Centre for Internet and Society

Nishant

praskrishna — 2024-06-06T01:08:25Z

Nishant

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Nisha Thompson

praskrishna — 2012-06-26T03:53:25Z

Nisha Thompson

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Nisha Saral

praskrishna — 2019-02-27T03:01:56Z

Nisha Saral

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NISH Website to Help the Disabled

praskrishna — 2014-07-03T10:05:05Z

The National Institute of Speech and Hearing (NISH) has launched a website on matters related to disabilities. The website www.accesshub.org was launched by Social Welfare Minister M K Muneer here on Wednesday.

The article was published in the New Indian Express on June 26, 2014.

Jointly created by NISH and a team from the School of Information, Michigan University, the website is intended to be a one-stop shop for information that could prove important to people with disabilities, NISH executive director Samuel N Mathew said.

www.accesshub.org can be easily navigated and contains the latest information in this area, services that are on offer worldwide and policy information of various states. The website has been created with a software that enables visually handicapped people also to use it.

Work on the website had started in November 2013 under Dr Anne Varghese of NISH.

Three postgraduate students of the Michigan University provided ample help to the project.

The website will be useful to service providers in this sector as well as government and non-governmental organisations, NISH officials said.

The Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore, and Inclusive Planet, Chennai, are the organisations that have associated with the website project.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/the-new-indian-express-june-26-2014-nish-website-to-help-disabled

Nirmita receives NIVH Award

praskrishna — 2011-12-29T05:53:19Z

Nirmita Narasimhan received the NIVH Excellence Award from Justice AS Anand (retd), former chairman of the National Human Rights Commission, on International Day of Persons with Disabilities at the National Institute for the Visually Handicapped in Dehradun on Saturday, 3 December 2011.

A programme manager with the Centre for Internet and Society, Nirmita says: “I wanted to learn all these things to make my life worthwhile, maybe I wanted to prove a point but it has been a great journey all this while,” she said.

The Tribune covered the award ceremony and published this in their newspaper on 3 December 2011. Read it here

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/nirmita-nivh-award

Nirmita National Award

praskrishna — 2010-12-22T11:43:15Z

Nirmita

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Nirmita Narasimhan wins National Award

praskrishna — 2011-08-17T08:53:12Z

Nirmita Narasimhan was awarded the National Award for Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities from the Government of India on 3 December 2010 on the occasion of the World Disability Day. The award was presented by Smt. Pratibha Patil, President of India under the Role Model category. The award function took place at Vigyan Bhavan in New Delhi from 11:00 to12:30 and was telecast live on Doordarshan.

Nirmita was given a certificate, cash prize and a citation which reads as follows:

Nirmita Narasimhan has excelled in different and diverse fields, despite having a severe disability. She is a gold medallist in MA (Music) from Delhi University and stood first in M.Phil. in Carnatic music from Delhi University. She is the recipient of the Sahitya Kala Parishad scholarship for advanced studies in Carnatic music from the Delhi Government. She is now working actively for digital inclusion and accessibility issues for persons with disabilities at the Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore.

Also see the list of recipients in the Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment website.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/national-award

Nirmita Narasimhan gets NCPEDP-Mphasis Universal Design Award

praskrishna — 2016-08-18T13:26:56Z

The NCPEDP-Mphasis Universal Design Awards were given away in the capital on August 14, 2016. Nirmita got the award in the "Persons with Disabilities" category.

See the press release published by India PR Wire. This was also mirrored in Hans India on August 17, 2016.

Shri Krishan Pal Gurjar, Hon'ble Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment presided over the event, in the presence of Som Mittal, Jury Chair and Chariman, NCPEDP, Dr. Meenu Bhambhani, VP & Head - Corporate Social Responsibility, Mphasis Ltd, and Javed Abidi, Honorary Director NCPEDP, several corporates and winners.

The National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People (NCPEDP)-Mphasis Universal Design Awards was incepted in 2010. Conservative estimates of the World Bank and World Health Organization suggest that there are about 70-100 million individuals with a disability in India.

One of the biggest challenges faced by people with disabilities is accessibility. Accessibility not only means access to physical spaces but also means access to information, technology, transport, services, aids and appliances, etc.

The awards aim to raise awareness about accessibility. This year, about 60 applications were received from across the country. The awards are the brainchild of Javed Abidi, who is also the global chair for Disabled People's International (DPI).

The 12 award winners were as follows:-

Category: Organisations

Indigo Airlines, University of Hyderabad, National Informatics Centre (NIC), Newshook, Planet Abled, Sap Labs

Category: Working Professionals

Prem Nawaz Khan Maraikayar of PayPal Inc; Sandeep Sankat, Associate Professor in the Department of Architecture, School of Planning and Architecture, Bhopal; and Sujatha Srinivasan of Rehabilitation Research and Device Development (R2D2) lab in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at IIT Madras bagged the awards.

Category: Persons with disabilities

Danish Mahajan and Divya Sharma of Radio Udaan; Nirmita Narasimhan, policy director with the Centre for Internet and Society; and Sathasivam Kannupayan of www.enabled.in won this award in the in persons with disabilities category.

Shri Krishan Pal Gurjar, Hon'ble Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment observed, "Commuting for the handicapped is a challenge in our country. Therefore all modes of transport should work towards this cause. We have to create a code of benefit for persons with disabilities, which ought to be complied with by all government and non-government institutions."

"Through this award, we want to be able to tell organizations in India that accessibility is a huge commercial opportunity as well as a social responsibility. We are delighted with some of the work we have seen this year, but sincerely hope that more and more organizations come into the fold, " said Javed Abidi.

Dr Meenu Bhambhani, VP & Head- Corporate Social Responsibility, Mphasis Ltd said,

" Mphasis started supporting universal design because we didn't want accessibility to just be an afterthought. From the very beginning, be it transport or building or policy or the system, persons with disabilities should be included in the services. It warms my heart to see so many young people winning the award this year."

Shri Som Mittal, Jury Chair and Chariman, NCPEDP, "I've been witnessing this award function for the past seven years and every year we assume we're not going to get applications. However, when the jury sits every year, sometimes it takes us all day to come to a decision. Universal design just needn't be an idea but it needs to be commercialised."

Awardees

Above: Winners pose with their awards.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/accessibility/news/nirmita-narasimhan-gets-ncpedp-mphasis-universal-design-award

Nirmita Narasimhan appointed to the Communication Policy Research (CPRsouth) Board

praskrishna — 2016-12-26T00:27:47Z

Dr. Nirmita Narasimhan has been appointed to the CPR South Board for a term of 3 years.

New appointments to the CPRsouth board were ratified during the recent meeting at CPRsouth 2016 in Zanzibar, and a copy of these minutes will be circulated to new board members in the New Year. CPRsouth revealed regional and gender representation improved as a result of the selection of new board members, and the consideration given to the matter of representation by existing board members who cast their votes meant that there was no need for quotas. The CPRsouth board now comprises nine African members and 11 Asians, and 11 of its members are male and nine are female.

New board members’ terms run until September 2020 under its new Chairperson, Prof Rohan Samarajiva (Founding Chair, LIRNEasia), and outgoing Chairperson, Prof Alison Gillwald (Executive Director, Research ICT Africa), will remain on as Vice-Chairperson.

The secretariat will be in touch again in the New Year with details of the upcoming CPRsouth 2017.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/accessibility/news/nirmita-narasimhan-appointed-to-the-communication-policy-research-cprsouth-board