On Sunday, when 35-year-old Miranda Tomkinson took the national eligibility test (NET) of the University Grants Commission (UGC) at a private college in the city, for the first time in his life, he read the questions without the help of a scribe.
Not just that, the visually-impaired Tomkinson also read out the answers to his scribe with the help of the Braille question paper. He walked out of the examination hall with the question paper, almost like everybody else. He can now store his question paper and more importantly, refer to it without anybody’s help. This was not possible before. Tomkinson, who also has a degenerative hearing disorder, was able to get a Braille question paper on Sunday after a year-long struggle and a host of representations, including an RTI petition, to UGC. On Friday, the Madras High Court directed UGC to set the paper for the visually impaired in Braille. Tomkinson was writing the exam to be eligible for the post of assistant professor. Smitha Sadasivam, assistant coordinator, disability legislation unit of Vidya Sagar, which took up his cause, said this was the first time the UGC had given a Braille question paper and the case had set a precedent. “I cannot forget this day,” said Tomkinson after a day spent writing paper I, II and III of the Test. “In the absence of communication, it is not possible to accomplish anything,” he said. Though it was a victory for Tomkinson on Sunday, Sadasivam said, as per court order, the facility should have been extended to all the visually-impaired candidates who appeared for the Test. UGC officials were unavailable for comment. thehindu.com -- Prasanth. > True friendship consists not innmultitude of friends, but in their worth> and > value> Time to meet up again! Register for AccessIndia Convention 2014: http://accessindia.org.in/harish/convention.htm 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..
