They are able too

On the first day of the class—taught by J.V. Raman,who was a newsreader with Doordarshan for 30 years—last week,one of the partially blind students came over to Raman and asked how he will be able to anchor a show with his limited eyesight. “You can read text with big fonts so in your case,the news channel need only to increase its font size,” explained Raman. 

Raman,who has also taught at Delhi University for 40 years,said it is time to recognise the capabilities of physically challenged people and accept them in all professions. “I have spoken to a couple of media companies and they have shown interest in employing physically challenged professionals,” he said. He added that in the media industry,those with a problem of mobility can read news just as the visually challenged can do voice-overs for news items.

Both courses were started at the NTPC Centre of Delhi University this year. The classes are organised by the Equal Opportunity Cell of DU that works towards the empowerment of the physically challenged students/faculty of the university.

The EOC had started a few courses for physically challenged people last year. Perhaps the most beneficial for them has been the course on Information and Technology. Vijaita Parmar,a visually challenged student of Daulat Ram College,is learning to type on the computer for the first time. “I have always wanted to read newspapers and it is only by learning computer skills that I can do that without aid,” she says.