A conference on ‘Enabling access for persons with disabilities to higher education and the workplace: role of Information Communication and Technology and assistive technologies' will be held at the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, on Friday and Saturday.

The conference aims at identifying and sharing the best practices on enabling access to persons with disabilities at workspaces and educational institutions through ICT and related interventions, and to bring together key players in this field to deliberate on and showcase solutions and enabling technologies.

The conference, supported by MphasiS, Microsoft, Thomson Reuters and Wipro, will have over 200 stakeholders participating.
Urgent need

“The event emerges from an urgent need to generate action in the fields of higher education and employment for empowerment of persons with disabilities. Their present plight is far from justified, both in our society and workplace,” said Rishikesha T. Krishnan, chairperson of the committee on disability, IIM-B. “Though there are a number of statutory schemes and requirements in place, actual benefits are seldom realised, owing to lack of awareness, poor infrastructural support, inadequate assistive technologies and missing guidelines on implementation,” he added.