Disability Awareness Programme for college students
M.N.G. Mani, president of UDIS Forum (second from left), releasing a students’ manual on disability at the Disability Awareness programme for college students organised by the forum in the city on Friday. L. Sivasamy, Assistant Director, Employment, (third from left), H. Samson Chandradas, secretary, UDIS Forum, (fourth from left) and K. Radhabai, Professor in History (right), are in the picture.The District Employment Office can help more number of people, especially the disabled, in finding jobs with the support from non-Governmental organisations, L. Sivasamy, Assistant Director, District Employment Office, said here on Friday.Inaugurating the awareness programme on disability management for college students, organised by UDIS Forum, a network working for people with disabilities, he said without the support from society and volunteers, disabled persons would find it difficult to achieve success.
The president of UDIS Forum, M.N.G. Mani, said the aim of the programme was to rope in students into the field of social work. By co-ordinating with the activities of the social work departments in colleges in the city, a large number of persons with disabilities could be reached, he said.
The first phase of the programme, which began on Friday, was attended by 160 students of social work from CSI Bishop Appasamy College of Arts and Science, CMS College of Science and Commerce, Saraswathy Thyagaraja College of Arts and Science, PSG College of Arts and Science and Sree Narayana Guru College of Arts and Science.The students would be taught the basics about disability and the ways they could extend their help to such people. They would be trained as ‘Master Trainers.’ Each college can organise sensitisation programmes on disability in 10-15 schools and other colleges. They could identify job opportunities for people with disability and contact the forum. All the seminars and workshops they organised would be sponsored by the forum.
The second phase of the programme would include more colleges, Mr. Mani said. By the end of December, the forum hoped to have 5,000 student volunteers both from schools and colleges.T. Suganthi, Assistant Manager, ICICI Bank, who has locomotor disability and K. Radhabai, professor in History, who has visual impairment along with professionals from various institutions dealing with disability education interacted with the students.
