K'taka struck a blow to disability aid

Karnataka reduced the budget for providing hearing aids, Braille kits, and ‘talking laptops’ for students by 80%—from Rs. 53 crore last year to Rs. 10 crore for 2024-25

Anisha Reddy

A 200-page case law book lands with a thud before Anusha, a 21-year-old visually impaired law student in Bengaluru. She runs her fingers over the pages, only to realise the text isn’t in Braille. While classmates around her flip open their books, Anusha sits quietly, waiting for the talking laptop promised by the Karnataka government. It’s her key to keeping pace in class. Over a year ago, Anusha filled out an application on the state Seva Sandhu portal for the device, which includes an audio keyboard and specially developed software. She visualises herself opening the laptop, listening to the device read out important cases. “As law students, we are given lectures on human rights, but my basic right to education is being taken away,” said Anusha.

The Department for the Empowerment of Differently Abled and Senior Citizens in Karnataka is responsible for providing hearing aids, Braille kits, and ‘talking laptops’ for students (10th std onward) and senior citizens under 14 schemes. This year, however, the programme faced a debilitating 80% budget cut—the first in a decade. The allocation dropped from Rs. 53 crore last year to Rs. 10 crore for 2024-25, amid a backlog of applicants waiting for their devices. Visually impaired students are hardest hit, with the funds for talking laptops facing the steepest decline compared to Braille kits, hearing aids, and batteryoperated wheelchairs. This is hurting students during their most critical years of schooling. Anusha is one of over 250 visually impaired students in Karnataka still waiting for their Braille kits and talking laptops for the 2023- 24 academic year.

The backlog continues to grow—over 500 students have applied for talking laptops, yet only 35 have received one, according to the National Federation of the Blind, which has been protesting against the budget cuts. Officials from the empowerment department acknowledged the delays, but dismissed it as a “routine administrative issue.” “We are facing severe budget constraints. Hence, we haven’t been able to provide the benefits on time,” said Ashwathamma C, deputy director. She added that students can apply again in 2025. Special educators and students have reverted to traditional methods—using online text-to-audio converters and clay models. Some have resorted to fundraising to provide Braille kits. “Assistive technology opens a new chapter for students and bridges the learning gap in classrooms.

But our lawmakers aren’t prioritising the empowerment of the disabled. Teachers and students are left to fend for themselves,” said Nagasamha G. Rao, a child rights activist. Making science touchable Sitting at a stall outside his home in JP Nagar, Eresh, a Class 12 student, waits for his phone to buzz with class updates. It’s a signal that it’s time for his daily 3-4 hour-long study session. On the WhatsApp group ‘Class 12 PDFs’, Eresh’s friends and teachers share scanned PDFs of reading material. Eresh then downloads an app on his smartphone to convert text to speech. He then transcribes his notes into Braille using a stylus on paper, a painstaking process that takes twice as long compared to his classmates. Eresh applied for a talking laptop and Braille kit in August 2024, but has yet to receive them.

The mobile apps he uses are either expensive or limited to five free conversions. But it’s his only option to stay on track with his studies. For many visually impaired students in India, pursuing science remains a challenge. Few students continue studying Science and Mathematics past the seventh grade, largely due to the lack of assistive technology. A study from Vision Empower Trust, an NGO for inclusive education, shows that assistive technologies are crucial to helping students tackle complex subjects like chemical equations and diagrams. However, educators have come up with creative solutions. For instance, Lakshmi, 45, prepares tactile diagrams of the reproductive system of a flower using Wikki Stix or clay and parchment paper for Sharda, a 16-year-old student who was born blind.

Sharda reminisces about her high school years at the Jyothi Seva Home for Blind Children in Bengaluru, a time when Braille texts and adaptive technologies like screen readers were more readily available. Now, she has to rely on guess work and audio instructions from her teachers. She feels out of place during lab experiments and quietly listens to her peers excitedly react to chemical reactions. Similarly, Anusha had to leave Deepa Academy and move to The University Law College in Bengaluru to complete her five-year LLB programme. While her teachers dictate notes to her separately, she uses her phone with a screen reader app for most of her reading. (Source: The Print)