The Kirori Mal College (KMC), Delhi has started initiative Aarohan in association with NGO Saksham to help out visually challenged students in higher education. Under this program, the students who are visually challenged or with low vision will get assistance devices. The Arohan team will provide counseling and training about ‘how to use these devices’.
The Kirori Mal College affiliated with the University of Delhi (DU) is one of the top colleges in Delhi, India.
According to Someshwar Sati, coordinator of Centre for Disability Research and Training, there are 40 students with visual challenges in the college. Of these 30 are enrolled for Under Graduate programmes. The center did a survey among these students. One of the common question asked to participants was, ‘which device is needed by them?’
“Seeing 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.
On Thursday, a ceremony was held in the KMC’s Academic Auditorium and assistive devices like laptops, electronic (Refreshable) braille display, daisy players and tablets were distributed to the visually-impaired undergraduate students of the college.
