Chennai: There are people with special needs as also people who need to understand these special needs. Tamilnadu has a couple of education institutions that have courses that specialises in these areas.
TO MAKE SPECIAL PEOPLE MORE SPECIAL
Persons with multiple disabilities have equal rights to lead a better quality of life. This may be enabled by committed professionalism, accessible environment, equal opportunities, positive attitude and appropriate, affordable, acceptable and available technological interventions.
To provide need-based comprehensive rehabilitation through team approach facilitating inclusion, ensuring empowerment of persons with multiple disabilities and their families, the National Institute for Empowerment of Persons with Multiple Disabilities (NIEPMD) was established by the Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment, Government of India, at Muttukadu, near Chennai.
The 15.22 acre institute provides services to people with multiple disabilities, long-term and short-term training programmes and R&D activities. It offers special education degrees and diploma in cerebral palsy, ASD, deaf blindness and multiple disabilities.
The institute also offers Bachelors in Audiology & Speech Language Pathology, a four-year degree. Speaking to News Today, an official from the institute said, “This degree mainly promotes understanding about the development of communication, language, and hearing in normal people and persons with disabilities. Likewise, a speech therapist degree holder can avail of employment in hospitals, community, national institutes, schools, and have private practice.”
There are only a few takers for these courses. ‘They are basically admitted through a common entrance test.’ For details, log on to https://niepmd.tn.nic.in/
The institute also has an extension campus at Anna Nagar. The course covers four academic years (six semesters of course work; two semesters of internship).
SHORT-TERM COURSES FOR DIFFERENTLY-ABLED
The Centre for Differently-Abled Persons of Bharathidasan University(BDU), Tiruchy, has courses meant for specially-abled people. The centre will ensure that a student with special needs chooses the right course according to his/her academic background, aptitude and skill-set.
M Prabavathy, head, Centre for Differently-Abled Persons (CDAP) said, “As an obligation towards developing the skill needed for economic independence of the specially-abled population from the rural areas, CDAP of BDU has entered into a new facet of skill development.”
The heterogeneity of courses will be the highlight of this centre, Prabavathy said, and added that the centre will conduct training programme on various spheres that will start from tailoring, screen printing, handmade greeting cards, plastic recycle unit, photography, communication skill and personality development, basic academics, work place behaviour and employability skills, sex education and self-advocacy training, basic computers fundamentals, desktop publishing, and multimedia training.
MAINSTREAM DEGREE
A bachelors degree programme in computer application for speech and hearing impaired persons which would be equivalent to the regular BCA is offered. ‘This is the first time in the State, a university has come up with a degree programme that is going to be conducted exclusively for people with disability,’ Prabavathy said.
“In a regular UG degree, students with disabilities will have an extra burden, compared to normal students, as they will have to understand the content only through their own efforts. Here the programme will be for them and so the instructor will be handling classes in their mode of communication, sign language,” she added.
The course will comprise almost everything that the curriculum of a regular BCA degree would have. “Nowadays most corporate firms working in the IT sector are recruiting differently-abled persons in application building verticals and so we are sure that our students would get into that easily,” she said.
As the degree is equivalent to normal BCA, students can also take up PG after completing the programme. Similarly, the centre is also planning to help them launch their own startups to make them entrepreneurs and lead economically independent lives.
HIGHLIGHTS OF THE BCA DEGREE PROGRAMME OF BDU
100 per cent concession in miscellaneous fee
50 per cent concession in hostel and mess fee
Special syllabus structured to suit impairment of the students
Instructors and teachers will be teaching through sign language
Can take up MCA in BDU itself after completing this three-year programme
Special skills like mobile apps development and accounts application handling is in syllabus.
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