Techshare India
Techshare India, 2008 – Breaking the Barriers, a pan disability event, received an extremely positive response both from the visitors as well as the participants. It was the first accessibility conference and exhibition in India that highlighted the needs of people with disabilities. The need for an event such as this in India was highlighted repeatedly. The platform was effectively used to discuss the availability and use of technologies to enable people with disabilities. In addition, Techshare India also highlighted the importance of implementing accessibility standards and complying to different accessibility laws.
The exhibition area showcased the best of accessibility products from around the world along with an experience zone where any one could experience first hand the challenges that were faced by People with Disabilities and how technology could improve the quality of their life.
Products on display included various assistive technologies such as a Portable screen magnifier, trackball, Color identifier, different Screen readers including a Supernova with Hindi screen reader, simulator simulating different types of visual disabilities etc. There were other products such as a device that would identify the battery life for both visually impaired and the deaf and dumb people, tactile sheets that visually impaired users could use to learn computers, apart from braille slates, pamphlets to learn sign language etc.
At the inauguration, the chief guest Dr. (Smt.) Veena Chhotray, Secretary, Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment, shared her perspective on the pertinence of an event like Techshare India 2008. She said, "I appreciate the attempt being made by the organisers of the conference, and we are certainly on the right path." "In order to promote employment of people with disabilities in the corporate sector, the Government of India has earmarked a fund of Rs.1800 crores," she added.
Ms. Shilpi Kedia, Founder and MD, BarrierBreak Technologies India, in her welcome address, said, "The need for an event like this was long over due in India. Techshare India brings together the entire ecosystem - the government, the corporates, the NGOs, people with disabilities, the product companies and the education providers for the first time under one roof. The conference is a platform to share insights and learning's and in the process serve a bigger purpose - which is to educate people about accessibility, promote accessibility and highlight the laws and standards that are there and encourage their implementation."
Mr. Shadi Abou-Zahra from the World Wide Web Consortium, in his keynote address highlighted the need for assistive technologies to be built into the design of the web interface. He said, "The web is now the key for every day life and there are many tools that are available to the designers to make internet accessible to people with disabilities." He also emphasized on the commercial opportunity available in catering to the growing market represented by people with disabilities in terms of products and technologies; and encouraged business houses to play a larger role in this field.
Mr. Javed Abidi, Executive Director, National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People (NCPEDP) said, "India is a priveledged country to have the best of the technology, top corporate houses as well as the best brains that we export around the world. In such a scenario, it is very unfortunate to see that the people with disabilities are loosing out." "The situation is such that the corporate sector is not even aware that we have fantastic assistive technologies available and how they can be incorporated to give better opportunities to people with disabilities. That according to me is discrimination," he added.
Some of the other key presenters were Brian Hardy from Vision Australia; Dr. Sudha Kaul, ISAAC; Ms. Shanti Raghvan, Enable India; David Baquis, Sec 508, US Accessibility Board; Lisa D. Friendly, Bookshare.org; Edward Hitchcock, Occupational Therapist, Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago; Mandy Thompson, RNIB among others.
Ms. Kedia also expressed her intension to organize the conference annually in order to keep Indians abreast of the latest in products and technologies as well as to promote initiatives that would ease path of bringing these solutions to India.
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