Disabled Olympian aims high, becomes champion shooter


Satyarth Prakash Nayak /
Source: CNN-IBN
Published on Thu, Dec 03, 2009

New Delhi: Naresh Sharma defeated his handicap to become an international shooting champion.

Sharma has been a national and international shooting champion for 15 years. He was afflicted by polio 36 years back due to a gross medical error.

"I got polio due to wrong vaccination. It happened at Safdurjung Hospital," says Sharma.

Despite his handicap, Naresh ventured into the shooting arena in 1994. But that was the era when no federation or rules had been laid down for the disabled and Naresh had to face his share of humiliation.

"People laughed at me. They said when able-bodied find it difficult to shoot how can disabled do it," he says.

Today he has proved all of them wrong.

Winner of more than 50 international medals, Naresh was awarded the Arjuna Award in 1997.

That was the year when he was pitted him against heavyweight Sachin Tendulkar.

In the 2008 Beijing Paralympics, Naresh captured the fifth position among 40 shooters from around the world.

Naresh is also an active member with the Swabhiman Group for polio patients where people like him contribute to the lives of similarly challenged people.

"There are many stories like him on our blogspot. It inspires people and creates awareness," says Swabhiman member Nymphia Vishin.

As Sharma himself says, no matter the handicap, he will continue taking shots at greater fame and glory.

Govt reaches out to the disabled

Source; TNN 4 December 2009, 03:39am IST

BANGALORE: The disabled in Karnataka have a ray of hope. Chief minister B S Yeddyurappa on Thursday announced the setting up of Disabled Development Corporation and Disabled Development Board for their welfare.

He was speaking at an event organized by the department of welfare of disabled and senior citizens on the occasion of International Day for the Disabled. "In 2010, we will initiate welfare programmes in the state. There are over nine lakh disabled people here, of them 4 lakh are visually impaired. At present, we are issuing 1 lakh free passes at a cost of Rs 7.5 crore for the disabled. By increasing the funding to Rs 15 crore, we are planning to reach out to 3 lakh more.''

The CM said employment reservation for disabled as per the Act will be effectively implemented in the state. "Government funding that is limited to 25 special schools will be extended to more. And soon, proper land through BDA and funds will be allocated for the Disabled Development Board in the state."

Several individuals and institutions were felicitated for helping in empowerment of the physically challenged in Karnataka. Some of them are Kasturi, a visually impaired music teacher, along with Sister Elikutti, a hearing impaired person who received a special teacher award.

A braille calendar was released and wheelchairs were distributed to the participants.

Children starve

Mentally challenged 18-year-old Ammu, along with a team of friends, arrived as early as 8 am at Bal Bhavan to participate in a cultural programme to celebrate International Day for the Disabled. But even at 12 noon, more than 1,000 children from various organizations were made to wait without food, water or even a place to sit. Ammu and her friends went without breakfast and had no proper rest. "We've got food for them. But to avoid disturbance during the programme, we kept them waiting," the organizers admitted.

More than 1,000 children from various organizations had to wait without food, water and place to sit at the event.

No job security

Disabled staff at KPTC and Bescom are in distress, for they have no job security. Six hundred disabled personnel recruited as revenue assistants in KPTC staged a protest at the event. Though all of them were appointed on contract basis two years ago, their employment is yet to be regularized. Most of them are orthopeadically handicapped, work from 9 am to 5.30 pm, sometimes till 8 pm, and are paid Rs 2,500 per month.

"With job insecurity and low salary, it is very difficult. At least if our jobs are made permanent we'll be relieved. Though we are differently abled, we haven't compromised on our work. When the government can consider regularizing contract doctors, they shouldn't neglect us. We have submitted repeated requests to the government, but are still awaiting a reply," said Jagadesh, a KPTC employee.

They demand more vocational training

Joint action committee of All District Association of Karnataka submitted a charter of demand to the chief minister. Their demand concerned the technical training centre for the deaf (TTCD), which is the only ITI training centre for hearing impaired in the state. Due to lack of proper funding, maintenance and management of the institution has gone awry. And TTCD training is limited to a few trades. There is need to include computer education, electrical fields and increase employment for hearing impaired.

"It is very difficult to converse with people, specially in the government. So if a short-term training programme in sign language is organized for those working in Vidhana Soudha, it will help the hearing impaired communicate their problems effectively," said Manohar, from the association.

Disabled sailor completes Mumbai-Goa voyage

Source: IANS
 3 December 2009, 05:01pm IST

PANAJI: Triumphing against all odds, TV actor and writer Salil Chaturvedi, who is paralysed below the waist, led a four-member sailing expedition from Mumbai to Goa in a campaign for equal access for the disabled.

The Godrej Brighter Horizons expedition arrived here on Wednesday on the eve of the World Disability Day. The expedition that covered a distance of some 240 nautical miles was flagged off from Mumbai on Nov 24 by Adi Godrej, the chairman of the Godrej Group.

Chaturvedi -- who currently acts in, and writes scripts for the Indian version of "Sesame Street" "Galli Galli Sim Sim" -- was accompanied by a crew of three that included his wife Monika Kshatriya, as also Umaji Chowgule and Shaunik Chaturvedi. They sailed in the Bombay Harbour Seabird, a 21-ft sloop. Designed in 1920 by Derrick Morgan Giles, an English naval architect, the boat had no modern amenities, apart from a motor, in case of emergencies.

Through the Godrej Brighter Horizons sailing expedition, Chaturvedi and his team intended calling attention to the potential of persons with disabilities and the power of collaborations.

"I wanted to demonstrate that magical things can happen with partnerships," said Chaturvedi. "At the same time, I hope to draw attention to the dismal situation of access in India. A disabled person can still not go out and do the most basic of things independently, such as shop, board public transport, go to places of leisure and entertainment such as parks and cinema halls, or government offices," Chaturvedi said.

"It's really surprising that in a nation that is trying to become an economic powerhouse, more than 10 million of its disabled population find themselves largely under house arrest," he added.

The expedition, Chaturvedi said, "was meant to showcase what can be achieved when people join hands and things are made accessible. It's been 240 nautical miles for me, and India needs to travel many miles to empower its disabled citizens".

Chaturvedi is not new to adventure, though he said that he has not undertaken anything as risky before. He has represented India at the Wheelchair Tennis Tournaments in Melbourne and Japan in the early 1990s.

Chaturvedi is is also a proficient writer, having won several awards for his short

stories and poetry, the latest being the Commonwealth Short Story award of the Commonwealth Broadcasting Association in 2008.

Despite all the planning, the crew knew they were at the mercy of the natural elements. The schedule was totally dependent on the winds and was, therefore, kept flexible. The expedition had to face several hours of lull (no breeze) but never motored once despite the heat and tough conditions.

In fact, the earlier estimated 15-hour legs stretched to 27 hours and were trying for everyone on board. But Chaturvedi said what kept them going at such times was Adi Godrej's advice to him when he set sail. "Mr. Godrej's words 'Make sure you enjoy yourself' kept ringing in my ears!" said Chaturvedi with a bright smile. "And I did just that."

The sail was sponsored by the Godrej group. Through the "Godrej Brighter Horizons Expedition" the group urged Indian citizens, corporates and governments to provide support and equal opportunities to people with disabilities.

Handicapped Palestinians rally in Gaza for more protection

GAZA, Dec. 3 (Xinhua) -- Tens of handicapped Palestinians have demonstrated Thursday in front of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights' office in Gaza City to mark the international day of the disabled.

    The demonstrators called for jobs, protection and integration in the working Palestinian society which is crippling due to Israeli blockade and a military offensive that took place last winter.

    "The Palestinian disabled individual still has the capacity to be creative and to participate within his or her community," said Lateefa Nassar, a participant at the rally.

    "I personally was fortunate enough to finish my studies and now I work for Afaq association that cares for the disabled," he said.

    Amjad al-Shawa, director of the Palestinian non-governmental organizations network (PNGO), called for lifting the Israeli siege, imposed sine 2007, "to enable the disabled live in freedom and dignity."

    "The closure prevents the disabled in Gaza from their simplest rights like treatment and supportive tools," al-Shawa added.

    In the Gaza Strip, 70,000 people of the coastal enclave's 1.4 million population suffer from various levels of disability, said al-Mezan Center for Human Rights.

    After the Israel's military operation, some 600 people were added to the disabled list, and the majority of them have lost limbs.

Disabled in India-controlled Kashmir call for gov't support

 SRINAGAR, India-controlled Kashmir, Dec. 4 (Xinhua) -- A group of physically challenged persons in Indian-controlled Kashmir Thursday evening staged a candle light protest demonstration to highlight their problems on the World Disability Day.

    The members took organized a sit-in demonstration amid burning candles and holding placards in a public park at the heart of Srinagar city, the summer capital of India-controlled Kashmir to impress upon the local government to address their grievances.

    "We demand proper infrastructure so that we can prove ourselves. We're able to do anything in case you give us proper environment. We are asking for special schools for the people with different kinds of disabilities. Our concern is to see all the buildings, transport, parks and other places in the region barrier-free," said Shahleel Ahmad, a disabled person.

    According to census of India report 2001, the population of disabled in India-controlled Kashmir is 300,000, 3 percent of the total population. However, the non-governmental organizations put the figure somewhere around 800,000.

    The members of the disability community in the region allege government apathy for their plight. There are no special schools for the disabled people in the region.

    The Social Welfare Department officials maintain that they are providing a monthly disability pension of 9 U.S. dollars to disabled persons registered with their department.

    But the activists say government assistance reaches only to the handful.

    "As per government figures only 58,000 people get this meager assistance," said Javed Ahmad Tak, an activist fighting for the cause of disabled in the region.

    Tak is running a NGO, Humanity Welfare Organization, catering to the educational needs of physically challenged children in Anantnag.

    Earlier the day, members of Handicapped Association were baton charged and detained by police while they tried to present a memorandum to a United Nations Office in Srinagar.

    The members are eager to seek attention of UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, for early implementation of rights of disabled in the conflict hit India-controlled Kashmir.

    The members were shouting anti-government slogans and accused region's Social Welfare Ministry of breaking its promises made to them from time to time.

    "Our demands include implementation of reservations rules in favor of handicapped, enhancement of monthly disability pension from 400 to 1,500 rupees a month, free education to children of disabled up to university level, loans at low interest rates, separate counters in government and semi-government offices, reservation for handicapped employees in promotion quota, allotment of residential plots and shops, 50 percent concession in electricity fees, re-advertisement of backlog vacancies," said Mukthar Ahmad, a community member.

    Experts in the region underline the importance of survey in the region to know the exact data about the nature and number of disability affected people.

    "There is a need to undertake a survey in order to collect the data in respect of the disabled persons district wise in the region. We are hopeful to start it soon and complete it within a stipulated time so that we can design possible solutions on need basis," said Sakina Itoo, Minister of Social Welfare in Indian-controlled Kashmir while addressing a function on World Disability Day.

    A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed in 2006 is also pending in the region's High Court seeking of emphasis on social and medical rehabilitation for the disabled persons.

    Every year on Dec. 3, World Disability Day is observed to promote an understanding of disability issues and mobilize support for the dignity, rights and well-being of persons with disabilities.

Some food for thought

Source: TOI
TNN 3 December 2009, 11:07pm IST
HUBLI: Karnataka Balavikas Academy president Shankar Halagatti has regretted that the money provided by the government towards the mess fee of disabled children has remained unchanged since 1985.

Speaking at a function to mark International Day of Disabled Persons here on Thursday, he said each disabled child gets Rs 400-600 depending on whether the Centre or state is funding his/ her food expense. While the Centre gives Rs 600, the state provides Rs 400.

Halagatti said that the purpose of celebrating International Day of Disabled Persons is to introduce the pain and sufferings of the disabled to the society. "But it is still unknown whether people have been able to understand their problems," he said, highlighting the need for bringing them into the mainstream with the help of the government.

He said opportunity will be provided to over 1,500 disabled children to take part in state-level children's convention to be held in Hassan in January.

'Physically-Abled' Abusing Facilities For The Handicapped

By Zulkiple Ibrahim

This the final part of a three-series feature inconjunction with the International Day of Disabled Persons on Dec 3.

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 3 (Bernama) -- Awareness of facilities provided for the disabled is still lacking among some members of the public based on the abuse made against such facilities.

Among the most glaring of these abuse cases is the use of parking lots designated for the disabled by members of the public who are physically normal.

The management of hypermarkets and shopping complexes as well as the Rest and Service (R & R) stops along the highways have provided designated parking spaces for Persons With Disabilities (PWD).

These parking spaces, usually located near the entrances to the hypermarkets and shopping complexes, are supposed to assist the disabled to have easy access to the premises while that at the R & R stops meant that the disabled to easily go to the shops or toilets.

Despite the presence of signs depicting the 'man on wheelchair' symbol, there are still a number of vehicles that carried the able-bodied persons being left at these parking spaces.

SELFISH ATTITUDE

First incident.

At a hypermarket in the city, a car with a physically-fit family simply rolled to a stop at a parking space reserved for the disabled.

When queried by this writer who is physically-disabled and who happened to be there, the driver of the car retorted: "Only for a short while, anyhow this space is vacant...".

The driver gave this writer a rather sinister glare before walking away.

Second incident.

Recently this writer had stopped at the R & R area at the Ayer Keroh lay-by of the North-South Highway.

When he wanted to use the 'OKU' toilet, he had to wait for several minutes as the toilet was occupied by someone else.

He was later surprised to see a physically normal person walking out of the toilet.

When pointed by this writer that the toilet was meant for the disabled, the other person angrily replied: "I can do whatever I wish!"

"It is difficult. There are many people who are still selfish. Despite the presence of notices that this facility is for the disabled, there are many who simply ignored it," said a maintenance worker at the R & R stop on many highway users who abused the facilities for the disabled.

PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES ACT

In Malaysia, there is the Persons With Disabilities Act. But is the Act sufficient to protect the interest of the handicapped?

"This Act is good for the disabled but it does not spell out the specific penalty for those who committed abused of the facilities for the disabled," according to lawyer Nordin Shanmugam Abdullah.

He said the Act refrained from outlining the provisions that spell out the punishment for offenders who abused facilities meant for the handicapped and as long as there was absence of such provisions many would take the Act lightly.

"For them (public), using facilities meant for the handicapped is not an offence. The act provides no remedies for this. Hence, there is no offence and offenders simply escape punishment.

"Only that the abuse of facilities designed for use by the disabled is morally wrong. There is nothing else that can be done as there is no enforcement and no fines (for doing the abuse)," he said.

SENSITIVE AND DISCIPLINED

For social activist Gurmukh Singh, the PWD Act is 'toothless' as there is no enforcement unit.

"If you throw rubbish, there is a fine. Smoking at public spots also draws a fine, so the abuse of facilities for the disabled also deserves a fine.

"The problem is that we do not have an enforcement unit on the abuse of such facilities. As long as this situation persists, the abuse would go on," he said.

On facilities for the handicapped at buildings and premises, Gurmukh Singh said there were still many of such structures like shopping complexes and banks that failed to provide the utilities for the disabled.

"As if they are not sensitive and concerned against the plight of the disabled. There are no provisions in the PWD Act that warrants building owners to provide special lifts, ramps and paths for the wheelchairs of disabled.

"They did not commit any offence if they failed to provide such facilities," he said.

Gurmukh Singh said the government had put in much effort to protect the interest of the disabled, hence the society should join in to assist this cause.

"It is not difficult to show some concerns and sensitivities on the disabled," he added.

-- BERNAMA

 CELEBRATING COMMUNITY: Middleboro activist fights for handicapped access

By Alice C. Elwell

Wed Nov 25, 2009, 09:46 PM EST

Source: Wicked local

Tim Correira/The Enterprise

Kenny Cieplik sits outside the Flat Iron Cafe in Middleboro with his mother, Paula Cieplik. Kenny runs a Web site where he rates the handicapped accessibility of local buildings.

MIDDLEBORO - He uses a wheelchair, locked inside a body that barely responds, and many who pass by don’t see the spark of intelligence in his eyes.

But Kenny Cieplik, 34, also known as the “traveling wheelchair,” is making his presence known in Middleboro and beyond as he goes about living a full life and fighting to make local buildings accessible to disabled people.

It is a battle he continues as the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 approaches its 20-year anniversary.

He uses his blog — www.thetravelingwheelchair.com — to rate handicapped access at local businesses and to bring attention to the challenges faced by disabled people.

“I’m just a regular man that is fighting to make the world more accessible and sensitive,” Cieplik said. “Sensitive, safer and respectful.”

He’s also a man who enjoys himself, taking in a Patriots game, a whale watch, a ski lift and even traveling to the nation’s capital for President Barack Obama’s inauguration.

Cieplik started life with no disabilities, but suffered a massive cerebral hemorrhage at age 11.

“A time bomb that I never knew I had exploded in my brain,” he writes in his blog.

He was in a coma for eight months, and when he woke up life had totally changed. He was legally blind, his left side was paralyzed and his speech reduced to a slur.

Living in a nursing home, for years Cieplik would roll up the street from the Greenery Rehabilitation & Skilled Nursing Center to visit downtown businesses.

One of his favorite haunts was the now-defunct Farrah’s in Everett Square, where he was reduced to eating on the sidewalk because he couldn’t get inside with a wheelchair.

Then, the new owner, Debi R. Jenness, renovated with an eye toward the disabled, said Sherri Hartlen-Neely, the restaurant’s marketing director.

Now Cieplik is able to roll into the restaurant, choose any table he’d like and enjoy a meal overlooking the square.

Recently, The Enterprise joined Cieplik for lunch at the Flat Iron Grill, the former Farrah’s. Cieplik rolled through the front door and grabbed a table in the center of the restaurant, flanked by his mother and two medical support personnel.

Speech comes with difficulty, but Cieplik signaled his order by tracing out letters with his finger on the tablecloth. His family and friends use a multitude of signals to communicate, lots of eye contact, nods, gestures and sometimes just patient listening as Cieplik struggles to make himself heard.

Cieplik has lived in Middleboro for 22 years, 20 of them in a nursing home, the last two in a condo with the assistance of medical support.

He has joined forces on handicapped-access issues with local blogger and activist Mark Belanger, who came across Cieplik on a blog and followed up. Cieplik and Belanger both use their blogs to try and get local merchants to make their businesses more accessible.

“It’s the right thing to do,” said Belanger.

His sentiment is echoed by Town Manager Charles J. Cristello, who sent out a letter last month asking Middleboro businesses to voluntarily comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

“It’s the right thing to do,” Cristello said.

Cieplik’s mother, Paula, said it might not be easy — structurally or financially —for some businesses to comply with ADA rules, but others could install a portable ramp to help people in a wheelchair to get inside. They have no patience, though, with taxpayer-funded government buildings that drag their feet about providing handicapped accessibility.

Cieplik reviews accessibility at local businesses and some government buildings — such as area post offices — with a five-star rating system, and posts them on his Web site.

“It’s amazing the hassles we run into,” said Paula Cieplik. “Everyone needs to use a post office, it’s every United States citizen’s right.”

But there are natural obstacles that Kenny Cieplik doesn’t want to change.

The terrain at Plimoth Plantation, for example, or waves on a beach.

Last year, he tumbled from his wheelchair when a wave knocked him over at Old Silver Beach on Cape Cod. The spill sent him to the emergency room, but he was undaunted.

Cieplik traveled to Washington for the Obama inauguration, took in a Patriots game at Gillette Stadium, which he gave a five-star rating for handicapped access, has taken a whale watch on the Captain John in Plymouth, ridden a chairlift to the top of Gunstock Mountain in New Hampshire, and attempted a helicopter ride at Edaville Railroad.

“We try everything,” said Paula Cieplik.

Belanger said Cieplik opened his eyes to the world of the handicapped, admitting he had little contact with disabled people until they teamed up.

“Fortunately, on Kenny’s blog, he had some links that had guidelines explaining how disabled people want to be treated,” Belanger said. “I was way over-thinking things. It was all obvious stuff that boils down to treat everyone the same.”

As Thanksgiving approached, Cieplik reflected on the progress made — in part from his efforts — so the world is accessible to disabled people.

“I am grateful to be able to go out in the community,” he said.

Handicapped Persons association to hold rasta roko
Source : TNN
 25 November 2009, 09:41pm IST

MANGALORE: Dakshina Kannada and Udupi District Physically Handicapped Persons Association will organize a rasta roko (road blockade) demanding a

solution to the problems faced by the handicapped in Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) buses, at Thokkottu junction near here on November 30.

A release by association president V Muralidhar Naik stated that various problems related to the issuance of bus passes to physically challended persons have been unsolved for long. Referring to the problems, he said the pass holders are allowed to travel up to 100 km from their destinations and have to pay full fare for the remaining distance for long journeys. The pass holders are eligible to travel only in ordinary busses and not in other buses. Further, the pass facility was not available in inter-state bus services. There have been many instances where the bus conductors have behaved in an inhuman manner forcing the handicapped to get down half way, he said.

He said the conditions laid down by the government for issuing the handicapped bus passes are not applicable to senior citizen passes. Hence, the facilities available to the senior citizens should be extended to the handicapped persons. All handicapped persons with bus passes should be allowed to travel any distance in all types of busses throughout the state and those who have not obtained passes should be allowed to travel with 50 per cent concession by producing identity cards issued by the government. The bus pass facility should be introduced in inter-state buses too. The state government should take some constructive steps to solve these problems.

Library for Blind-Physically Handicapped will Offer Holiday Event Dec. 3

Source: honolulu advertiser

"'Tis the Season," a free Holiday Season program, will be presented at Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (LBPH) on Thursday, December 3 at 10 a.m.

A musical performance by pianist Ron Miyashiro and Friends will be featured and the audience will also have the opportunity to sing along and reminisce about Christmas in the past.

The 90-minute program is suitable for all ages. Refreshments will be served.

Contact the Library as soon as possible if a sign language interpreter or other special accommodation is needed.

The Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped is located at 402 Kapahulu Avenue. For more information, please call the Library at 733-8444.

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We are a group of professionals busy in life but taking out some time to place, collect, post, some good news ad some awareness building news articles so that we could make a small difference.

A doctor is just an iPhone call away

Source: DNA INDIA 

Bangalore: In a remote village in Bidar district, pediatricians are replacing prescription pads with mobile phones to connect with Bangalore-based experts who, in turn, armed with Apple iPhones, are able to diagnose the eye condition of three-month-old babies.

Welcome to telemedicine 2.0. "The iPhone's pinch, drag and drop capabilities, coupled with its good image resolution, are capable of detecting Retinopathy of Prematurity (RoP)," said Dr Anand Vinekar, pediatric retinal surgeon at Narayana Nethralaya.

Cashing in on the power of handheld devices, the Bangalore-headquartered institute has tied up with the Karnataka government for a pediatric community outreach programme, which involves screening infants in the rural areas for the potentially blinding condition.

The institute plans to rollout this application in other states as well.

According to WHO, India is suffering from the third epidemic of RoP after US in the 1950s and 70s. And of 27 million babies born, 8.4% weighing less than 2kg may be prone to the deadly condition. The RoP affects the retinas of babies, which can cause permanent blindness if it is not screened within the first 3-4 weeks of childbirth.

The institute has conducted pilot projects in six districts -- Bangalore Urban, Rural, Mandya, Tumkur, Bidar, Gulbarga-- screening 1,600 infants and treated over 160 infants prone to RoP.

Narayana Nethralaya has also tied up with i2i TeleSolutions to provide collaborative software to run the application on i-Phone.

Assisting doctors in their mission of live diagnosis is a RedCam, a retinal camera with a 130 degree field of view, taking snapshots of the child's retinal condition. These raw images are beamed over the internet in an encrypted format that is stored in remote servers in the UK.

The Karnataka government is in the process of procuring two RedCams costing Rs1 crore and laser equipment of Rs20 lakh for the programme run under the aegis of National Rural Health Mission (NHRM).

You light up my eyes!

Source: TOI

Born with beautiful large twinkling eyes, Padma Devi's newborn son soon became a favourite in her small village in southernKarnataka.

You light up my eyes!

The baby was born underweight and weighed just about 1.6 kg, but the joy of his birth drove concerns about his weight out of his mother's mind. However, two months later, Padma noticed something strange - his lightbrown pupil had become white and he stopped responding to movement.

A subsequent visit to a primary health centre gave Padma a devastating shock - the child was declared irreversibly blind. He was suffering from Retinopathy of Prematurity (ROP) - the leading cause of preventable childhood blindness in India.

ROP is a condition that affects up to 47 per cent of the babies born below 2,000 grams in India. Of these, nearly 20 per cent go blind if not treated on time. Interestingly, none of these children are born with ROP. Premature babies actually go on to develop it between one to three months after birth. Strangely, even as vitamin A deficiency and corneal problems have received adequate consideration and funding from the government, retinal malfunctions that account for 22 per cent of the childhood blindness cases in India have failed to draw requisite attention from the relevant authorities.

With the Union health ministry yet to realise the seriousness of this problem, the fight against ROP is now being led by two unlikely heroes in Karnataka - Dr Anand Vinekar, a paediatric retinal surgeon armed with a laser machine and a camera the size of a 165-litre fridge on the backseat of his Qualis, and Krishna, a 25-year-old technician who has barely cleared middle school.

For the past two years, Dr Vinekar, head of Narayana Nethralaya Postgraduate Institute of Ophthalmology's department of paediatric retina, and Krishna - a lab technician trained to identify various stages of ROP with nearly 100 per cent accuracy by just looking at images - have been traversing the most backward roads of Karnataka for 13 hours a day, stopping at villages, screening newborns for ROP and surgically treating those who need it on the spot with the laser machine.

However, what's creating waves internationally is their latest project - a Tele-ROP model. This is how it works. Trained technicians visit remote villages, capture retinal images with a special portable digital wide-field camera (capable of seeing 130° of the retina with one single shot). These are then sent via email to a special server. Retinal experts sitting miles away view the images and give their diagnosis within minutes. The technician then informs the mother about ROP and gets the child treated by a Narayana Nethralaya ophthalmic surgeon.

"India has less than 300 retinal surgeons,"says Dr Vinekar. "That's why we are training common people to become technicians - those who can just look at images and detect stage one to stage five ROP, negating the requirement for a doctor. It is easy to take a retinal image, so we are training technicians to analyse the images and diagnose. Due to the massive number of babies that need to be screened, and the limited number of trained physicians, there is no other way. At present, babies born in rural areas are either never screened or screened too late for ROP, which can be prevented by timely diagnosis and appropriate treatment. That's why we are now creating self-sufficient districts - training ophthalmologists from peripheral healthcare centres to treat ROP besides having two technicians per district. Besides Karnataka , a similar project is underway in West Bengal." Till now, they have screened over 1,700 infants around a 350-km radius of the Nethralaya. Over 155 kids from neonatal centres in 18 hospitals in south Karnataka's seven districts have been treated.

The ministry has finally taken note of their efforts and through a publicprivate partnership decided to incorporate the model in India's National Rural Health Mission. Six more districts in Karnataka are now being added for the out-reach programme, which will ultimately be taken across the country. "A number of Southeast Asian and African countries are facing similar problems with ROP and have a shortage of trained ophthalmologists," Dr Vinekar says. "India has proved that a technician-driven model works. What's worse about ROP is that the retina does not look abnormal from outside till it reaches stage five when the eye looks white in the centre. The blindness is irreversible then. Till now, we have taken 100,000 images. To ensure that data is not lost via transit on the net, we have developed a specialised server where experts log in, see images and give their diagnosis. The software is now also being incorporated in an iPhone so that live images can be transferred via SMS. This will enable the iPhone to allow experts sitting anywhere to access images taken in any part of the country."

Blind spot

India is home to one fourth of the world's blind children, making it the world's blind children's capital Retinopathy of Prematurity (ROP) affects up to 47% of the babies born below 2,000 grams in India India has 24 million live births annually, of which 8.4% babies are born below 2,000 grams Of these 15-20 % will go blind if not treated in time Blindness sets in when the child is 4-6 weeks old and becomes complete before the tenth week ROP mainly affects premature infants born before 31 weeks of gestation (a full-term pregnancy has a gestation of 38-42 weeks) The smaller a baby is at birth, the more likely it is to develop ROP ROP was first diagnosed in 1942 ROP is classified in five stages, ranging from mild (stage I) to severe (stage V) Babies can be treated between stages II and III ROP occurs when abnormal blood vessels grow and spread throughout the retina. These vessels are fragile and can leak, scarring the retina and causing retinal detachment - the main cause of blindness

They are blind to perils of unsafe sex

Source: Express Buzz
Express News Service

16 Oct 2009 07:18:44 AM IST

BANGALORE: Most of the visually-challenged persons in Karnataka are unaware of the perils of unsafe sex, according to Indian Disabled League(IDL)—a citybased NGO. In an attempt to increase awareness amongst visually-challenged persons, the NGO conducted a workshop on HIV/AIDS on the occasion of World White Cane Day on Thursday.

PK Paul of IDL told Express, “Many of the visually-challenged come from the economically- marginalised sections of society. Since they have no access to proper education, they can prove to be a vulnerable group for sexually-transmitted diseases.” Emphasising the need for awareness of safe sex among the visually-challenged, Agatha Shekar, an HIV/AIDS awareness trainer from International Services Association (INSA), said, “The blind too live an active sexual life. However, as they tend to live in groups, their chances of indulging in multipartner relationship is also high.” But when it came to basic sex practices such as using contraceptives, the knowledge among the visually-challenged was quite limited, she said.

“Most of the blame should go to the HIV prevention and AIDS outreach efforts that have had no programmes for the disabled as it was assumed that they were at no risk. However, it is not so,” she said. “They are at a higher risk as they have equal or greater exposure to all known risk factors for HIV infection, including physical exploitation,” she added.

As per World Bank data, India has more than one-third of the world’s blind people.

Grad school will cater to disabled
Source: Japantimes

TSUKUBA, Ibaraki Pref. (Kyodo) Japan's first graduate school for students with visual or aural disabilities will open next April at the state-run Tsukuba University of Technology in Ibaraki Prefecture, it said Friday.

It will be the world's first graduate school for visually impaired students and the third for hearing-impaired ones, following such schools as Gallaudet University in the United States, according to the university.

"We would like to accept foreign students and expand our capacity in the future," said Yoshinori Murakami, university president. "Also, we would like to open Ph.D. courses eventually."

Master's degrees will be offered in two faculties — industrial technology for visually challenged students and health science courses for hearing-impaired students that will focus on acupuncture and moxibustion as well as physical therapy.

The university is planning to provide various learning aids, including sign language, Braille and magnified letters to accommodate the students' needs.

The protest by blind graduates in Imo The protest by blind graduates in Imo
Source: Guardian

THE recurring protests by physically challenged persons in some states of the federation with regard to their welfare and official responses are a sad comment on the governance process. This is increasingly the case as this category of citizens who require some form of assistance insist on their right to human dignity. The true measure of a society lies in its treatment of its less privileged members. Unfortunately, such agitation for better treatment in the past by the less privileged met with little or no success. It is time government in collaboration with civil society defined a comprehensive and meaningful framework for addressing the concerns of the physically challenged in our midst.

The latest group of protesters, members of an association of visually impaired graduates and non-graduates, recently disrupted economic activities in Owerri, Imo State, as they marched on the Government House, alleging insensitivity to their plight by the state government. Before the Owerri protest, another group of physically challenged persons had protested on the streets of Jalingo, the Taraba State capital over the failure of the National Directorate of Employment (NDE) to pay certain grants allegedly promised them at the end of their training in various vocations, to help them set up small businesses.

The key message in these protests is clear. The physically challenged are saying that they deserve the support of both public and private sectors; that they are no longer prepared to be a burden to anybody in spite of life's challenges. Often, both government and other stakeholders treat the physically challenged condescendingly, placing emphasis on charity instead of rights and justice.

The displeasure of the Owerri group centred on the non-provision of employment opportunities for them after graduation. They also protested the alleged stoppage of bursary and scholarship allowances to their members despite several appeals to the state government. Group spokesman Mr. Clinton Amaechi was particular about the neglect by the present administration: "Since this administration came to power, the disabled persons in the state have been experiencing a lot of difficulties. So many of us have graduated and we don't have jobs." Again, that touches on the rather difficult situation the country faces over employment generation initiatives. The unemployment index in the country continues to rise, with many Nigerians placed at a disadvantage.

Amaechi's touching comments in refuting claims of government officials in the media that his association had been taken care of should be investigated by Governor Ikedi Ohakim. The same goes for the disclosure that nobody pays them (visually challenged students) the allowances and bursary any longer "since this administration came on board". The governor was reportedly away at the time of the protest. He should feel obliged to respond to the physically challenged persons' concern. It is particularly not good enough that the protest was brought under control by Government House security staff who raised emergency fund for the blind graduates on compassionate grounds, because no government official was available to attend to them.

Mr. Ohakim should not rule out the possibility of deceit by government functionaries. That, of course, has been the trademark of some government departments or agencies that are supposed to cater for special groups in society. With political scientists, lawyers and other professionals among them, the blind graduates do not deserve the harrowing experiences they are being subjected to (or to be left to moan their fate) after struggling to acquire higher education.

Allowing the students among them to suffer deprivation or ignoring the graduates is a reflection of the poor state of affairs in the country. The resolve of the graduates among them to work, and not to beg for survival, should encourage both the state government and the private sector to consider them for employment.

The incidents in Imo and Taraba states are by no means peculiar. This is a national problem which deserves the attention of the Federal and state authorities as well as the private sector and civil society groups. Bills could be considered as a matter of priority by the various legislative houses to review existing welfare provisions - if they are found inadequate - to address the fears that have been expressed. But in the long run the best approach is to create opportunities for all categories of Nigerians. The environment is hostile for both the able-bodied and the physically challenged raising serious questions about the quality of human life in the country.

The economy should be revitalised, investor-confidence needs to be restored to create an economy where persons can be gainfully employed, including the weak and vulnerable. A social security scheme, once proposed but abandoned, would also prove useful as a means of transforming Nigeria into a citizen-friendly and compassionate society.

U.K. award for 2 Indian NGOs Hasan Suroor
Source: The Hindu

LONDON: Two Indian NGOs — Mumbai-based “Prerana” and “Sense International India,” Ahmedabad — are to get $100,000 each for their work among disabled and poor children.

They are among the six grassroots organisations from South Asia and Africa selected by Stars Foundation, a London-based charity, for this year’s “Stars Impact” awards given every year to groups which have made a “demonstrable difference” to the lives of disadvantaged children.

In a statement on Thursday, the foundation said “Prerana” was selected for providing night and day care and education/training for children at risk from ‘second generation’ commercial sexual exploitation and trafficking in India.

Recognised

The Sense International India was recognised for supporting hearing-impaired and visually-challenged children and for setting up South Asia’s first teacher training and mentoring course in tackling these handicaps.

Muna Wehbe, chief executive of the Foundation, said the two groups had demonstrated “extraordinary commitment and found inspirational solutions to the challenges facing children in their communities.”

“Over the past three years, our recipients have benefited in many ways from the awards beyond the funding and the consultancy support that we offer. Organisations have secured increased funding, enhanced media profile, and built stronger partnerships with other organisations and local government. As a result, this has benefited thousands of children,” she said.

Forging a path for the visually-challenged

Source: TOI
TNN 21 October 2009, 02:55am IST

PUNE: After visiting the Wagah Border on World White Cane Day (October 15), Satish Navale and his team are back with plans to produce more radio
programmes for visually-impaired students in Punjab.

Navale is the man behind the Braille Vani Web Radio for the visually-impaired, aired through the University of Pune's Vidyawani community radio.

The Wagah border trip also included visits to the Vocational Rehabilitation and Training Centre (VRTC) in Ludhiana and the Maha Andha Vidyalaya in Amritsar.

Navale and his team demonstrated Braille Vani Web Radio to the students at VRTC, and are now planning to do a radio series on basic English for undergraduate, graduate and post-graduate students, which will also benefit the students of VRTC. "Work on a series of 15 radio episodes based on the basics of spoken and written English is planned. It will also cover various aspects of English that can be learned by the visually impaired. Students of Pune-based Modern high school are a part of the production team. Once this series is ready, we plan to send it across to VRTC," says Navale.

To begin with, two pilot episodes will be readied and tested some time later this month. "We will air these pilot episodes before the visually impaired as well as teachers who train such students, and seek their opinion for further improvement. We hope to finish the series by the end of the month," adds Navale.

A visit to the Amritsar-based Maha Andha Vidyalaya the first blind school established in India also proved fruitful. "I happened to meet with the principal of this school, Manjeet Singh, and the lacunae in the quality of education for the visually impaired came to the fore. Subjects like mathematics and science are not given priority while teaching blind students, and the blind are deprived of opportunities in higher education. We want to change this," says Navale.

He plans to have a radio programme on a course for "disabled management" that will include content on challenges faced by the blind, finding solutions to their problems, ways of making the visually impaired self-reliant and independent and other aspects related to opportunities for their development. "This series will include practical demonstrations and will be beneficial for all visually impaired students. This series will be made and sent to Maha Andha Vidyalaya by this year end. We plan to broadcast its pilot episode on the University of Pune's Vidyawani (107.4 Mhz) on December 3, which is celebrated as World Disability Day," says Navale.

Due to the high alert at the border caused by the Lahore attacks on October 15, Navale's team couldn't do a live Braille demonstration programme at Wagah or celebrate Bhau-Beej' with them on the occasion of Diwali. "But we did manage to demonstrate Braille Vani Web Radio for a few minutes to the people present there. This was enough for us to get our point across on the occasion of World White Cane Day," says Navale.

And some time in the second week of November, a special Diwali programme Samwad' will be aired on Vidyawani. Produced by Braille Vani Web Radio, it includes programmes on music, education, entertainment, travel as well as interviews. "It's a 45-minute programme and copies of the same will be sold to a few schools at a nominal price of Rs 5," says Navale.

NGO develops book reader for the blind.....Manasi Saraf-Joshi

Source: DNA India

A Nagpur-based NGO, Saksham, has launched an audio book reader for the visually challenged. The device, priced at Rs5,000, would not only help the visually challenged in their studies but also undertake leisure reading and learn music.

The NGO's national general secretary Avinash Sangvai said that the instrument was developed after carrying out a detailed research on various devices used for the blind. Sangvai and his two friends Sandeep Darwhekar and Mukund Deshmukh designed and developed it.

Elaborating on the features of the audio reader, he said it can read the audio tracks stored in a multimedia memory card of 2 GB capacity, which has a storage capacity of 60 odd hours. "This pocket-size device has only five embossed buttons for browsing the menu," he said, adding that with the buttons, one can navigate through any subject or book. Operations like fast forward, fast backward and pause too can be carried out at ease.

He appealed to various city-based NGOs working for visually challenged to come forward to make the devise available in the city. The instrument can be used by ten people at a time, he said. "We have stored the curriculum from school level till the competitive examinations," he said, explaining that other reading material and music have also been stored.

Sangvai said many people from housewives to a professional voice lender have contributed towards recording the books. "The data was recorded at homes, recording studios, on roads, and other places," he said, adding the idea was to give authentic information to the blind.

The device was initially launched in Nagpur in September 2008 followed by Hyderabad and Kerala.

Last Updated on : Sep 02,2009

Jeffrey Bigham
Helping the Blind Use the Web From Anywhere ........By JEFFREY THOMAS

Source: Span Magazine on Karmayog

Less than one percent of the 38 million blind people in the world have a screen reader, a software program that reads the contents of a computer screen aloud.

Even those who do, often need to use the Web when they are not at their own computers. There just has not been anything inexpensive that was readily available in a public library or an Internet cafe or on a friend's laptop. Until now.

In May 2008, Microsoft awarded its first Accessible Technology Award for Interface Design to Jeffrey Bigham, a 27-year-old doctoral candidate in computer science at the University of Washington, for creating WebAnywhere, a self-voicing Web browser that enables blind and visually impaired people to access the Web from any available computer.

Bigham was inspired to create WebAnywhere because "Web access is becoming increasingly vital to our lives," he says.

As a researcher in human-computer interaction with a focus on Web accessibility, he had "been looking at how the ideas of community-based content and Web pages as applications can be leveraged to improve access. WebAnywhere was a natural fit," Bigham says. "People talk about how applications [such as e-mail, word processors and spreadsheets] continue to move from the desktop to the Web. I thought: Why can't access technology, like self-voicing Web browsers and screen readers, do the same?"

WebAnywhere-which Bigham is making available as free, open-source software-can be run on most systems, even public terminals on which users have few permissions. Its small size means users can begin browsing the Web quickly even on relatively slow connections.

The system is written in JavaScript that is downloaded from a server, allowing it to run in most modern Web browsers, including Firefox, Internet Explorer and Safari. WebAnywhere can act as a search engine or give voice to all of the text on a Web page. It also learns to take into account the user's past preferences and to anticipate what the user will want.

People who suffer visual impairment short of blindness or who have certain learning disabilities may also benefit from Bigham's system.

He plans to add more features and ensure that WebAnywhere can operate on cell phones and other mobile devices with built-in Web access.

Blind people who evaluated WebAnywhere during its design phase were able to complete the kind of tasks that users may want to do on the go: checking e-mail, looking up a bus schedule and searching for a restaurant's phone number.

Now the alpha version, an early version of the software that may not contain all of the planned features, is available for general use.

"The trial has gone well," Bigham says. "We've had a lot of people visiting the site and giving us feedback, and we've thus far had no major problems.

"...The beauty of the Web is that releasing and distributing new versions is relatively painless. To do so, we just update the site and the next time a visitor comes to the site, they get the latest version of WebAnywhere. In that sense, we're able to make smaller changes quite regularly, and we've been doing so."

To use WebAnywhere, a user visits the WebAnywhere Web site, which provides a screen-reader interface that translates Web-based text to speech and reads the content aloud in English.

The software processes the text of the Web page on a server at the University of Washington and then sends the audio file to play in the user's Web browser.

Because WebAnywhere is free, open-source software, anyone can help improve it or add new features. While at present WebAnywhere only works in English, Bigham says versions in other languages hosted on local servers could also be created.

"We do not currently make WebAnywhere available in any Indian language. ...We would love for someone to work on support for other languages, especially Hindi, as our logs indicate a large number of users from India despite the lack of support for Indian languages," he says.

Bigham says he has been getting "very positive" comments from users. "People get excited when you talk about providing nonvisual access from almost any computer, especially when you say it's open-source and free."

WebAnywhere has been funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation and a Boeing Company professorship.

The Microsoft Award included $8,000 and a trip to the software company's Imagine Cup world finals in Paris in July, where Bigham demonstrated WebAnywhere.

"My goals in the future are to continue doing research and working with students, and also to keep doing things that actually help people," Bigham said after receiving the Microsoft Accessible Technology Award. "That has been one of the cool things about this project: It's not like we just did the study, learned some things and that's it. With WebAnywhere, we're actually taking it to the next step and getting it out to people who need it."

Jeffrey Thomas is a staff writer with America.gov

URL: http://span.state.gov/wwwhspjanfeb0959.html