Dear All,
Greetings from the National Eyeway Helpdesk
Please, follow below the Daily Eyeway Alerts:
1. News-
By Shruti Pushkarna: Last week, two headlines on the digital platforms
of leading dailies caught my attention. One read, “Two blind HSC
students find writers at the 11th hour”. And the second stated, “HSC
exams: Finding writers a real test for some”.
Both these news stories highlight one of the most commonly faced
problems by any blind student in India. Given their vision impairment,
these students are dependent on ‘scribes’ to write their exams.
But before I get into talking about the myriad challenges of finding
and dealing with scribes, let’s look at the recent news coverage.
While I was happy that the issue appeared on mainstream media, I was
disappointed at the reportage. The stories lacked any indepth
understanding of the issue. For an average reader who is absolutely
unfamiliar with the issue, the news item merely touched upon how two
visually impaired students in different parts of Mumbai were hassled
hours before their examination. Though that’s a start for interest
generation, the story ends with no detail or perspective on the
matter.
Result being, most readers wouldn’t have registered it. Those who did
probably went away without processing the gravity of the problem
facing blind students.
So what exactly is the scribe problem faced by the blind community?
A majority of visually impaired students in this country who appear
for school, college or any competitive exams, rely on writers to
volunteer for assistance or hope that the institutions/ authorities
would arrange scribes for them.
In the absence of either scenario working out, a lot of them end up
paying for scribes, almost like buying themselves a chance to move
upward in the educational or employment hierarchy.
In fact there are agents and institutions that offer a variety of
writers at different prices, depending on subject expertise. Like the
millions of scams festering in the country, scribes (or the scribe
mafia as I prefer to call them) are eroding the visually impaired
students of their ability to learn or become independent.
And what are the academic or the government authorities doing about
it? Zilch. Absolutely nothing.
The education bodies at both national and state level are expected to
comply with the central government issued guidelines for visually
impaired students to avail scribe facility for assistance, but the
ground reality is far from it.
Often state boards and examination authorities issue their own rules
days before the exam, paying no heed to the policy set in place by the
Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment.
The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act 2016 mandates for
‘reasonable accommodation’, “to make suitable modifications in the
curriculum and examination system to meet the needs of students with
disabilities such as extra time for completion of examination paper,
facility of scribe or amanuensis, exemption from second and third
language courses”.
Last year, a job aspirant in Barabanki, Uttar Pradesh lost out on the
opportunity of employment because the examiner denied entry to his
scribe just minutes before the exam. He had to wait a whole year to
apply again. This is just one of the million accounts where students
fail to appear or score less in their tests given the shoddy
implementation of the law.
The scribe problem isn’t new. It persists through the year, for
various exams across all states in the country. And yet majority of
the Indian population hasn’t a clue about it. It’s a whole different
matter that today enough technology aids are available to make
visually impaired students self-reliant when it comes to writing their
exams. But that’s for another day, another column.
How come the mainstream media hardly reports the issue in its
entirety? Why doesn’t the media question the implementing agencies? Is
it because persons with disabilities are not the ‘sensational’
vulnerable group that will garner eyeballs? Especially when it’s far
easier to rake up a storm over some fake news floating around on
social media.
Source: 
https://www.mxmindia.com/2020/02/shruti-pushkarna-whats-with-the-shallow-news-coverage-on-disability/
Assistive technology experience & resource centre for visually
impaired people opens in Delhi.
The National Association for the Blind in New Delhi is opening Beyond
Eyes, a first of its kind assistive technology experience and resource
centre for visually impaired people. The centre aims to enable the
community to experience the empowering effect of assistive
technologies.
Assistive technologies are changing the lives of people with
disabilities in multiple ways. There have been remarkable developments
in technologies for blind and low vision people, with many of them
developed in India. These devices and solutions when adopted can
enable visually impaired people to lead productive lives.
Not enough info about latest tech among blind
Unfortunately many visually impaired people, their families and
teachers are unaware of these developments. Even if they are aware,
they have no idea where to access them. The National Association for
the Blind, New Delhi, is aiming to change this with the launch of
Beyond Eyes. This is an experience-cum-resource centre supported by a
training unit and help desk where visually impaired people can
experience the transformative effect of these assistive technologies.
Source: 
https://newzhook.com/story/visually-impaired-assistive-technology-national-association-for-the-blind-beyond-eyes-accessibility-blind/
2. Jobs-
Job Openings for Visually impaired in Indian Association For The Blinds
Place: Mumbai, Pune & Delhi
Gender: Male
Position: Store Executive
Salary: Rs. 11,000 - 14,000/-
Disability Type: Low Vision /  Partially VI
Age: 20 – 35 years
Criteria: Good mobility, Ready to travel
Language: Local language & English
 Interested candidates contact: 9600372288". Indian Association for the Blind
Sundarajanpatty, Alagar Koil Main Road, Madurai - 625104
M: +91 96003 72288
sharm...@theiab.org
www.theiab.org

One post as Accounts Clerk and three posts as Assistant Communication
Officer for Visually Impaired by Staff Selection Commission (SSC)
Regional Offices, New Delhi (Northern Region),   Chandigarh (North
Western Region,), for VIIIth edition of combined selection posts
vacancy recruitment 2020 (Advt. No. Phase-VIII/2020/Selection Posts)
Phase-VIII. Qualifications: (i) Accounts Clerk:  Graduation & Above.
Age Limit: 18-25 years (ii) Assistant Communication Officer:
Graduation & Above. Age Limit: 18-30 years. For complete details visit
: 
https://www.sscnr.net.in/newlook/downloads/2020/NoticeSelectionPostVIII_2020_24022020.pdf.
Applications must be submitted in online mode only at the official
website of SSC Headquarters i.e. https://ssc.nic.in. For detailed
instructions, please refer to Annexure-IV and Annexure-V of this
Notice. Centres of Examination:
Northern Region (NR)/ Delhi, Rajasthan and Uttarakhand. Address of the
Regional Offices/ Website: Regional Director (NR), Staff Selection
Commission, Block No. 12, CGO Complex, Lodhi Road, New Delhi-110003
(www.sscnr.net.in). North Western Sub-Region (NWR)/ Chandigarh,
Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh and Punjab. Dy.
Director (NWR), Staff Selection Commission, Block No. 3, Ground Floor,
Kendriya Sadan, Sector-9, Chandigarh160009 (www.sscnwr.org). Last date
March 20, 2020. More at
http://www.eyeway.org/?q=accounts-clerk-assistant-communicatio-n-officer%C2%A0staff-selection-commission


-- 

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Helpdesk Team
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the end of the day that says I’ll try again tomorrow.”―Mary Anne
Radmacher




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