India's UPA Government completes one year on May 21, 2005. The section of their celebratory press release below reports on services to people with disabilities -- including implementation of Universal Design and Inclusive Travel experiences.
Welfare of Persons with Disabilities
The Scheme for providing assistive devices for persons with disabilities (ADIP) witnessed an increased thrust with its extension to uncovered and inaccessible areas. During the year, 53 camps in various districts of North-eastern states viz. Assam, Manipur, Tripura, Sikkim and Mizoram were held, benefiting approximately 4,000 persons with disabilities. An exhibition “Samarthya” for distribution of Aids and Appliances and to provide rehabilitation services was organised in Patna in October 2004. Approximately, 12,000 persons visited the exhibition of which 4,721 persons were given aids/appliances immediately and 4,500 persons have been assessed for providing aids at their District Headquarters. Rs. 9.32 crore were released to hold these camps.
Children with disabilities numbering 15.93 lakh have been identified and 10.7 lakh of these children have been enrolled in regular schools. Guidelines for educational facilities to be extended to students with disabilities were issued under Section 30 of the Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act, 1995.
Reservation for persons with disabilities in Indian Administrative Service has been provided. Efforts are on to provide for reservation for persons with disabilities in other organised Group A & B services.
A special camp for disabled children was organised by the Ministry in Tanzania during the President’s visit to that country. Assistive devices worth about Rs. 15 lakh were distributed. The gesture was greatly acclaimed by the Tanzanians.
The headquarters of the Rehabilitation Council of India (RCI) in the capital has been shifted to a fully barrier- free building, first of its kind in the country. It has been built on the principles of universal design and is accessible to all persons with disabilities including the visually impaired and the hearing impaired. RCI’s Global Websites in Hindi and English with fully accessible features have been launched. The website will be useful for persons with visual impairment and low vision to access the information around the world as per their requirement, i.e. through voice and magnified text. The service is being extended to persons with speech and hearing and other serious disabilities also.
Financial support was provided to State Governments and Union Territory Administrations for creating barrier free environment. Approval has been granted to setting up of National Institute for Persons with multiple disabilities at Chennai.
Source:
http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=9276