Dear teachers and teacher educators, India has modified its copyright law to allow free translation of copyright texts, without needing any permissions, to cater to learners with disabilities.....
With the free and open source digital tools available today, teachers can collaborate to design and produce audio books, picture stories, videos to support inclusive education .... SCERTs could take up such programs, and publish the digital outputs on platforms as OER. Second article is on SCERT Kerala producing learning resources for differently abled learners.... Pls read articles below and share your views. regards, Guru SOURCE - http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-opinion/for-inclusive-publishing/article18573884.ece For inclusive publishing - OPINION - The Hindu The challenge of accessibility in the arena of education is formidable. Expansion of inclusive publishing is a way of overcoming it. The current predominant practice of conversion from print and other digital formats is cumbersome. This strong advocacy on behalf of the adoption of the EPUB3 guidelines marked the proceedings of the third annual meeting of the Accessible Books Consortium (ABC) in Geneva, on May 16-17. “Born accessible” books was the crux of the argument by the president of the DAISY Forum of India (DFI), Dipendra Manocha, at the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO). His audience comprised representatives from authors’ associations, the publishing industry, entities empowered to give effect to copyright exemptions, end-user groups and the Marrakesh Treaty monitoring team at the WIPO. Mr. Manocha’s decades-long hands-on experience with the nitty-gritty of conversion of printed text to Braille, audiobooks, large print and various digitally-accessible formats places him in a unique position among stakeholders. India has under its belt a robust 2013 global law on copyright limitations and exemptions, besides an equally pioneering amendment to domestic legislation, enacted a year earlier. But going by the speaker’s account, the government and the publishing industry were under obligation to do a great deal more to simplify the process of conversion of print into appropriate alternative formats. Need for support *Following amendments to India’s copyright law, texts may now be freely transcribed without prior clearances, solely to cater to the interests of targeted groups. Children with vision impairments, of varying degrees of severity, in economically backward regions are beneficiaries, enjoying, at least in theory, unprecedented access to curriculum material.* But reaping the range of benefits under the law depends on training and technical support for the conversion of print, and deploying high quality text-to-speech engines. Correspondingly, the competencies of students to consult relevant literature are contingent upon building the requisite capacity among them to learn the use of dedicated hardware such as daisy players and smartphones. As it turns out, these onerous tasks are the responsibility of an umbrella organisation such as the DFI, constrained by financial capacity, technological know-how and constantly rising demand. An ABC-backed project enables the production of EPUB3-compatible books in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab. A most notable 2016 initiative is Sugamya Pustakalaya. But, says Mr. Manocha, these advances could transform the accessibility landscape more rapidly provided the original publications were made available in accessible formats. The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, besides the National Council of Educational Research and Training, has issued an advisory, urging State governments to mandate textbook boards to produce accessible EPUB3 formats using unicode-based fonts. A formal order from the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development could hasten the process. ----------------------------------------------------- Source - http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/kozhikode/scert-prepares-innovative-textbooks-for-special-children/article18564968.ece SCERT prepares innovative textbooks for special children - The Hindu ‘Veedum Koodum’, ‘Pom Pom Vandi’, ‘Kakkem Poochem’, ‘Virunnunnam’, ‘Aghoshangal’ ‘Thenthully’, ‘Manchady’ and ‘Kalicheppu’. They are not titles for literary works written for children, but textbooks for differently-abled children prepared by the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) for the coming academic year. J. Prasad, Director, SCERT, told The Hindu on Wednesday that these books had been designed keeping in mind the mental and physical growth of differently-abled children. “The suggestions of doctors, psychologists, and experts in the field of children’s education were sought while preparing these textbooks. Such an exercise is being taken up for the first time in the country,” he said. The departments of Social Welfare and Health too were involved in the preparation. The eight textbooks would focus on eight different skill sets. While ‘Veedum Koodum’, ‘Pom Pom Vandi’, ‘Kakkem Poochem’, ‘Virunnunnam’, and ‘Aghoshangal’ deal with the daily lives of children, ‘Thenthully’ addresses their linguistic capabilities. ‘Manchady’ caters to Mathematics and ‘Kalicheppu’ is an assortment of activities and games from which teachers can pick and choose. These books cater to the needs of the 7-11 age group. Dr. Prasad said that there are 297 special schools in the State of which only one is run by the government while others get grant-in aid. These books would be distributed for free among the students in those schools. The SCERT has also prepared eight work books for teachers. “There are almost two dozen types of physical and mental disabilities among children. Our effort is to address them one by one. If there is any discrepancy or mistake in the textbooks, they will be corrected and updated in the next academic year,” Dr. Prasad added. According to Meena S., assistant professor, SCERT, who is in charge of special education, the State did not have a proper curriculum for special children so far. “Most of the schools for differently-abled children are run by private organisations, non-governmental organisations, and there are BUDS schools run by Kudumbasree units. They did not follow a uniform method,” she said. In 2012-13, the then State government constituted a team of experts to explore the possibilities of evolving a special curriculum for them. The team reiterated the need for a special approach to the issue and the job to devise the curriculum was entrusted to the SCERT. “Computer-based activities too can be taken up either along with or as a continuation of the activities suggested in these textbooks,” Dr. Meena added. The textbooks were officially released by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan at a function in Thiruvananthapuram on Monday. IT for Change, Bengaluru www.ITforChange.net -- ----------- 1.ವಿಷಯ ಶಿಕ್ಷಕರ ವೇದಿಕೆಗೆ ಶಿಕ್ಷಕರನ್ನು ಸೇರಿಸಲು ಈ ಅರ್ಜಿಯನ್ನು ತುಂಬಿರಿ. - https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSevqRdFngjbDtOF8YxgeXeL8xF62rdXuLpGJIhK6qzMaJ_Dcw/viewform 2. ಇಮೇಲ್ ಕಳುಹಿಸುವಾಗ ಗಮನಿಸಬೇಕಾದ ಕೆಲವು ಮಾರ್ಗಸೂಚಿಗಳನ್ನು ಇಲ್ಲಿ ನೋಡಿ. -http://karnatakaeducation.org.in/KOER/index.php/ವಿಷಯಶಿಕ್ಷಕರವೇದಿಕೆ_ಸದಸ್ಯರ_ಇಮೇಲ್_ಮಾರ್ಗಸೂಚಿ 3. ಐ.ಸಿ.ಟಿ ಸಾಕ್ಷರತೆ ಬಗೆಗೆ ಯಾವುದೇ ರೀತಿಯ ಪ್ರಶ್ನೆಗಳಿದ್ದಲ್ಲಿ ಈ ಪುಟಕ್ಕೆ ಭೇಟಿ ನೀಡಿ - http://karnatakaeducation.org.in/KOER/en/index.php/Portal:ICT_Literacy 4.ನೀವು ಸಾರ್ವಜನಿಕ ತಂತ್ರಾಂಶ ಬಳಸುತ್ತಿದ್ದೀರಾ ? ಸಾರ್ವಜನಿಕ ತಂತ್ರಾಂಶದ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ತಿಳಿಯಲು -http://karnatakaeducation.org.in/KOER/en/index.php/Public_Software ----------- --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "EnglishSTF" group. 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