World Disability Day 2020: The Indira Gandhi National Open University's (IGNOU) has organised a sensitisation lecture on accessibility for persons with disabilities today, on December 3. The sensitisation lecture was held through Google Meet to mark World Disability Day by IGNOU's National Centre for Disability Studies (NCDS).
Complimenting NCDS for the initiative, Professor Nageshwar Rao, Vice Chancellor, IGNOU said: “As an institution having more than three million learners across the globe, we would like to follow Universal Design providing accessibility to everyone including PwDs so that all could pursue higher education with dignity and smoothly. He also requested NCDS to circulate the guidelines to all the Schools and RCs [regional centres] sensitizing them on this.”
The online lecture was delivered by Ms Anjlee Agarwal, Co-founder and Executive Director, Samarthyam India. The programme was presided over by the Vice Chancellor. Dr SK Mishra, Dy Director, NCDS also was present during the online session.
Giving details about the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, Dr Mishra elaborated that the latest Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act (2016) has been aligned with UNCRPD. Elaborating further he explained that the Government of India replaced the Persons with Disabilities Act, 1995 (PwD Act, 1995) with the Rights of PWD Act, 2016 (RPwD Act, 2016), he also informed the participants about the various laws for PwDs in the country.
Professor Rajendra Prasad Das, Pro Vice Chancellor, IGNOU in his address talked about the facilities that university provides to the learners with disabilities which he informed are more than 15,000 in numbers, an IGNOU statement said.
Ms Agarwal in her address stressed on the need to educate every person with disability. She spoke on World Disability Day 2020 theme “Building Back Better: toward a disability-inclusive, accessible and sustainable post COVID-19 World” in her presentation. She talked about the need to have "Universal Design" if any new infrastructure is being built by institutions including IGNOU for accessibility for all including PwDs for true equity and inclusion in the society. She covered several universal design aspects including ramps, toilets, stairs and signages in her presentation. She highlighted how even a small incremental changes can help the place of work or study become universally accessible.
