31T10:46:56Z

The Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) and Society for Promotion of Alternative Computing and Employment (SPACE) are organizing a workshop on web accessibility for web developers from the public and private sector from September 25th to 26th, 2009.

The workshop seeks to bring together practitioners from 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 comprises both theory-oriented and practical sessions. The trainers are specialists in various aspects of web accessibility. The main focus will be on WCAG 2.0 guidelines. The workshop is for persons already involved in developing web sites with good knowledge of HTML, XML, CSS, etc. In addition to training web developers in accessibility, the workshop will also serve as a platform for capacity building by training potential accessibility trainers.

The programme is supported by Kerala State IT Mission, which runs INSIGHT - ICT Centre for the differently abled in association with SPACE.

The workshop will take place at Christ Nagar International School, Kowdiar, Thiruvananthapuram, between 09:30-17:30 hours each day.

Hurry! Interested persons are requested to register immediately as seats are limited.

Candidates may register directly on the website at http://c11.space-kerala.org/webw/ OR fill the application form attached and post/ submit to SPACE office (contact@space-kerala.org, thomas@space-kerala.org)

SPACE Office Address
Society for Promotion of Alternative Computing and Employment
C-11, Elankom Gardens,
Vellayambalam, Thiruvananthapuram
Kerala, India

To download the registeration form, please click here

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/events/announcement-of-national-workshop-on-web-accessibility

National Workshop on Web Accessibility

radha — 2011-08-22T12:54:22Z

Registration form

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/accessibility/publications/registration_form-%20Workshop%20on%20Web%20Accessibility.pdf

National Policy on Universal Electronic Accessibility

radha — 2011-08-24T06:02:07Z

Minutes of the meeting on draft National Policy on Universal Electronic Accessibility held on August 17, 2009 in E-Governance Hall, 1st Floor, Electronics Niketan, CGO Complex, New Delhi.

Minutes of the meeting on draft National Policy on Universal Electronic Accessibility held on August 17, 2009 in E-Governance Hall, 1st Floor, Electronics Niketan, CGO Complex, New Delhi.

The following participated:

DIT

Shri N. Ravi Shanker, Joint Secretary, DIT
Dr. Govind, Sr. Director, DIT
Dr. S.K. Aggarwal, Director, DIT
Ms. Tulika Pandey, Addl. Director, DIT (Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment)
Shri T.D. Dhariyal, Dy. Chief Commisioner (M&C), Min. Of Social Justice & Empowerment

NGOs

Shri Javed Abidi, Director, NCPEDP
Ms. Muthamma B. Devaya, NCPEDP
Ms. Shilpa Sawant, NCPEDP
Ms. Dorodi Sharma, NCPEDP
Shri Sunil Abraham, Centre for Internet & Society
Ms. Nirmita, Centre for Internet & Society
Shri Rahul Gonsalves, Web Accessibility Consultant

MNCs

Shri Deepak Maheshwari, Microsoft Corporation (India) Pvt.Ltd.
Shri Ibrahim Ahmad, Cyber Media India Ltd.
Ms. Ritu Ghosh, Sun Microsystems
Ms. Vikas Goswami, Microsoft
Shri Vijay Kapur, Microsoft
Miss Gitanjali, UN Solution Exchange
Ms. Shilpi Kapoor, Barrier Break Technologies

ERNET

Shri B.B. Tiwari, ERNET India
Ms. Tejal Tiwari, ERNET India

NIC

Shri D.P. Misra, NIC
Shri Lokesh Joshi, NIC

CDAC

Shri Amit Srivastava, CDAC

2. Shri N. Ravi Shanker, Joint Secretary, DIT chaired the meeting and welcomed all the participants and requested Shri Javed Abidi, Honorary Director, National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People (NCPEDP) to give an insight on how the draft policy got prepared. He also mentioned that the Department has nominated Dr. Govind, Sr. Director in a committee constituted by Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment for reviewing the work of development of Disabled Friendly websites.

3.1 Shri Abidi thanked the Ministry officials for their co-operation. He elaborated on how India has seen a paradigm shift from charity and welfare to rights and development in the past one decade. This is reflected in the Disability Act, 1995, the United Nations Convention for the Rights of UNCRPD and the XIth Five Year Plan. In fact, India was the 7th and the first most prominent country, to have ratified UNCRPD. It truly reflects the commitment that the present Government has towards disability. The XIth Five Year Plan has a full chapter on disability which mandates accessibility to information and communication. The Plan has the approval of the Prime Minister and Planning Commission.

3.2 Ms. Shilpi Kapoor, Director, Barrier Break Technologies presented the draft policy. She began by saying that the basic premise on which the policy was drafted were:

The Constitution of India
United Nations Convention for the Rights of Persons with Disability (UNCRPD)
The Persons with Disabilities Act, 1995

She mentioned that the draft policy takes into consideration accessibility to hardware and accessibility to user interface (websites and software). As far as content is concerned, it considers only the delivery of the content and not the content itself.

3.3 Ms. Nirmita Narasimhan of Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) elaborated on the available policies on web and electronic accessibility in other countries. Countries like UK and Italy have made it mandatory for providers of public information and services to be accessible to persons with disabilities. Other countries such as US, Australia, Canada, Germany, Japan have made the policies mandatory for Government and advisory for the private sector.

3.4 Dr. S.K. Aggarwal, Director, DIT raised a query in respect of coverage of the following 3 issues:

How could the policy be made mandatory for private sector?
Whether the policy making function in this regard is under the jurisdiction of the IT Ministry alone?
What is the kind of model envisaged for R&D funding under the proposed policy?

He also opined that the draft of the policy needs to be refined, properly worded, made more crisp and coherent, repetitions to be deleted and paragraphs to be numbered.

3.5 Shri Abidi responded by saying that all services available in the public domain should follow the policy and India should not look at the West anymore and should be a pioneer in this effort and policy should cover all sectors. As far as jurisdiction is concerned, the XIth Five Year Plan clearly mandates that all Departments / Ministries must formulate detailed rules and guidelines / policies in their respective domain areas and ensure that not less than 3% of their funds are reserved for disability issues which can take care of funds required for R&D also.

3.6 Shri Sunil Abraham of CIS said that maybe instead of saying ‘private companies’, we could say ‘essential service providers and utilities services’. He further suggested that in order to make the policy more acceptable to a broader set of stakeholders, the phrase ‘open source’ could be deleted since the accessibility policy endorsed specific open standards like WCAG which would level the playing ground for bother proprietary and Free/Open Source Software (FOSS) vendors. Alternatively, he suggested that both proprietary and Free/Open Source Software (FOSS) could be mentioned.

3.7 Members said that there is a need to define clearly the hardware, software and user interfaces covered under the policy. Ms. Shilpi Kapoor and Ms. Nirmita Narasimhan gave examples of ATMs, mobile phones and even Set Top Boxes which would fall under hardware. Ms. Shilpi Kapoor also emphasized on making the issue of Universal Electronic Accessibility mandatory in the procurement process by various Ministries. She stated that most of these service providers have products which are compliant to accessible norms which they sell in Europe or America.

3.8 Shri T.D. Dhariyal, Dy. Chief Commissioner, Dept. Of Disability, Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment expressed his concern about how to make the technology accessible to all, including the poor.

3.9 Shri Vijay Kapur of Microsoft said that in order to have a comprehensive policy covering entire range of hardware products, representation of the electronics industry would be appropriate. It was felf that representation from Industry Association such as MAIT, TEMA, NASSCOM etc. may be obtained. Further he mentioned about inviting industry associations such as CII, FICCI, Asocham etc.

4. As a next step towards finalising the policy, following committee was constituted:

Shri N. Ravi Shanker, Joint Secretary, DIT
Representative from Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment
Shri Javed Abidi, Director, NCPEDP
Ms. Shilpi Kapoor, Barrier Break Technologies
Smt. Neeta Verma, Sr. Technical Director, NIC
Shri Deepak Maheshwari, Director, Microsoft
Shri Sunil Abraham, Centre for Internet and Society
Representative from MAIT / NASSCOM / CII / FICCI / Asocham
Officer from E-Infrastructure Division, DIT - Convenor

It was proposed that the draft policy be finalised at the earliest for its approval by Government of India.

The meeting ended with vote of thanks to the Chair.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/national-policy-on-universal-electronic-accessibility

National Conference on ICTs for the differently- abled/under privileged communities in Education, Employment and Entrepreneurship 2009 - (NCIDEEE 2009)

radha — 2011-08-31T10:48:22Z

A national level conference on the use of Information and Communication Technology for the differently abled / under privileged community in education, employment and entrepreneurship.

The management, staff and students of Loyola College and the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS), Bangalore (in association with department of IT, Government of India and pioneers in educating differently abled and professional bodies like NASSCOM, CSI-Chennai chapter), are proud to announce that we will be hosting a national level conference on the use of Information and Communication Technology for the differently abled / under privileged community in education, employment and entrepreneurship. This conference which will be a momentous occasion will be held from the 1^st to the 3^rd of December and will be attended by individuals from all walks of life including representatives of the differently abled and under privileged community, government officials, educationalists, researchers, program managers, representatives of international business missions, NGOs and students etc.

The main aim of this conference is to devise a successful formula through which the lesser privileged people of our society can be provided the opportunity to use the Information and Communication Technology to grow on par with the modernized world. The program will be a three day event ending on the 3^rd which happens to be e-accessibility day and the World Disability Day and hence in addition to the specific topics with the opinions, ideas and criticisms of each and every individual which will be heard, discussed and analyzed carefully, we will also be recognizing the many individuals who have contributed their tireless efforts in making Information and Communication technology accessible to all.

Some of the main aims and themes of this conference would be the Institutional and national responses to technological change, the intersections of Political economy and educational technology. The architecture of learning, Pedagogy in the evolving tech environment, Informal and formal adult education, Multi-grade education, Instructional design and delivery, evaluation and assessment, Strategies and tools for teaching and learning, simulations and gaming, Effects on training institutions and industry, Impacts on educational institutions: effects on faculty, staff, administration, and students; curriculum and program development Intellectual property, Building communities of teachers/educators, e-governance and leadership and so on.

The focus would be on the various problems faced by the differently abled and the under privileged people in our society especially with respect to education and the use of Information and Communication Technology for their development and tools for language learning especially English, Tamil and Hindi. During the conference, discussions would be made on the ways to implement data mining in such a way that it includes multimedia facilities such as voice over, Globalization and ICT in the labour market, ICT applications and systems contributing to desirable goals, learning, knowledge growth and career patterns in ICT, leadership roles, human needs, skills and competencies needed for proper growth and its effects, etc. These problems and solutions would be discussed on every possible front including the political, the educational the financial level with its usefulness and effects on the under privileged in mind.

We would also strive with our utmost effort to reach our desired goals such as humanization, bridging the digital gap, freedom of expression, peace, sustainability, human welfare and quality of life. The most important of them all will be the devising of important decisions and strategies that could be implemented in order to help the differently abled people use Information and Communication Technology for their employment by means of introduction of newly devised hardware and software that could benefit them and enable them to develop further.

It is hoped that this conference will be a memorable experience for both the participants as well as the hosts resulting in decisions that are aimed at making life better and easier for all the differently abled and under privileged throughout the country.

Registration

About Loyola College:

Loyola College, Chennai is one of the leading colleges not only in the state of Tamilnadu alone but also in India. It has been rated A+ by the NAAC for several years in a row and is also one among the top ten colleges in the country. All this is proof enough that the college takes utmost interest in the development of students. The main aim of the college is not to provide the highest quantity of education but the highest quality of education to its students. To carry out its aim, the college arranges for several conferences, seminars, educational tours, Industrial visits etc. in order to make sure that the knowledge of the students is not limited within the classroom alone. Hence the great support that the college provides to the staff and students of the various departments is quite evident in the many successful conferences, seminars and other such programs that have been conducted in the past and this is sure to continue in the future.

Organizers

RCDA: The Resource centre for differently abled (RCDA) started in the year 2006 as one of the Centers of Excellence at Loyola College has successfully carried out the task of making education and learning an accessible tool for the less privileged members of our society. As a joint venture with some of the departments of the College, the resource center has decided to organize the National Conference on ICTs for the differently- abled/ under privileged communities in Education, Employment and Entrepreneurship 2009 (NCIDEEE 2009).

http://www.loyolacollege.edu/rcda.html

The Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) is a Bangalore based non-profit organization, bringing together a team of practitioners, theoreticians, researchers and artists to work on the emerging field of Internet and Society in order to critically engage with concerns of digital pluralism, public accountability and pedagogic practices, with particular emphasis on South-South dialogues and exchange.

We focus on areas such as Anonymity/Privacy, Censorship, Surveillance, Free and Open Source Software, Open Standards, Open Access, Family, Sexual practices, Addiction, Intellectual Property Rights and Trade, Piracy, ICT4D, Digital and Participation Divide and
Digital Communities and Movements.

Website: www.cis-india.org

Program

The conference will be divided into four tracks which will be running simaltaneously ,, except for the main session and the concluding session on the first and last days which are to be common for all participants. The tentative schedule for the different tracks is as follows:

Track 1:

Day 1. Presentations of papers

Day 2. OCR Round Table- Deployment of OCR technologies in Indian languages: present state and road ahead

Day 3. TTS Round Table: Assessing the state of TTS in Indian languages: current position and future road map.

Track 2

Workshop on Web Accessibility for web developers- Web developers and designers from various sectors will be initiated into the need for and the techniques of compliance with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 formulated by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). The tentative schedule for this track is given below:

WCAG Training Session Plan (2 Day)

Day 1
14:00-15:30 - Introductory Session

Disability - 5 major types
The W3C and the WCAG
How people with disabilities use computers (could use a movie here)

Group Exercise/Discussion

Split participants into small groups and give them questions/problems to talk about and solve
Example: If your friend is deaf, how do you make sure that s/he understands what a video is about? OR How does someone who can't see or hear answer/check their email? OR X lost his hands in a car accident. How does he do a Google search?

15:30-16:00- coffee/tea break
16:00-17:30

Session 1 - Building an Accessible Website

Laying Accessible Foundations
Table-less layouts
Well-structured markup
Valid Code

Day 2

09:30-11:00 Group Exercise
11:00-11:30- tea/coffee break
11:30-13:00

Session 2 - Building an Accessible Website

Removing Barriers
Guideline 1 - Perception
Non-text content
Audio/Visual content
Adaptability
Contrast

13:00-14:00 Lunch
14:00-15:30 Group Exercise
15:30-16:00-tea/coffee break
16:00-17:30

Session 3 - Guideline 2

Operable
Keyboard Access
Enough Time
Seizures
Navigable

Wrap Session - Feedback and Clarifications

Day 3

09:30-11:00 - Session 4 - Guideline 3 and 4

Understandable
Natural Language
Predictable
Input Assistance
Robust
Compatible

11:00-11:30- tea/coffee break
11:30-13:00

Session 5 - Accessibility Testing

Automated Testing + Tools
Manual Testing

13:00-14:00 Lunch break
14:00-15:30 Concluding session- feedback, clarification and action points of participants
15:30-16:00 tea/coffee break

Track 3

Capacity building for persons with visual impairments

This track is designed to equip students with visual impairments with skills and information required to face the employment world. It has courses such as goal orientation, soft skills and etiquettes and managing challenges in the work environment. It informs the students on what to expect when they go out to look for jobs and how to deal with potential logistic and attitudinal barriers. This is a very popular module which is currently being offered by Enable India Solutions,Bangalore and is being replicated in two days for the benefit of college students in Chennai.

The tentative sessionwise schedule for this track is given below:

Sessions

14:00-15:30- Why/How to be a finished product
15:30-16:00- Tea/coffee
16:00-17:30- Awareness on different jobs

Day 2

09:30-11:00- Goal orientation session
11:00-11:30- Tea/coffee break
13:30-13:00Employability awareness session 1 – Case studies of jobs and skills

Employability awareness session 2 – Computer skills (efficiency / quality)

13:00-14:00- Lunch
14:00-15:30- Employability awareness session 3 – Understand the real world perspective (& sighted point of view)
15:30-16:00- Tea/coffee break
16:00-17:30- Employability awareness session 4 - Importance of mobility
16:00-17:30- Employability awareness session 5 – Case studies on problem solving, workplace solutions, employed visually impaired

Day 3

Equipping for the employment world: Sessions

09:30-11:00
Soft skills including Social skills and etiquettes
Independent living skills
Emerging technologies - GPS, Mobile based OCr etc

11:00-11:30- tea/coffee break
11:30-13:00 Working in the corporate world- Managing challenges in work environment

Track 4

Capacity building for NGOs

This track is designed for general capacity building and information dissemination. It will cover topics like legal challenges, special needs for different disabilities, setting up resource centres, experimenting with new pedagogic techniques and using ICTs to impart education, presentation of case studies and so on.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/events/ncideee-2009

Mumbai no longer ‘meri jaan’

radha — 2011-04-04T06:52:29Z

Why online (and offline) activism after 26/11 never took off; what should have been done to mobilize people - an article in the Livemint by Seema Chowdhry and Samanth Subramanian - 20th November, 2009

On “One Million Strong for Bombay” (23,601 members), a 9 October post concerned the activist Hansel D’Souza, chairman of the Juhu Citizens’ Welfare Group, the Citizens’ Consensus candidate for the Andheri (West) assembly constituency; an earlier post involved the schedule of the Jazz Yatra. On “The Black Badge for Bombay” (853 members), the last post, from 31 August, wonders if Pakistan is a pawn being used by China against India.

“The idea behind ‘Black Badge for Bombay’ initially was to keep the pressure on so that the reaction to the attacks in terms of government preparedness results in concrete action,” says Somasekhar Sundaresan, the group’s creator. “The government has now set up a combat force in Mumbai, which was the stated immediate objective of this movement and
pressure group. After that, we needed to move on.”

Sundaresan admits that the posts have not been updated more frequently because he hasn’t worked hard enough to get people interested in newer issues. “Most of my discussions about civil rights movements are restricted to five or six friends who are members of this Facebook group too,” he says. “It is easier to talk to them because I meet them
professionally and personally often.” “The Black Badge for Mumbai” has also been unable to organize offline meetings.

What these groups lacked, according to Sunil Abraham, executive director of the Centre for Internet and Society in Bangalore, was a dedicated team to keep the momentum going. “They don’t have intelligently incremental action points that keep their audiences increasingly engaged,” he says in an email interview. “The creators often underestimate the importance of offline activities that will keep their audiences motivated. Finally, many of them take their membership for
granted and don’t bother sending regular updates or even an occasional thank you.”

It was perhaps the need to sustain momentum that drove some of the offline citizens’ groups into the political sphere. Anil Bahl allied his Let’s Rebuild India with the Professionals Party of India. A group called Jago Mumbai turned into the Jago Party, which fielded a candidate in the Lok Sabha election from north-west Mumbai. (He lost.) “We decided that we couldn’t do anything alone,” says Bhuresh Barot, a working member of the Jago Party. “You need to be in power to do anything.”

As his party’s south Mumbai coordinator, Barot witnessed a rapid dissolution of voter outrage back into voter apathy; in the Lok Sabha election, the turnout stood at 43.3%. “The main reason seemed to be that voters thought they already knew the ideology of every party,” Barot theorizes. “And they decided they simply didn’t have faith in the candidates.”

Link to original article

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/mumbai-no-longer-2018meri-jaan2019

Mozilla Open Web Talks

radha — 2011-04-05T04:19:15Z

Give a talk, or just listen - On December 16 in Bangalore, Mozilla and The Centre for Internet and Society are holding an evening of talks about the future of the open internet.

We're inviting you to to give a 5 minute talk, or just to come listen:

https://wiki.mozilla.org/Drumbeat/CIS-Bangalore

Presentations will either:

Explain the open web and why it matters and
Describe a concrete project idea that will make the web better.

If you're interesting in giving a talk, please sign up here:

http://fcroadshow.net/?page_id=7

If you'd like to simply attend and listen, please RSVP here:

http://bit.ly/51OOXf

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/events/mozilla-talks

Mozilla Drumbeat

radha — 2009-12-09T11:57:15Z

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/home-images/Mozilla%20Drumbeat.jpg

Mozilla DevDay 2010, Bangalore

radha — 2011-04-05T04:12:42Z

Mozilla, Mahiti & The Centre for Internet and Society are joining hands to organize an informal developer-oriented conference in Bangalore on Saturday February 27, 2010.

The Mozilla DevDay will be an opportunity for developers, open source enthusiasts, and web aficionados who live in and around Bangalore, to meet Mozilla staff and learn about the Mozilla Project and its technologies. The DevDay is a free conference open to the general public.

For more information please visit: http://j.mp/BLRMozDevDay

All interested participants are requested to register by following this link: http://j.mp/MozDevDayBLR

For the event poster, click here

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/events/mozilla-devday-2010-bangalore

Moz Day, Bangalore

radha — 2010-02-24T06:33:37Z

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/home-images/Moz%20Day.pdf

Mobile Tech 4 Social Change

radha — 2011-04-05T04:32:26Z

Mobile Tech 4 Social Change, Bangalore camp is a one-day event and is an exploration of mobile technology to advance social development and social change goals.

Mobile Tech 4 Social Change Camps are local events for people passionate about using mobile technology for social impact and to make the world a better place.

Mobile Tech 4 Social Change Camp in Bangalore includes:

interactive discussions about mobile tech for social good,
hands-on-demos of mobile apps and tools,
collaborations about ways to use, deploy, develop and promote mobile technology in health, advocacy, economic development, environment, human rights, and citizen media

Participants for Mobile Tech 4 Social Change barcamps include nonprofits, mobile application developers, researchers, donors, intermediary organizations, and mobile operators.

In short, Mobile Tech 4 Social Change Bangalore Camp is:

A one-day event in Bangalore on September 4, 2009
An exploration of mobile technology to advance social development and social change goals
Participatory and interactive
Open to anyone with passion and interest in the topic

Participants

YOU - register today!

Cost

Mobile Tech 4 Social Change camps are grassroots events. We are charging a small fee for this event that is used to offset costs for breakfast and lunch as well as supplies for the camp. If this cost constitutes a huge barrier for you attending, please be in touch so that we can work something out!

Planners and Sponsors

Mobile Tech 4 Social Change Bangalore is organized by the following organizations. We are very grateful for this collaboration and support.

India

If you want to be an angel and sponsor this community-supported event, we would love to hear from you!

videos

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/events/mobile-tech-4-social-change