shantanulearns

When i see my 4 year old daughter receiving her class videos on internet in these difficult  times of lockdown in view of corona-virus pandemic, i am constantly thinking how the whole ecosystem of education has changed in just a span of one month. We all were talking about shift to online education but none of us knew that it will become mainstream so fast, so seamlessly. But while all of this is happening, is anybody also thinking about Persons with Disabilities (PwDs) or Children with special needs (CwSNs) ! Not many (except government), i guess ! More so because our digital eco system has largely not been designed to address accessibility needs. And since the present shift is being done on a super fast speed, there is hardly any time for retrofitting the digital mediums with accessibility standards and thus leaving a large chunk of audience with special needs (read PwDs/CwSNs) empty handed. Let us try to understand the context of disability first. Disab...

The purpose of posting this text is to make information available for those who seek it and not to have a viewpoint on the reservation policy for PwDs. Sometimes people have to seek basic information through various means such as RTI which is on the one hand time consuming for seeker and on the other hand taxing for bureaucracy because Govt officers are already overburdened contrary to the popular perception. Cut to the topic of reservation for PwDs. Reservation to PwDs is a tool to increase the participation of PwDs in various spheres of life such as work place, educational institutes etc. Initially , Govt. of India mandated 3% reservation for PwDs in jobs but after coming into force of Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 , the quantum of reservation was increased to 4% in jobs and 5% in educational institutions and many other spheres. Let us look at it one by one. Reservation  for PwDs in jobs: Government establishments: ...