Preparing e- content for specially abled children
It is a welcome Development that education needs of the specially abled children of the country during the havoc of pandemic Coronavirus is taken into consideration. Recently, the Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ approved the release of the guidelines for the Development of e-Content for Children with Disabilities, the Ministry of Education said.
A statement issued by the Education Ministry said that a comprehensive initiative, PM e-VIDYA was launched on 17th May 2020, with an aim to unify all efforts related to digital/online/on-air education.
The programme interalia envisages development of special e-content for the Divyang (Children with Disabilities-CwDs). In pursuance of this vision, the Department of School Education and Literacy, Ministry of Education had constituted a Committee of experts, for recommending guidelines for developing e-content for these children.
For the first time, an attempt was made to prepare guidelines for CwD also referred to as Children with Special Needs (CWSN) children so that the goal of inclusive education is fulfilled. The Committee submitted a report titled “Guidelines for the Development of e-Content for Children with Disabilities” comprising eleven Sections and two Appendices.The report was shared, presented, discussed and accepted by the MoE.
Moreover, the salient highlights of the e- content guidelines in the report were stated as e-Content for CwDs should be developed based on the four principles namely: perceivable, operable, understandable and robust.
e-Content including text, tables, diagrams, visuals, audios, videos etc. should comply with accessibility standards: national standards (GIGW 2.0) and international standards (WCAG 2.1, E-Pub, DAISY etc).
Distribution platforms on which content is uploaded (e.g. DIKSHA) and Reading platforms/devices on which content is accessed and interacted (e.g. e-pathshala) must comply with technical standards.
One hopes we continue achieve right strides in the country for academic needs of the specially abled children of the country .
