IGNOU caters to the differently abled
India's Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) reports that it is making a focussed effort to serve people with disabilities. As an organisation with a mandate to provide education to large sections of the population, particularly the disadvantaged, IGNOU recognises the importance of removing disability barriers.
About 100 million people in India are "differently abled", according to UN estimates. Of these, about three-quarters live in rural areas, and less than five percent of the differently abled people in rural India benefit from any kind of special service.
IGNOU has taken several steps to provide accessible and appropriate educational and training programmes for disabled people including:
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Providing accessible course materials. For instance, the Certificate Programme in Empowering Women through Self-Help Groups is available in Braille. This has enabled several blind women to set up their own enterprise. Materials for IGNOU's MBA programme are also being developed to benefit learners with visual impairment.
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Adapting its website. The IGNOU site ( www.ignou.ac.in ) is being upgraded to render it more accessible to the differently abled.
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Developing extension, training and education programmes for people with disabilities. Through collaboration with leading national organisations, IGNOU is launching programmes through selected non-governmental organisations (NGOs) for people with disabilities, their family members and community workers.
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Establishing special study centres. The university offers ten specially equipped study centres, including four for the blind, located at regional organisations for the disabled.
IGNOU plans to further advance these efforts by establishing a National Centre for Differently Abled that will co-ordinate efforts throughout the country to serve learners with disabilities.
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Open course content discussion forum
Open course content - course elements and materials that are freely available on the Internet - are an important resource for higher education institutions. But more awareness is required for this resource to be used effectively.
The UNESCO International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP) is hosting an Internet forum in October/November 2005 that will link an international group of providers, users and interested individuals from developed and developing countries to explore open course content initiatives and issues. This is one of a series of activities to improve awareness of open course content planned by IIEP and supported by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.
For more information about the Internet discussion forum or to receive an application to participate in the discussion, contact Susan D'Antoni at
virual.university@iiep.unesco.org . Participation will be limited to ensure a broad representation of countries and stakeholders. Following the Internet forum, IIEP will create a website to make documentation freely available.
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Stockholm Challenge seeks entries
The Stockholm Challenge Award is a prestigious international competition that recognises projects that apply information communications technologies (ICTs) to create new and better products and services that counteract the digital divide. In its ten years, the Challenge has received over 3,000 applications and has identified some 600 winners and finalists. The entry deadline for the 2006 awards is 31 December 2005.
The Stockholm Challenge is also inviting organisations to become Challenge Champions. This involves using the Challenge to raise the profile of their region. The more projects that come in from any particular region, the more opportunities the Stockholm Challenge has to highlight that regional focus on their website and in newsletters. Challenge Champions are given suggestions for promoting the Stockholm Challenge and are recognised on the Challenge website.
www.stockholmchallenge.se