Acknowledgment - ICTs for the differently abled/ under privileged community in Education, Employement and Entrepreneurship

Dear Well wishers,



Thanks for your positive response against my “Proposal - invitation -
participation - collaboration – comments” email on conducting national
conference on “ICTs for the differently abled/ under privileged community in
Education, Employment and Entrepreneurship” to be held on Dec 01-03, 2009.



            Thanks to the “best humanitarian & New Samaritan”, our beloved
principal Dr A Albert Muthumalai SJ, knocked the door of every one to
accommodate these under privileged into our midst as our students,
colleagues, officials, entrepreneurs, etc. Loyola College is offering seats
to these under privileged students and there are 72 students are currently
enjoying their graduation studies here. One such girl (Graduate) student
from French department has secured second position in her semester
examination last year. “A study without social welfare is total waste” is
our principal’s policy and Loyola College is helping our students to grow
with more social values and “Men & Women for others”.



            The purpose of the conference is to empower these under
privileged community through giving access in education, education with the
skills required for getting employment or into an entrepreneur, invent new
devises & software’s to help them in all aspects and to understand problems
of differently-abled, positive aspects in Higher education policy, possible
ways in Human Resource policy, identifying potential area in
Entrepreneurship, helping to devise a Government policy and Law, finding new
trends in ICT’s, etc. It is possible to help these under privileged
community when every one in our country has to realize this social motto.
That’s why Loyola is organizing such a conference.



            I would like to thank once again for giving space to these under
privileged. I also like to receive *your passport size photograph* and *a
four line comments* about this conference which will be published in our
college web and in the posters to be sent to all the NGO’s, Corporates,
Colleges, Universities, Govt education departments, etc.



            With kindest regards,



            J Jerald Inico





Acknowledgment - Positive response received so far  from



   1. Mr N. Ravi Shankar, Joint Secretary, DIT, Government of India
   2. Mr S. Ramanathan, RVP-CSI  Region VII
   3. Mr K. Purushothaman, Regional Director, NASSCOM
   4. Mr N.Krishnaswamy IPS (Retd), Chairman, Vidya Vrikshah
   5. Mr Sivasubramanian Muthusamy, ISOC, Chennai Chapter
   6. Mr Prasanna Kumar P,  IBM
   7. Mr H R Vishwakarma, Editor, CSI –Adhayan
   8. Prof. Dr. John Daniel, Madha Engg College
   9. Prof. Dr. P Sakthivel, Anna University
   10. Prof. Dr. G. Kulandaivel, National Institute of Technical Teachers
   Training and Research
   11.  Ms Rosalia H George
   12.  Mr SINGARAJA, M, SECRETARY GENERAL/SENIOR CITIZENS BUREAU
   13.  Mr E INNIYA NEHRU, Technical Director, NIC
   14.  Mr K JeyaKrishnan, Editor, PC Friend
   15.  Ms Ann Mohideen, Founder,  ANN Foundations USA
   16. Prof N Ramanathan, Director -CSI Education NHQ





http://www.nasscomfoundation.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=105&Itemid=88889166



For the differently-abled, Net is more than a click away

Source:Times News Network



New Delhi: Can't imagine life without WWW? For the *7.5 crore people with
disabilities in India*, the web is more than a mouse-click away. With most
Indian websites — including government sites — failing to provide even
minimum levels of accessibility, equal opportunity for all is still far from
a reality.



A report commissioned by the United Nations recently found that none of the
Indian websites tested met even the most basic accessibility standards for
the disabled. "The results were very disappointing. It is important for
commercial, legal and moral reasons that websites put in place a strategy
for accessibility," said Alex Metcalfe of Nomensa, the agency which tested
leading websites in five different sectors across 20 countries for the UN.



In order to reach the minimum standards — tested against the Web Content
Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) — websites needed to provide adequate text
descriptions for graphical content so that visually impaired people could
'read' pictures. They also didn't follow industry web standards for
programming code, meaning the foundations for web accessibility simply were
not there.



"Only eight to 10 websites of private companies are accessible to the
disabled in India," said Sriram Bharatam, founder of Iridium Interactive who
has advised many clients both in India and abroad on how to make their
websites accessible.



But why don't more firms keep accessibility in mind? "Companies, especially
those in e-commerce, just don't realise the market potential. For just 10%
more cost, they can increase access and improve bottomlines," points out
Sriram.

Making a site accessible doesn't mean replacing attractive graphics with an
austere look and a big typeface. "I tell people, don't get rid of the flash
players or animation but just provide users an alternative," adds Sriram.



Iridium, which is setting up three web accessibility testing centres, is
also working with the Nasscomm Foundation on its disability initiative.



"The web isn't just about information. Nowadays, employment also depends on
one's technology quotient," points out Rufina Fernandes, CEO of Nasscomm
Foundation. The Foundation is trying to improve web accessibility by working
on guidelines that could apply to both government and private websites.



"The aim is to formulate criteria so that organisations can make their web
initiatives accessibility-standards compliant," adds Rufina. Some simple
changes — such as describing graphics and audio using text, allowing the
user to increase typesize or change background — can make a site friendly to
those with disabilities.



The government, too, has finally made a start, with the ministry of social
justice and empowerment setting the process in motion. "We have written to
the DG, National Informatics Centre in this regard. But since certain
compliancy standards have to be formulated and all government websites
redesigned, it might take some time," said Ashish Kumar, deputy director
general.



Till then, small tasks like making a railway reservation or checking their
bank balance will be out of bounds for the millions who are disabled in the
country. Says Charudutta Jadhav, visually challenged former national chess
champion who navigates cyberspace with a screen-reader (a software utility
that reads web pages out aloud, "A simple thing like reading a newspaper can
be a great joy. And only web access can make it possible."



-- 
--
____________________________________________________________________
Prof J. Jerald Inico M. Sc, M. Phil, MCP, MCSI, (Phd)
Staff coordinator, Resource Center for Differently abled ( RCDA),
Student Branch Councilor, LOYOLA COLLEGE - Computer Society of India,
Lecturer, Department of Computer Science,
LOYOLA COLLEGE,
CHENNAI - 34.

My profile:
http://www.loyolacollege.edu/profile/ComputerScience/Jerald.pdf
____________________________________________________________________