The Bombay high court today directed the director of Medical Education and Research to give a provisional admission to a visually impaired student aspiring to do bachelor's course in physiotherapy.

Kruttika Purohit, 17, and Indian Association of Visually Impaired Physiotherapists had initially moved the court after she was not allowed to take the MH-CET, the common entrance test for medical and engineering courses because of her near-blindness.

The court later allowed her to take the exam, in which she secured a good rank.

Today, a division bench of chief justice Mohit Shah and justice SC Dharmadhikari said that the girl would be given provisional admission in GS Medical college during the pendency of the petition

Rising Kashmir News: http://www.risingkashmir.com/?option=com_content&task=view&id=23907

Srinagar, May 31: She does not want to hog limelight till she achieves her goal of becoming a famous lawyer. She hardly speaks of her achievements in her school and is averse to being praised. But she could not avoid being noticed when she secured 89 per cent marks in CBSE class 10 examination, which has never been heard of before for a visually impaired student in India and at her school at National Institute of Visually Handicapped (NIVH) Dehradhun.
Saniya Zehra, who appeared under roll number 5337391, secured A-2 grade with nine grade points in four out of five subjects in the visually handicapped category. She secured top grades in Hindi, Sanskrit, Music and Social Science, while as in English she secured B-1 grade with eight grade points.
Saniya’s parents were unaware of their daughter’s achievement till Principal of NIVH, Kamalbhir Singh Jaggi informed her father Abid Gowhar of Saniya’s feat.
“This depicts her nature. She never wants to be praised for any of her achievements,” said Gowhar, who is working in J&K Bank as Associate Executive, besides being a renowned broadcaster and a freelance journalist.
Gowhar shares some more experiences of Saniya’s nature.
Interestingly, 17-year-old Saniya begin her schooling in NIVH Dehradhun at the age of eleven in 2004. She was given direct berth in class 5 on the basis of her strong general knowledge and IQ.
“This is not so special or great feat for me because I know being blind and that too a girl, I have to cross many tough ladders to achieve my aim in life that is to become a good lawyer,” said Saniya.

SCHEME OF TEST

i) The Test will consist of three papers. All the three papers will be held on 27th June, 2010 in two separate sessions as under :

Session Paper Marks Duration
First I 100 1¼ Hours (09.30 A.M. to 10.45 A.M.)
First II 100 1¼ Hours (10.45 A.M. to 12.00 NOON)
Second III 200 2½ Hours (01.30 P.M. to 04.00 P.M.)

Paper-I shall be of general nature, intended to assess the teaching/research aptitude of the candidate. It will primarily be designed to test reasoning ability, comprehension, divergent thinking and general awareness of the candidate. UGC has decided to provide choice to the candidates from the December 2009 UGC-NET onwards. Sixty (60) multiple choice questions of two marks each will be given, out of which the candidate would be required to answer any fifty (50). In the event of the candidate attempting more than fifty questions, the first fifty questions attempted by the candidate would be evaluated.

Paper-II shall consist of questions based on the subject selected by the candidate. Each of these papers will consist of a Test Booklet containing 50 compulsory objective type questions of two marks each.The candidate will have to mark the response for question of Paper-I and Paper-II on the Optical Mark Reader (OMR) sheet provided alongwith the Test Booklet. The detailed instructions for filling up the OMR Sheet will be sent to the candidate along with the Admit Card.

Paper-III will consist of only descriptive questions from the subject selected by the candidate. The candidate will be required to attempt questions in the space provided in the Test Booklet. The structure of Paper-III has been revised from June,2010 UGC-NET and is available on the UGC website www.ugc.ac.in. Paper-III will be evaluated only for those candidates who are able to secure the minimum qualifying marks in Paper-I and Paper-II, as per the table given in the following:

CATEGORY MINIMUM QUALIFYING MARKS
PAPER– I PAPER–II PAPER– I + PAPER–II
GENERAL 40 40 100 (50 %)
OBC/PH/VH 35 35 90 (45 %)
SC/ST 35 35 80 (40 %)

The minimum qualifying criteria for award of JRF is as follows :
CATEGORY MINIMUM QUALIFYING MARKS
PAPER– I PAPER–II PAPER– I + PAPER–II PAPER-III
GENERAL 40 40 100 (50 %) 100 (50 %)
OBC/PH/VH 35 35 90 (45 %) 90 (45 %)
SC/ST 35 35 80 (40 %) 80 (40 %)

However, the final qualifying criteria for Junior Research Fellowship (JRF) and Eligibility for Lectureship shall be decided by UGC before declaration of result.

ii) Negative Marking in Paper-I & Paper-II : Negative marking at the rate of 25% has been introduced from December 2009 UGC-NET onwards. For each incorrect answer, 0.5 marks shall be deducted.

iii) For Visually Handicapped (VH) candidates thirty minutes’ extra time shall be provided separately for paper-I and Paper-II. For paper-III, forty five minutes’ extra time shall be provided. They will also be provided the services of a scribe who would be a graduate in a subject other than that of the candidate. Those Physically Handicapped (PH) candidates who are not in a position to write in their own hand-writing can also avail these services by making prior request (at least one week before the date of UGC-NET) in writing to the Co-ordinator of the test centre. Extra time and facility of scribe would not be provided to other Physically Handicapped candidates.

iv) Syllabus of Test: Syllabi for all NET subjects can be downloaded from the UGC Website www.ugc.ac.in and are also available in the libraries of all Indian universities. UGC will not send the syllabus to individual candidates.

v) In Paper III, candidate has the option to answer either in Hindi or in English in all subjects except the languages where the candidate is required to write in the concerned language only. In case of Computer Science & Applications, Electronic Science and Environmental Sciences, the question papers will be in English only.

vi) In case of any discrepancy found in the English and Hindi versions, the questions in English version shall be taken as final.

for more information check UGC http://www.ugcnetonline.in/index.php

The Allahabad High Court has ruled that blind people can also run Fair Price shop with the help of others.

The court dismissed the writ petition challenging the reservation of blind people to run the Fair Price shop under the Public Distribution Scheme (PDS) and has held that disabled people can run the shop with the help of a family member, friend or employing a person for the said purpose.

The court said as clause 26 of the control order of 2004, though prohibits sub agencies or transfer of agency, but it doesn’t not prohibit seeking help of any other person for the said purpose.

This order was passed by the bench comprising Justices Sunil Ambuwani and K N Pandey on a writ petition filed by one Muneem Ahmed of district Farrukhabad.

The petitioner had challenged two government orders dated August 17, 2002 and August 12, 2000 issued under the UP scheduled commodities distribution order 2004 in so far as it provides for reserving the Gram Sabha for filing up the backlog for such disabled people on priority by giving preference to blind people.

BIJAPUR: He is visually impaired. However, that hasn't come in his way of reaching greater academic heights. Akshay Buranapur, a student of Government Composite High School has secured 87 per cent in the SSLC examination and proved that through diligence and willpower, one can overcome physical limitations and achieve rare feats.

As a child, Akshay lost vision in one of his eyes. However, he did not lose zeal in studies and extra-curricular activities. His parents, being agricultural labourers, could hardly meet his educational expenses. It was with the cooperation of his friends, teaching staff and some donors that he studied hard and secured good marks throughout. His parents thought that scoring high in SSLC was a challenge, but Akshay met the challenge successfully and relieved them of their worries.

With impaired vision and poverty back home, the going was not easy for Akshay. He borrowed books from his friends and often studied under lamp in the school premises. Apart from studies, Akshay also took part in extra-curricular activities. To ensure his sucess in SSLC exams, he attended thextra classes and took part in group discussions without fail.

Now, Akshaya wants to take admission for PU section. His friends and well-wishers are confident that the boy will continue to achieve greater heights.

The world’s first accounting software able to be used efficiently by the blind and vision impaired is attracting increasing interest from blind organizations in Australia, the United States and other countries around the globe.

Australasian software company, Accomplish Ltd, has recently released Version 15 of its popular CashManager accounting software, which has now been specifically adapted to meet the varying sales tax needs of businesses throughout all states of the USA.
In addition, the new software has other improvements which make it even easier for blind users to manage their business and financial accounts themselves, says Grant Hewson, general manager of Accomplish.
Originally founded in Australia some 20 years ago, Accomplish today is headquartered in Auckland, New Zealand, and serves more than 25,000 small to medium business enterprises with accounting software designed specifically for New Zealand, Australian and United Kingdom needs, including the goods and service taxes and value added tax used in those countries.
“During the last year our development team has been working on ensuring CashManager can also handle the varying level and range of sales taxes that do apply in different states of the USA,” Grant says. “Our new software achieves that goal.”
From the outset, every version of CashManager has been designed to be as user-friendly as possible, so the software is easily used by lay people like small business owners with no accounting or IT expertise. Yet it is also powerful, robust software, packed with features which allow business owners instant access to financial reports on profit and cash flow, budget updates, and forward forecasts, which help them better manage their finances as well as help guide everyday business decisions. “It unlocks the power of accurate information, putting that readily at your fingertips,” Grant explains.
“It’s that ease of use and simplicity of operation which distinguishes our software from all the other accounting packages available today, which are generally much harder to learn and much more complicated to use. This simplicity in program design and operation is also why our software works well with adaptive technology (such as screen reading software) used by blind and vision impaired users.”
In 2008 tests by the Royal New Zealand of the Foundation of the Blind endorsed the accessibility of CashManager for blind or partially sighted people. Now, Vision Australia has audited the software (see the audit here) with very positive results.
Accomplish has worked with blind organizations in the USA, UK, Australia and other countries, and held webinars and other discussion forums with blind users around the world, further refining its software to make use even easier for blind and disabled clients. “For instance, we now have accelerator or shortcut keys for every possible screen choice,” Grant says. “This will improve productivity for people like blind users who often prefer to use the keyboard, rather than a mouse.”
The release of the fully sales tax functional product for the USA market is something many people have been eagerly awaiting. Grant says “This is going to be a very exciting time for both us and for vision impaired people in the USA.”

Of the 875 candidates who cleared the Civil Services Exam, 30 are physically challenged, it was announced on Thursday.

Among the 30, 14 are orthopaedically challenged, five are visually-impaired and 11 are hearing-impaired, the Union Public Service Commission said.

A total of 680 male and 195 female candidates have been recommended for appointment to the prestigious Indian Administrative Service, Indian Foreign Service, Indian Police Service and other central services.

Shah Faesal, a doctor from Kashmir, has topped the civil services examination. Prakash Rajpurohit, a BTech from the Indian Institute of Technology-Delhi, has bagged the second position while Iva Sahay from the Jawaharlal Nehru University has secured the third position. Ms. Sahay is the topper among women candidates.

Despite popular belief, blind people don't have a better sense of smell, a new Canadian study suggests.

University of Montreal graduate student Mathilde Beaulieu-Lefebvre debunked the myth that blind people have a more acute sense of smell, finding instead they are simply more conscious of odours around them.

"The urban legend is not true," Beaulieu-Lefebvre said.

It's not their sense of smell that's different, but rather the way blind people use their noses, she said. For example, while a sighted person can simply look at food and tell if it's gone bad, a blind person relies on smell to recognize good food from spoiled food.

"In the absence of vision, (blind people) have to rely on other cues, like smell or sound," Beaulieu-Lefebvre said.

However, the study did find that blind people process odour information in their brains differently from sighted people.

Using a type of MRI scan, the researchers discovered that when blind people smell something, they use the part of the brain connected to the nose more than other people. They also found that — despite having lost their sense of vision — blind people still use the occipital cortex, the part of the brain used for vision.

"This part of the brain is sort of recycled to do tasks other than vision, such as smelling or touching or hearing," explained Beaulieu-Lefebvre.

The researchers studied 25 participants, 11 of whom were blind from birth.

First, subjects were asked to identify and tell the difference between 16 different perfumes. Then, the researchers analyzed the subjects' brain activity while they smelled different odours: a rose, vanilla and butanol, a type of sweet-smelling alcohol.

As the study only looked at participants who were born blind, Beaulieu-Lefebvre said there could be different results for people who become blind later in life.

The study's findings can help researchers better understand how the human brain works, Beaulieu-Lefebvre said.

"This gives hope to blind people in understanding that the brain is not hardwired," she said. "It can be reorganized to do different tasks."

The research can also help to develop a rehabilitation program for the blind, where they can learn how to navigate through an environment based on smell, she said.

Mike Potvin, who lost his vision at 25 to a rare hereditary disorder called Leber's optic neuropathy, is not surprised by the study's findings.

"It's a common misconception that people often bring up with me, and I always tell them, close your eyes for 10 minutes and see if you can smell or hear any better," said Potvin, who works as the programs and communications manager with the Canadian Council of the Blind.

While Potvin does still have some peripheral vision, he said he does rely more on other senses, including hearing and smell, to give him "a sense of orientation."

For example, "if I come across the smell of bread baking, then I know I'm close to the grocery store that's close to my work," he said.

Beaulieu-Lefebvre will be presenting her findings in June at a conference for the Organization for Human Brain Mapping.

The following is Joel Solkoff's May, 2010 column From Where I Sit for Voices of Central Pennsylvania:

Imagine racing a Ferrari F430 (worth $406,000) at nearly 182 miles per hour and being blind since the age of three. This event took place last month at an airport in Turkey where Metin Fenturk, a folksinger, broke the Guinness “world record for fastest unaccompanied blind driver” previously held by a British manufacturer. On winning, Fenturk said, “I don‘t knowi there are any words to describe this feeling. I am completely happy. It was really hard, like a dance with death:”

On a less-than-pedestrian note, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University(Virginia Tech) has made a major contribution to the National Federation of the Blind (NFB) challenge: Design an automobile for an individual who is totally blind to drive safely to and from work by oneself. “Can you imagine a blind person behind the wheel of a car?” the narrator of a video produced by Virginia Tech asks. “Well today it may not be long before you won’t need to imagine.” Virginia Tech’s vehicle was driven by a person who is totally blind and successfully passed a parking lot driving course of considerable complexity.

Virginia Tech’s Steven Mackay, at the engineering college, told me this month two Ford Hybrids are arriving to be retrofitted for people who cannot see. I have been trying frantically to understand the intricacies involved with this technology. My mind is overflowing with technical details I do not yet understand. Meanwhile, Mackay’s clear explanation will have to suffice:

“This laser sensor, mounted on the front of the…vehicle, operates similar to sonar. It sends out a laser beam that will bounce back to the device as it hits an obstacle. The sensor then figures out the distance to the obstacle by measuring the time of flight of the laser beam. As the laser sweeps the environment, the computer constructs a map of all obstacles around the vehicle.”

Here in State College, a discussion with Cary Supalo provides context to encouraging developments for career training for blind students and how Virginia Tech technology energized an NFB science camp when camp members lined up eagerly for their turn to drive. Supalo is president of the local chapter of the NFB, but he is best known for his Penn State career in chemistry. Supalo has a master’s degree on the subject at Penn State and is expected soon to obtain a doctorate and a job as a professional chemist.

Supalo‘s work to encourage blind children to take math, science and engineering courses has been exceptional. As someone who has recently begun a job [technically “a job training program” with the opportunity of a permanent position], I look with hope to Supalo’s lead.

My job for the Altoona-based Blair/Clearfield Association for the Blind is to find jobs for people who want to work but cannot see. Most people who are blind in Altoona and want work do not have the educational background to do anything but themost menial work. Altoona has a surplus of “able-bodied” u n e m p l o y e d workers who can’t find work. On the order of the ladder, in these still difficult economic times, people with disabilities are at the bottom. The immediate solution is to work to improve the economic situation as a whole throughout central Pennsylvania. As the expression goes, “All boats rise with a high tide.”

Meanwhile, the orchestration of Virginia Tech’s successful test has Supalo’s handwork written all over it. Supalo is an energetic leader. When I visited Supalo’s office, he was developing professionally required tests a blind chemist can perform independently. Supalo, who is charming and astoundingly energetic, comes closer to anyone I have met to having the charisma to lead the emerging disability rights movement—a movement that badly needs leaders.

The Jernigan Research Institute wrote the following about Supalo: “His loves are helping blind students expand their comforzones, assisting them to stretch their minto go beyond societal limitations placed on
them since birth and encouraging them to strive to follow their dreams.”

The best job a disabled person can have is one that is part of a career— well-paid, stable, leading to advancement and providing profession rewards. Our disability community through central Pennsylvania must work vigorously to change our area’s education system so students graduate from high school after mastering basic requirements so becoming a scientist is an achievable goal. As a society, we are wasting the talent of the physically disabled whatever their individual career goals. This waste is not only a crime; it is bad for the economy.

SAFFIRE Engineering Ltd is marking one year since the company began sponsoring judo training for visually impaired students at the Santa Cruz School for Blind Children.

The classes are conducted by Sensei Master Linus Browne (3rd degree Black Belt Judo and 4th Taekwondo), in conjunction with The Judo Association.

Judo is one of the very few sports in which the visually impaired can compete against the seeing on an equal basis. This martial art does not rely on sight but largely on one�s senses of feel and touch; movement; balance and timing.

The visually impaired are ideally suited to judo since they have a great sense of touch and perfect ability to concentrate on almost imperceptible moves.

They are intent listeners who will visualise what is being communicated through the other senses, and are not easily distracted.

Judo does not involve any punching or kicking. The students initiate by feel, holding on the �Gi� (specially designed uniforms) of their opponent, and are thus in constant contact. Throws, grappling and locking techniques are then used to gain the opponent�s submission.

From the first training session the students at the institute have fallen in love with Judo as they soon realise its other, immense advantages. Being able to take part on an equal basis has helped to develop their self- confidence, character and independence in life. They learn the importance of balance and how to fall. They are involved in a safe physical exercise and it encourages them to persevere and reach their full potential.

There are 14 students ranging in age from eight to 17 years. They are trained by Sensei Brown on Thursdays starting at 3 pm at the school. The �Gi� for the students are supplied by the Ministry of Sports and Youth Affairs through the Judo Association.

The Managing-Director of Saffire Engineering Ltd, is Vishnu Tewari, who has been a student of the martial arts for over 30 years. For the past seven years Tewari has been a student of Sensei Brown in the field of self-defence which comprises judo, taekwondo, hapkido and aikido.

For more information please contact: Vishnu Tewari 680-7563; Sensei Linus Brown 755-7564; School for Blind Children 676-8718.