Unique exhibition at the National Museum makes culture accessible for visually-impaired

Taken from The Hindu.
It was a heart-warming sight to see the visually-impaired follow a tactile path that was smooth in some places and rough at others where they had to stop, at an exhibition in the National Museum on Friday.

Restaurants join the dots

Taken from Times of India.

Chennai's Kalakkal café not only has Braille menus but also pictorial menus, tactile walls and even some eating aids.  Two years ago when visually impaired Bharatnatyam dancer, Gangamma, 22, visited the US for a performance series, she was amazed at how aware people were about visual impairment.

E-books accessible to visually impaired, courtesy EPUB

Taken from Deccan Herald.
There is nothing different in the way 37-year-old Avneesh Singh uses his iPhone 5S.
Whenever he wants to read an article, he whips out the device from his shirt pocket and slides his fingers on the screen; only that, in Avneesh’s case, the phone’s voice software begins to read the content aloud.

Gallery for visually impaired to come up at National Museum

Taken from Business Standard.
In a novel initiative, the National Museum here is creating an exclusive gallery for visually-impaired visitors where they will be able to touch and feel the replicas of various artefacts with audio guides narrating their historical significance.

JNU proposes AC bus, DU smart canes for special students

Taken from Indian Express
University spaces may soon become a little more disabled-friendly, with varsities taking steps to ease mobility for special-needs students. While Jawaharlal University (JNU) will soon be running an air-conditioned bus for students to travel within its premises, Delhi University (DU) is set to provide “mobility and accessibility kits” to help visually-impaired students.

Thane mall is probably the only visually-impaired friendly in the country

Taken from Times of India.
MUMBAI: Early this month, one of the many malls in Thane, along with the Xavier's Resource Centre for the Visually Challenged (XRCVC), launched an audio-tactile labelling system to help blind shoppers at the mall.

Microsoft's bone-conducting headset uses audio to help guide the blind around town

Taken from PC World.
Microsoft is developing an interesting new system the company believes could radically change the way visually impaired people navigate an urban environment. The new prototype technology doesn't have an official name yet, but Microsoft refers to it as 3D soundscape technology.

Railways get court rap for failing to make stations disabled-friendly

Taken from Indian Express.
Directing the railways to come up with a time-bound schedule to provide basic facilities for the differently abled by November 24, the Bombay High Court on Wednesday noted that a large number of suburban stations still did not been provide basic amenities like accessible toilets, railings, low ticketing
counters and low-height water taps.

Footpaths turn stumbling blocks for disabled

Taken from Deccan Herald.
Amid all the hoopla about making public office buildings more accessible for the physically-challenged, the footpaths in the City continue to be disabled-unfriendly.

Teacher’s fall belies Metro ‘accessibility’

Read this important news taken from Times of India.
NEW DELHI: Smriti Singh, a visually impaired English teacher at Maitreyi College, fell on the tracks at Vaishali Metro station while trying to pick her way out of a train, unescorted, on November 5 (Wednesday).

Universities asked to earmark funds for barrier-free environment

Taken from Economic Times.
NEW DELHI: UGC has asked universities across the country to earmark funds to ensure a barrier-free environment for physically challenged students, seeking a status report within a fortnight.

Google Drive and Docs Editor Gets Improved Accessibility for the Visually-Challenged

Taken from NDTV Gadgets:
Google on Thursday announced an update to Drive and its Web-based editors - Docs, Sheets, Slides, Drawings, and Forms - specifically designed with blind and low-vision users in mind.

Robotic walking stick for visually impaired

Taken from Business Standard:
In a first, engineers have designed a robotic walking stick for the visually impaired that can detect the user's immediate path and store localised geographical information.

EC warned to make website differently-abled friendly

Taken from The Hindu:
Pressure from disability rights activists has prompted the Court of the Chief Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities to issue a stern warning and ultimatum to the Election Commission of India (ECI) asking it to make its website user friendly for persons with disability.

Designed to improve equality & accessibility

Taken from The Hindu:
Fourteen years ago on a trip to the United States of America, G. Gopalakrishna noticed the importance of having proper signage for differently-abled persons, specifically for the visually impaired.The observations he made complemented his ongoing research in the area of developing accessible signage back home in Bangalore, and it recently culminated when he discovered an easy design that brought the cost down by nearly 30 per cent in the international market.

IIM-Ahmedabad gets disabled-friendly makeover

Taken from Times of India:
AHMEDABAD: The Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A) is changing its architecture to make the disabled feel enabled.

IIM-A gets a high number of disabled students — up from two in 2003 to 23 at present. And, to make these special students feel special, IIM-A is renovating itself to create ramps, railings and smoothing rough edges for easy access in campus.

How to use Gmail in standard view with screen readers?

Gmail is one of the most accessible Email service, most of us have Gmail ID and widely depending on it because of the friendly UI other than Yahoo and Outlook. Gmail provides two views- Basic HTML view for slow internet users and screen reader users, and the Standard view for all.

‘Smartcanes’ made by IIT-Delhi team to help 60 blind students in city

Taken from Indian Express:
For nearly 60 visually-impaired college students in Mumbai, detecting obstacles in front of them will no longer require physical contact. ‘Smartcanes’ developed by a team from Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IIT-D) team will enable the students to detect open windows, electric poles, hanging branches
and protruding AC units, open car door at a distance of three metres using ultrasonic ranging sensors attached to their regular canes.

Start-ups coming up with new applications for the visually impaired

Taken from Economic Times:
BANGALORE: A host of applications that help the visually impaired navigate the world- both digital and real- is being developed by about half a dozen startups that are also gaining investor attention.

SBI Inaugurates 5555th Talking ATM

Banking major State Bank of India dedicated its 5555 the Talking ATM to the nation on the occasion of State Bank Day on 1st July 2014. This was inaugurated by Smt. Anshula Kant, DMD (Operations - National Banking) at Wodehouse Road Branch, Colaba, Mumbai.