Poverty major cause of disability: Expert

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 21

The seven-day national seminar-cum-workshop on ‘Inclusion: Moving Forward’ entered its third day here today.

The seminar has been organised by the Centre for Academic Leadership and Education Management (CALEM), Department of Education, PU, in collaboration with the Government Rehabilitation Institute for Intellectual Disabilities (GRIID).

It was initiated by Prof Raj K Gupta and Prof Sudesh Mukhopadhyay, former chairperson, RCI, chaired the first session. The resource person for the session was Prof BS Chavan, Director Principal, GMCH-32, Chandigarh.

Prof Chavan dwelled on various challenges and concerns related to higher education for persons with disabilities (PwDs) in India. He pointed out how poverty was one of the major causes responsible for disability. He informed participants about the challenges and plausible solutions to such issues.

Dr Ramesh Pandey, Director, CRC, Gorakhpur, laid emphasis on shifting focus from the development of new models of inclusion to “increasing the inclusivity index, special design of learning to Universal Design of Learning (UDL), special or regular teacher to teacher with high inclusivity index, special children to diverse group of children and special or regular parent to sensitised parent”.

Dr Reema Bansal, Assistant Professor, Rajiv Gandhi Government College, Haryana, shared her experiences as a PwD, the impediments she faced in her life and how she found the counter solutions to those obstacles.

Prof JS Saini, in-charge of NSQF Facilitation Unit & PWD Scheme, NITTTR, shared how he used creative educational tools and devices to innovate and simplify the concepts. Finally, Nazli, Assistant Professor, GRIID, talked about the concept and need for curriculum adaptation.