Dear All Greetings!
In March this year, I appeared for CBSE Class XII exams. The results were declared yesterday. I have been a student of Delhi Public School, Rohini. I am glad to share with you all, that with the grace of god, and never-ending support of my parents and teachers, along with the school principal, Ms. Rita Sen, I got an aggregate of 90%. While my subjects were English, Psychology, Sociology, Political Science, and Multimedia and Web Technology, I stand a subject topper in Multimedia and Web Technology with a percentile of 93%. In fact, I was the first visually challenged student to have written my Class XII Board exams on the computer with the help of JAWS along with my Question Paper provided to me on computer itself in accessible format such as Microsoft Word. As if now, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), allowed the visually challenged students to write their answers on the computer, but the Question Paper was read out to them by someone else. Once, I started using computer with the help of Screen Reading technology, I always felt more independent, and I felt that if someone else read out my Question Paper to me, it restricted my freedom to move through my Question Paper independently. So, I put this forth to my school principal, who diligently helped me to pursue it with the board. So, the computer that was provided to me, was loaded with JAWS. A CBSE personnel was present at the center as well. The Question Paper was scanned, edited and then given to me after which, I was given the time to answer my paper. In fact, it is noteworthy, that all the time, that went into scanning and editing, was not deducted out of the student’s time to answer the paper. The students, who gave their exams under this provision were given 15 minutes to read the Question Paper, three hours to answer it, under the board examination scheme, and an additional hour given to persons with disability. While it is a dream come true for all of us, it is my pleasure, as well as a responsibility to share with you that my school Principal, had helped me pursue it with the board. Naturally, it wasn’t an easy task, but for more than a year, my school Principal, Special Educator, and my parents along with me, had been pursuing this with the board and finally we have been successful. In fact, I had to go to the CBSE office several times, to give them a demo of how I used computer, to explain them why I wanted it, and how it made persons who are visually challenged independent. Of course, there were disappointments, worries, but we never gave up, and finally, just 2 days before the Board Exams, the CBSE took a giant step in the empowerment of the visually challenged individuals by allowing all visually challenged students to use computer with JAWS, a major policy change! Giving the visually challenged students their right to answer their papers independently! I hereby acknowledge and thank my school principal, Mr. Vaneet Joshi, the chairman CBSE, Mr. M. C. Sharma the Controller of Examination, CBSE, and the members of the committee that was formed to resolve this. Thanks and regards Vibhu Sharma 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/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..
