India

CHENNAI: When G Udayaraj, a final year student, wants to read a book, he goes to the computer lab, dons a headset and listens to one of the 30,000 books
that Presidency College’s English department has converted into digital format.

Udayaraj has very low vision, which means everything from class notes to novels are easier to ‘read’ on the computer.

But a proposed amendment to copyright act might just change the way print- disabled people like Udayaraj ‘read’. The Copyright (Amendment) Bill 2010, introduced in RS on Monday, says there will be copyright exemption only for converting books into special formats such as Braille and sign language [Section 52 (1) (zb)

Mumbai: At the St Xavier’s Resource Centre at Fort, a visually challenged group of boys and girls sits before computer screens wearing headphones. But,
before you mistake them for a bunch of students bunking classes to surf the net, you can spot them taking printouts in Braille.

The centre that started in September, 2003 has helped the visually challenged make significant in-roads into the web world, sparing them exclusion from
the e-world of books, email, social networking sites and search engines. “You cannot change every obstacle but you can start by filling small gaps,” said
Dr Sam Taraporevala, director of the centre.

New Delhi: George Abraham is an angry man. “Why is it,” he asks rhetorically, “that I can’t issue a cheque without having it countersigned by another person?
Or buy a railway ticket without wasting hours at a station?”

The brunt of his rage, however, is reserved for the cricket coverage of television channels. Very often, he says, at the end of an innings commentators
sign off leaving the final score to be displayed on screen. While that works fine for everyone else, it prematurely ends the game for him, because Abraham
is legally blind. But as a cricket enthusiast, bowler and the chairman of the Association for Cricket for the Blind in India, he’s very interested in knowing
the score that he can’t see. “The only reason I haven’t smashed the television so far,” he seethes, “is because I own it.”

DELHI, India - IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced that it received several prestigious awards in India on World Disability Day, recognizing the company’s work to improve the lives of those
with disabilities.

The first was India’s National Award 2009 in the category of "Technological Innovation" for best applied research aimed at improving the life of persons with disabilities - India’s highest such award. It was awarded personally by India’s Honorable President Smt. Pratibha Devisingh Patil on behalf of India’s Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, and it recognizes the work of IBM Researchers in creating technology for what IBM calls the "Spoken Web" This
voice-enabled technology, developed by IBM Research - India, complements the Internet, and enables people with little or no literacy, or those with visual impairment, to access and share information, perform business transactions, and create social networks using mobile or landline phones.