Thursday, December 20, 2007

Survey of people with disabilities from next month

Social Welfare Minister Poongothai Aladi Aruna presenting a national identification card and medical certificate to a student of Little Flower Convent Higher Secondary School for the Deaf in Chennai.

For the first time, an exclusive survey of people with disabilities will begin in the State next month and Rs.50 lakh has been sanctioned for the purpose.

“This will enable us to find out the exact number of people with disabilities since now we have only the 2001 census data to depend on,” said V.K. Jeyakodi, Commissioner for the Disabled.

Speaking at a function held to distribute medical certificates and national identification cards to the students of Little Flower Convent Higher Secondary School for the Deaf, an institution for the visually and hearing impaired, here on Thursday, he said that by the end of the current financial year, 4.6 lakh ID cards would be distributed. He said it was essential to identify children with disabilities as early as possible to facilitate treatment. The ID cards are given to people with a disability of 40 per cent or more.

Social Welfare Minister Poongothai Aladi Aruna said that the previous scheme under which people with disabilities had to go to government hospitals and get themselves tested by a medical committee was cumbersome.

The new scheme, a “pilot project”, under which medical teams from every district visited schools, examined the children and issued ID cards would make it much easier for the beneficiaries. She said collective leadership was essential in such projects and audiologists, doctors, and government officials must work together for the scheme to be success.

he Minister and the Commissioner distributed medical certificates and ID cards to 43 hearing and 33 visually impaired students of Little Flower Convent Higher Secondary School for the Deaf.

The strength of the school is around 730 and the rest of the students have already received ID cards either during their visits to the hospital or at other distribution programmes, a school teacher said.

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

95 year old school at Mylapore

The C.S.I High School for the Deaf at No-12, Santhome High Road, Mylapore, Chennai-4, was founded by the church of England Zenana Missionary Society (CEZMS) in the year 1912. It was called CEZMS school for the Deaf, Mylapore, Chennai. Subsequently on the 4th September 1956, the school was registered under the Societies Registration Act XXI of 1860 as “Church of South India School for the Deaf, Mylapore, Chennai-4

An English missionary, Mrs.Florence Swainson started this school in 1912 in the face of much oppositions with only 7 children. It was a residential school. Over the years other buildings were put up. The present main classroom block was opened in 1962, the boy’s hostel in 1971 and the girls hostel in the year 1975. From the beginning oral method of education was used but English was the only medium of instruction. From 1947 Tamil was introduced but English still continues.

The school has been upgraded in 1985 and is now called as the C.S.I High School for the Deaf. At present there are 170 children and more than 50% reside in the school hostel.

The Church of South India Diocese of Madras under the board of higher education now runs the school. World Vision helps 2/3 of the school children because most of them come from very poor families.

The school as a government aided institution is recognized by the department of rehabilitation of the disabled under the social welfare department, Govt of Tamilnadu. All the deaf children starting from 3-5 years with no additional handicap are admitted and educated upto SSLC level. Normal curriculums as in normal schools are followed. Creative activities like art work, wood work and needle work are taught. Games are a part of the curriculum. There are at present 25 government aided teaching staff; all are fully qualified teacher of the deaf.

Mrs.Rebecca Doraipandian, the headmistress of the school is specially qualified in educating the hearing impaired. She is very interested in the all round development and improvement of the school and the pupils.

The C.S.I Higher Secondary School for the Deaf can be contacted on 24985675. The school HM Mrs.Rebecca can be contacted on 9840228182

Monday, December 10, 2007

Disabled find a platform

There are a few artists who literally cannot speak or hear, but their art work can do.

The hearing and speech impaired persons has displayed their works of art at an exhibition Mr. V. Seetharamacharyulu with his sister Mrs. Rama Mani batik work exhibited at the diamond jubilee celebrations of the Madras Association of the Deaf held at Little Flower Convent Higher Secondary School for the hearing impaired.
V.Seetharamacharyulu is born with hearing and speech impaired. Enthusiam and motivation inculcated by his grandfather, he started painting. So, he continues to freelance for the famous children's magazines Chandamama, Dinamalar etc. He takes the painting works at his own world. His medium of expression is the art work. He waits for art work from the media/magazines thereby making self reliant. His contact address V.Seetharamacharyulu, L452, TNHB, 4th Main Road, Thiruvalluvar Nagar, Thiruvanmiyur, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. Pin: 600041. Phone: +91-(0)44-24451102.

Sunday, December 9, 2007

Art for art's

The disabled find a platform to express themselves
S Rama Mani with her brother V Seetaramachanjulu with their Batik work exhibited at the diamond jubilee celebrations of the Madras Association of the Deaf held at Little Flower Convent Higher Secondary School for the Hearing Impaired in the city on Sunday

ART can speak, so can relationships. There are a few artists who literally cannot speak or hear, but art hasunited them. The hearing and speech impaired persons had displayed their works of art at an exhibition organised by the Madras Association of The Deaf in Chennai on Sunday.
They are not just artists, but entrepreneurs promoting their products along with their friends or siblings. For instance, Sekar, Raju and Sreenivasan who have been friends for more than 25 years now. All of them are hearing and speech impaired, but what has forged their friendship is their interest for Batik painting. They had met at a Batik class organised years ago for the disabled.

Sekar said (in sign language),"One thing was common. All of us wanted to do something and Batik brought us on the same platform." Though, all of them found different jobs, they continued their work in Batik prints.

Initially, there were problems to get started. According to Sekar, it was necessary to market the products and coinmunication was vital. Business started off with few thousands as investment in a small room.

"Hard work is important and that brought us customers. We were expressive in bur own way," said Sekar.

It was no different for the sisters-brother trio who were selling their paintings and dolls. S Rama Mani, Ranganayaki and their brother Seetaramachanjulu, were born hearing-andspeech impaired. Inspired by their grandfather, Ranganayaki and Seetaramachanjulu started painting, while Rama Mani made dolls.

Seetaramachanjulu was initially an illustrator for a famous children's magazine till he found a government job. "Even now I continue to freelance for the magazine. All of us want to work together. This is our own world and we have no regrets about our disability," he expressed.

There were also some individuals who were trying to be different even in their old age. Joseph John (72) is retired and wants to paint and exhibit his work. Like him, Prabhakar (65) said the world of painting was silent yet expressive like them.

Though different in many ways, all they wanted was a medium to express themselves and they discovered art.

Monday, December 3, 2007

Lend them your ears

Issue Awareness and sensitivity can prevent the hearing impaired from feeling marginalised, writes Pankaja Srinivasan
Hearing impaired children Include them in the mainstream

“When my parents found that I was profoundly deaf without the ability to hear speech at age two-and-a-half, they consulted many doctors and educational experts. Their response was generally negative. My language and social skills appeared to be non-existent. I am told that whenever guests visited, I’d hide under the bed,” says Raja Srinivasan, a 37-year-old software engineer, currently enrolled in a PhD program in Computer Science and also pursuing a law degree.

Raja was born before the advent of proven educational programmes and technological and legal support for the hearing impaired. But, because his parents adopted both teaching and parenting roles, he picked up lip-reading, literacy, and comprehension through daily interaction and teaching, ‘all day, every day’.
Related problems

As a disability, hearing impairment can be a double whammy. It could lead to speech impairment, language delay and may be, even diminish intellectual function, says speech/language pathologist and audiologist K. Narendiran, who, with his wife and special educator N. Yohavathi, runs KRISH (Kovai Rehabilitation and Information Services for the Handicapped).

“Many parents only wake up to the disability when their two to three-year-old child is not picking up speech. This is well past the critical period for speech and language development,” says Narendiran. Like Mohan Kumar’s mother Lakshmi who thought her son was just a ‘late speaker’, while, in fact, he had profound hearing loss. Nevertheless, he did well academically. He scored 435 out of 500 in school, and is now pursuing a B.E. in Mechanical Engineering. “But, he doesn’t mix freely with others of his age. How will he fare in placements with job opportunities?” worries his mother.

Raja who studied at Berkeley, in the U.S., remembers: “In college, the classrooms were huge, classmates varied and professors generally had less time to accommodate. I tried oral interpreters and note takers, and while these worked somewhat, these didn’t convey all the information I needed. Even for a hearing person, it can be a struggle to understand accents; imagine the challenge for a deaf person who has never understood speech before!” But, although the transition was hard, Raja says, “I learned independence and assertiveness, which served me well.”

M.N.G Mani, honorary president of the UDIS Forum (a network of parents, persons with disabilities, professionals and voluntary organisations that facilitates employment and empowerment of the disabled) says, “Disability should be treated as a developmental activity, not as charity. Everyone should be sensitised to disabilities.”

It is simple, says Dr Mani: Don’t neglect the hearing impaired in the group; get his attention before speaking clearly or using sign language. Use multi-sensory communication (hand language, smile, facial expression, vocal dialogue, eye expression). “In India, we have pro-active, comprehensive policies for persons with disabilities. But, they have to be implemented in letter and spirit. There should be more reach. Effective networking and parent-involvement are crucial. Most parents only look at the survivability of their hearing impaired children. Instead, they should draw their children into mainstream life, not make them objects of pity or charity, says Mani and adds, “The more you include the disabled in the mainstream, the less the disability impact”.

(December 3 is World Disability Day)

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