TISS to help state varsities reach out, improve access for disabled students - Times of India
Dec 25, 2018, 05.07 AM IST Printed from MUMBAI: The Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) will help public universities in Maharashtra to be disabled-friendly. The state has directed universities to collaborate with ‘I Access Rights Mission’ —a field action project of TISS—to successfully offer barrier-free access to disabled students on their campuses, to address their needs in pedagogy and to offer equal opportunities. TISS will conduct a needs assessment study in public universities and frame guidelines that will be unique to each university. Since the state does not have a machinery to conduct an audit of the facilities universities’ boast about, the department of higher and technical education has sought expert help from TISS. The team from the institute which has been successfully running the I Access mission since 2013, will be meeting representatives of disabled students from across universities to understand their requirements. Vaishali Kolhe, project director of the mission and an associate professor at TISS’ Centre for Disability Studies and Action, said they have observed that students with disabilities find it tough to pursue higher education. “If they do not get the required infrastructure, aid and appliances, it will affect their overall academic development. We wish to assist each of the non-agricultural universities and study students with disabilities in the next two years,” said Kolhe. While the university is expected to bear the funding, the team of I Access will provide the expertise for the action-based work. In a government resolution (GR) passed in 2017, the state identified 21 disabilities for the first time to be considered for offering concessions/ facilities in educational institutions. In another GR passed in August this year, based on Supreme Court’s directive, the state made it compulsory to offer barrier-free accessibility on campuses and monitoring of these facilities. The mission’s ‘call for action’ guidelines has already been circulated to all non-agricultural universities in the state. “While we have been issuing directives, the state does not have the machinery to monitor the progress in colleges and universities. Experts from TISS understand the problem in depth and they are empathetic to the issue. We, therefore, are asking universities to collaborate with them. The university will have to ensure the guidelines are implemented in affiliated colleges as well,” said joint secretary of higher and technical education department, Siddharth Kharat. Aconference held recently at TISS highlighted issues on disabilities, accessibility in the light of legislation and policies in the context of higher education. Experts also opined that the many disabled students, who seek admissions under reserved categories tend to drop out after a few months as they are unable to cope up, as there is a lack of awareness about the facilities 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..
