People and institutions contributing towards providing equality to people with disabilities were honoured here on Tuesday with awards presented by minister for social justice and empowerment, Mukul Wasnik.
“We need to encourage our country to institutionalise accessibility to people with disabilities in all possible ways,” said Wasnik, who was the chief guest at the awards.
National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People, in association with Access Ability, Delhi and Barrier Break Technologies, Mumbai and MPHASIS, an HP company in Bangalore gave these awards to 10 such people.
Professor Prabhat Ranjan, a scientist at the Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information and Communication Technology in Gandhinagar, Gujarat is among the awardees. He
started working for the disabled through a small student project in 2007.
He developed a hand-controlled remote which allows a person with restricted finger movements to operate computer, television, lights, fans and other gadgets.
He further developed an environment control system based on body, voice and brain-wave sensors for the differently abled.
“Persons with no mobility or voice can also benefit from this technology and improve their quality of life,” said Ranjan.
The awards were introduced in 2010 with an aim to spread awareness on ‘universal design’ in areas like built environment, transport infrastructure, service provision,
consumer products and information and communication technology.
Dipendra Manocha, working with DAISY Consortium, India, was awarded for his works towards providing technology solutions for the visually impaired.
Abhishek Syal, an activist from Chandigarh, was awarded for forming an organisation which has developed audio-based educational modules on mobile phones in bilingual languages. With this, people with disabilities can listen to educational material.
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