About 50 per cent of the visually impaired students said no to laptops and yes to digital recorders when Delhi University’s Kirori Mal College asked them what would make their lives easier, in a survey. This is part of a drive by the college to improve the lives of students by distributing various assistance devices.
Someshwar Sati, coordinator of the Centre for Disability Research and Training, said that the survey was conducted among 40 students out of which 30 were enrolled in an undergraduate degree programme.
Surprisingly, the survey changed some of those perceptions of what visually impaired students really need. "Seeing it from our perspective, we thought that all of them would require a laptop. Not even 50 per cent of the students wanted laptops. Forty-five per cent wanted laptops, 40 per cent wanted a daisy player (digital recorders), 10 per cent wanted Braille display and those with low vision wanted a tablet,” Sati said.
The Centre for Disability Research and Training was set up in the college almost two months ago with an intention to enable students and faculty alike, to promote disability as a legitimate field of academic inquiry and work towards creation of an inclusive society, a statement said.
The college launched 'Aarohan', an initiative to assist visually impaired students, on September 30. Under this initiative, the distribution of assistance devices is a collaboration between the college and Saksham, a Delhi-based NGO.
A ceremony was held in the Academic Auditorium of the college in which assistive devices like laptops, electronic (Refreshable) Braille display devices, daisy players and tablets were distributed to the visually impaired undergraduate students of the college.
Tokyo Paralympics silver medalist and an alumnus of Kirori Mal College, Yogesh Kathuniya, in a video message wished the students good luck and appreciated the college for setting up a Centre for Disability Studies.
