In an effort to provide an equal space and facilities to students with any form of disabilities, the Delhi University has come up with a host of new facilities. Unlike earlier, the new draft covers different types of disabilities such as 100 per cent visual disability and low vision, orthopaedic, hearing and speech impairments, cerebral palsy, brain-related ailments and even short-term disabilities due to injuries.
Earlier in order to get the benefits the students had to first apply to the examination centre, which would then forward it to the CMO, who would issue a certificate to prove that the student was physically challenged. Now any government hospital certificate will suffice to avail of all the facilities, which include scribes, interpreters, extra-time and the use of laptops or computers with disabled-friendly software.
The scribes and interpreters will also be remunerated by the University and special seating arrangements have also been outlined in the policy, says Chandra Nisha Singh, officer on special duty, Equal Opportunity Cell.
“Earlier not all kinds of disabilities were covered and students themselves paid for the scribes. Now computers will be made available to them. One just needs to inform the college authorities in advance,” says Singh.
Visually impaired Kapil Kumar, a Ph.D student with DU, is happy with the modified draft and hopes that it is implemented properly. In December Kapil will be sitting for the NET examination for the fifth time as for this exam it’s mandatory to take help from the scribe arranged by the university. “I still feel the battle is not won yet. Personally I had problems finding a scribe who would suit my requirements and the scribes provided by the university were either clerks or laboratory attendants. So it made sense to bring our own scribes. Now it’s a good thing that the university will be paying for a scribe’s services, but they should have a bank of qualified scribes.”
Visually-challenged Sharmishtha Atreja, who studied Philosophy in St. Stephen’s college, says it all boils down to proper implementation of what is offered in theory. “I think the provisions were always there, but never implemented for the benefit of students. So it’s important to ensure that help reaches those who need it most.”