14 universities to set aside 3% of their budget to make campuses disabled friendly- Times of India
TNN | Dec 23, 2019, 10.00 AM IST Printed from MUMBAI: Fourteen state universities, including Mumbai University, will set aside 3% of their total budget for making their campuses disabled friendly. In a move to improve accessibility in educational institutions and to offer better redressal, the state higher education department along with Tata Institute of Social Sciences’ field action project, I-Access Rights Mission, have framed a disability policy for higher education. The two have proposed the setting up of a state disability commission for public policy. The commission, that will be formed on the lines of human rights and minority commissions, will act as a policymaking civil society and monitoring body for access and welfare in institutes. On the basis of consultations done with public universities in the state for the last one year, the I-Access Rights Mission, with help from state directorate of higher education, framed a draft of the state’s disability policy. Project director Vaishali Kolhe from TISS said most varsities have already set aside 3% of their budget for making campuses accessible for the disabled, and others are in the process. The budget can be used to develop accessible infrastructure, teaching aid and resources. Kolhe added that the funds given by the UGC are not enough for a sustainable model. The state advisory board on disability welcomed the policy in a national conference on inclusion and innovation in higher education at TISS last week. As per the draft, every engineering college will have to develop innovative technology and applications for students with disabilities. Examples suggested by experts included navigation apps for campuses, tactile university maps, note-taking device for classrooms, design accessible websites, automatic low-cost wheelchairs, library devices to search books and speaking pictures. The draft further suggested that the equal opportunity cell and resource centre for students with disabilities should take care of class notes, create note banks, offer remedial coaching, and offer readers and writers. Reference books should be made available in e-copy format and incubation centres for skill development for persons with disabilities should be set up in all universities. The proposed State Disability Commission for Public Policy will have experts from the civil society and experts working in the field of disability. Supreme Court senior advocate Krishan Mahajan and Kolhe wrote to the governor, who is also the chancellor of all state universities. They plan to submit the proposal to the CM on Monday. Kolhe said the state can form such a commission based on provisions in the Constitution. She added that the commission can act as a monitoring body to ensure that the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 is implemented in ‘full spirit’. In a survey, the mission has found that 4,000 students with disabilities are currently studying in campuses. An expert said the 5% reservation policy for people with disabilities is not enough as they are mostly occupied by loco-motor disabilities or visual impairment. “Now, the centre has identified 21 categories of disabilities of which many are hidden such as blood-related disorders like thalassemia, haemophilia, sickle-cell disease. Many of these are almost ignored by institutions,” said an expert. Search for old postings at: http://www.mail-archive.com/accessindia@accessindia.org.in/ To unsubscribe send a message to accessindia-requ...@accessindia.org.in 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..
