Many thanks to Dr A Saibaba Goud. http://www.thestatesman.net/news/27761-a-little-more-independence.html On 4 December, a day after World Disability Day, when the visually impaired among the electorate of Delhi would be exercising their voting rights, they might like to know who to thank. It is the Devnar School for the Blind in Begumpet which has printed the long stickers for the Braille modified electronic voting machine (EVM) enabling the visually impaired to exercise their franchise, independently. In fact the Braille sticker on EVMs was the brainchild of Dr A Saibaba Goud who established the Devnar School for the Blind, an English medium co-educational school way back in 1992. Dr Goud who is an ophthalmologist was approached by the Election Commission of India to find a way out after an organisation of the visually impaired approached the courts demanding the right to exercise their franchise independently. “So long the visually impaired were helped by others to cast their vote by pressing the right button on the EVMs. But in 2004 the ECI was asked by the court to find a way out. It was the Chief Election Commissioner, Mr TS Krishnamurthy who rang me up and asked for my help.” Although Dr Goud was initially at a loss, he nevertheless asked for an electronic voting machine to be sent to the school where he and his staff worked on it. He devised a sticker where the serial number of each candidate contesting a particular constituency was written in Braille. The visually impaired would be given the list of candidates and he or she can press the corresponding number beside the name of the candidate of his or her choice. It was the students of the school who first tested it and gave it their thumbs up. Then it was first tried in a by-election in Andhra Pradesh and the simple but effective ingenuity worked. Later, it spread to the rest of the country and is now used for every election using the EVM, enabling the visually impaired to exercise their franchise with dignity, without seeking assistance from others. Even to this day, the contribution of the staff of Devnar School is worth mentioning since they print the long Braille stickers and supply them to the Election Commission. “You see these stickers for the EVMs are pretty long, near about 44 cm and only we have the required machinery to print them. Most of the Braille printers in other institutions can only accommodate paper size of A4 or A3," said a staff of the school. In the last Parliamentary elections held in 2009 Devnar School printed the Braille stickers for EVMs. Dr Goud was also awarded Padmashri in 2009.
-- Avinash Shahi M.Phil Research Scholar Centre for The Study of Law and Governance Jawaharlal Nehru University New Delhi India 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..
