New DU courses tough for visually impaired students

Delhi University's (DU) foundation courses have left teachers and students worried. But the visually impaired students - spread across 30 colleges - may well be bearing the brunt of the new programme.

Delhi University's (DU) foundation courses have left teachers and students worried. But the visually impaired students - spread across 30 colleges - may well be bearing the brunt of the new programme.

Though DU claimed to have made these courses easier for the visually impaired students, some students said that practical courses such as Information Technology were proving to be difficult due to the lack of assistance.

"Even though some books in Braille are available for the foundation courses, we have to face a lot of problems, especially in the IT course, because often the translation is not available," said a visually impaired student, requesting anonymity.

Teachers in colleges said that the foundation courses had created a roadblock of sorts for visually impaired students.

"It was DU's duty to organise intensive programmes. The problem in FYUP is serious as now it has mandatory science and life and mathematical ability courses and these students will be facing a huge problem," said Naveen Gaur, who teaches in Dyal Singh College.

However, DU officials said everything had been done to make the transition easy for visually impaired students. While laptops had been provided with screen readers, translations for courses such as Information Technology had been sent to colleges.

"We have done everything in our capacity to help these students. For 7 of the foundation courses, we have sent audio CDs to the colleges. For four courses, we have sent the Braille matter and for the remaining three courses, we will soon be sending the Braille matter to the respective colleges," said Vipin Tiwari, OSD in DU's Equal Opportunity Cell.