After Swachh Bharat, Modi govt to launch 'Accesible India' to make India disabled-friendly, Aug 17, 2015,
NEW DELHI: Accessible India, the next sweeping initiative bearing the stamp of the Prime Minister's Office, will introduce landmark initiatives over the next five years to make the country disabled-friendly. For starters, the government is working to introduce set-top boxes that will make TV programmes more useful for the visually impaired. Officials from the Department of Disability Affairs under the Ministry of Social Justice have met manufacturers of set-top boxes to discuss introduction of a button on the set-top box and remote control that will convert text on the TV screen to voice. "At present, there is no such set-top box in India. But when we be- gan our search we found a prototype in the UK market," a senior official told ET. "So we know it is possible to build in such a feature in the set-top box. We have met the set-top box manufacturers and are working on this." The feature would include video descriptions, which are narrations of a television show's key visual elements, a feature found in some programmes in the US, UK and European countries. Another part of making television more disabled-friendly is the introduction of sign language in at least 25% of the programmes, starting with Doordarshan. At present, there is only one news bulletin for the hearing impaired and this feature will be extended to non-news programmes. "We have set a target for training 200 persons in sign language each year for the next five years," said the official. After Doordarshan, the government will open talks with private channels to explore the possibility of introducing this feature in their programmes. Even government functions would mandatorily have people trained in sign language translating the proceedings and speeches. Making television viewing and programming disabled-friendly would take at least two years. India has 2.2 crore people with disabilities, or 2.13% of the population, according to the ministry website, citing Census 2001 data. The Department of Disability Affairs is also introducing other initiatives in the Accessible India programme, including conversion of content on government websites through screen reader programmes for the visually impaired and the introduction of a mobile app to provide information on disabled-friendly public utilities in a city. The app is likely to be unveiled as early as next month. It would map facilities such as ATMs, banks, malls, toilets and provide user-generated ratings of how disabled-friendly they are. All ministry and department websites are being examined to see how their content can be converted through a screen reader programme from text to speech mode. "It is not a difficult task. We would be able to do this within this financial year," the official said. The government is also laying emphasis on making all public buildings disabled-friendly. To start with, the department has identified auditors and selected parameters for an audit of 100 government buildings http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/after-swachh-bharat-modi-government-to-launch-accesible-india-to-help-physically-challenged-people/articleshow/48506657.cms Smiling is a part of life. But smiling in all the situations is an art of life. Thanks and Regards, Mrs. Surya Jyothi Praneeth, CCT, SBH, RC Puram, Medak, Telangana. Sent from my I PHONE. Register at the dedicated AccessIndia list for discussing accessibility of mobile phones / Tabs on: http://mail.accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/mobile.accessindia_accessindia.org.in Search for old postings at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ To unsubscribe send a message to [email protected] with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in Disclaimer: 1. Contents of the mails, factual, or otherwise, reflect the thinking of the person sending the mail and AI in no way relates itself to its veracity; 2. AI cannot be held liable for any commission/omission based on the mails sent through this mailing list..
