‘Non-availability hurdle for blinds in reaping benefits of education’

Islamabad: The participants at a conference Friday expressed concerns over non-availability of useful ‘talking software’ to what they called was hindering blind persons from reaping the benefits of higher education and research.

Participants of the conference also called upon the government to make mobile devices duty-free or make these available at subsidized rates for the disabled peoples that has become an international norm.

They were addressing a one-day conference organised by Pakistan Disabled Foundation (PDF) at the auditorium of the National Skills University. PDF is struggling for the betterment of disabled persons of the country.

Issues related to information and communication technologies for PWDs especially for blind persons were also discussed to emphasize that, despite government funding, these are still awaited.

Special emphasis was on two basic issues one of these is ‘Talking Software’ and the other is related to affordability of mobile devices.

They said for this purpose, FBR and ministries of IT and Finance have been formally contacted to make provisions in the forthcoming federal government budget for the year 2021-22. Besides these, blind experts and professionals from different fields, and various intellectuals and socially prominent personalities also attended this conference.

Director General International Coordination Dr. Ajmal Awan from Ministry of Information Technology, Vice-Chancellor of National Skills University Prof. Dr. Muhammad Mukhtar, Dr. Akber Gardazi of Comsats University, Dr. Badar Sami from Karachi University, Director PTA Mr. Khalid Noman, General Manager Ignite Mr. Yasir Ahmed, Coordinator of Inter-University Consortium For Social Sciences Murtuza Noor attending the conference.