The University Grants Commission (UGC) has asked all its universities and colleges to create resources for visually-impaired students. It has asked the educational institutes to develop or adopt several resources including Braille-print books, large print books, tactile books, audio books to “meet the needs of visual impairments.” It also added that the resources must be provided free of cost.
The UGC, in its official notification, wrote, “it is advised that all universities should develop/adopt suitable educational resources like Braille-print books, large print books, tactile books, audio books, and such other assistive devices which better meet the needs of visual impairments for equitable access to the curriculum. Such educational resources, as far as possible, should be uploaded on the website of the university also and made freely available.”
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The Supreme Court, on January 10 directed UGC to make guidelines for students with disabilities in universities and colleges for ease of access. A bench of Justices D Y Chandrachud and A S Bopanna had given the commission eight weeks to frame the guidelines.
UGC had formed a committee following the direction of the apex court. It had said that it would look into the formulation of guidelines for accessibility of students with disabilities in universities and colleges. Appearing for the UGC, advocate Manoj Ranjan Sinha said that an updated status report has been filed and would take another eight weeks to frame the guidelines given the current pandemic situation. The matter will be heard next on March 14.
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In 2017, the top court had said that while framing the guidelines for students with disabilities, the UGC must consider constituting a committee and may include persons from amongst Central Advisory Board, State Advisory Boards, Chief Commissioner, or State Commissioners appointed under the Disabilities Act. The committee must undertake a detailed study for making provisions in respect of accessibility as well as pedagogy and would also suggest the modalities for implementing those suggestions, their funding, and monitoring, it had said.
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