(TT)
Tata Steel Foundation has inked an MoU with Saksham, a Delhi-based NGO working for the specially-abled, to implement a two-year-long project to identify and train persons with visual impairments in Odisha and Jharkhand on the use of assistive technology. “This collaboration was for the Jyotir Gamya programme, which aimed at the ‘digital empowerment of visually impaired persons in under-resourced areas’ within the state of Odisha and Jharkhand,” said a tweet by Saksham.
According to a communique issued by Tata Steel which has footprints in both Jharkhand (plant at Jamshedpur) and Odisha (plant at Kalinganagar), Jyotir Gamya programme — an initiative of Saksham and Assistech Lab of IIT Delhi — is designed to recognise the importance of assistive technology-provided solutions not only to make persons with visual impairments independent in reading and writing but also enable them to independently perform several activities online such as operating their bank accounts and performing bank transactions on their own, doing railway reservations, online shopping, or using tools like google maps for navigation, from the complex to simple like using mobile phones for essential activities of daily living.
