Panel asks for courses in Braille, sign language

NEWDELHI: A panel has suggested including Indian sign language as a subject, offering Braille as a language option and providing various difficulty levels of core subjects for students with special needs as part of curriculum and examination reforms.

These are among key recommendations made by a group of representatives from various examination boards, advocates, parents, disabled students, and experts in the field who carried out extensive brainstorming in Delhi.

According to a CBSE official who was part of the discussions, the recommendations have been placed before the Punjab and Haryana high court which, in February, asked the board to see what facilities could be extended to students with disabilities under the revised Persons with Disabilities (PWD) Act. The board will now work on these recommendations and see how they can be implemented. The recommendations will cover all the major examination boards.

The group has also suggested allowing calculators to students who are victims of acid attacks, those with dwarfism and those afflicted by muscular dystrophy to help them in examinations.

The CBSE official, who asked not to be identified, added that the group has recommended that sign language be recognised as a subject in lieu of a second language. “... Indian sign language should be treated as language to satisfy the formula prescribed by the board. On similar lines, Braille can also be offered as a language option,” reads the recommendation of the group.

“Various levels of core subjects such as mathematics, science and social studies can be offered at two/three levels of difficulty,” it states.