Inclusivity
IIT Kharagpur is dedicated to ensuring inclusivity in campus and encourages a healthy work environment for students, staff and faculties of all abilities. It has a dedicated Professor-in-Charge (PIC) for students with disabilities (PwD). The Institute has allotted a PwD cell as well to look after related concerns. Extensive civil works have been taken up in the last year to create a barrier free campus by constructing ramps/lifts, universal bathrooms etc. in the Academic complexes, all departments, halls of residences and hospital. Motorized wheelchairs have been purchased by the Institute for physically disabled students to commute between hostels and classrooms/departments, and for easy movement in the campus as a part of its CSR- Students’ Wellness drive. Students of IIT Kharagpur have also developed driverless bicycle i-Bike – a unique, disabled friendly bicycle that autonomously rides itself towards any given location for those who face trouble while steering or pedalling bicycles. https://www.thebetterindia.com/48159/i-bike-iit-kharagpur-driver-less-bicycle
Click here for more details on disability support and inclusivity.
Click here for recent research projects addressing disability issues.
Library facility: The Central Library has created a special "Divyang corner" on the ground floor nearest to the entrance of the Library for differently-abled students. Students may also access the Librivox audiobooks (for visually impaired students) with headphones. The library borrowing facilities and OPAC search services are also provided here by the circulation staff for ease of accessing e-databases and resources and locating books. Students also have the facility of accessing Kindle e-book readers from the digital library.
Gymnasium and Yoga facility is made available for students with special needs. PwD students are allowed to practice/exercise in Gymnasium with Select Training Module (Tool) where the Training method as well as the machines are improvised as per the disability and individual need. Para Power lifting has been introduced in Inter-IIT Sports meet with a vision to provide ample opportunity for participation and psycho-social development of the students with special needs. Apart from Sports and Fitness, PwD students are also encouraged to join other societies like Quiz, Dramatics, Western Music, Eastern music, Culinary Society, Dramatics society, Photography society, Business club, Robotics Society, etc.
IIT Kharagpur provides specific help to PwD candidates in examinations. All examinations are conducted for PwD students in a separate ground floor room. The students are allotted additional time of 20 minutes for each hour of the examination. Students who are visually impaired and students who cannot write themselves are provided scribe during the examination. Such students can also avail help from the counselling centre of the Institute for their well being
IIT Kharagpur has inked a MoU with the National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA) for ‘Building Accessible Safe and Inclusive Indian Cities’ (BASIIC). The collaboration is aimed towards developing a framework for universal city planning which would be more accessible and inclusive for various sections of the community with age-friendly disabled-friendly measures. The proposed framework will be instrumental for sector-wise assessment of the existing cities in terms of safety, accessibility, and inclusivity as well as planning of Greenfield cities. The framework will include sections on (i) Infrastructure, amenities and services including water, electricity, sanitation and solid waste (ii) Outdoor environment, (iii) Livelihood, (iv) Urban mobility and public transport, (v) IT connectivity, digitalization and citizen’s participation (vi) Tourism and recreation. https://news.careers360.com/iit-kgp-inks-mou-niua-develop-framework-for-inclusive-city-planning https://www.iitkgpalumnifoundation.in/newsroom/news/IIT-Kharagpur-and-NIUA-Collaborate-to-Build-Accessible-Safe-and-Inclusive-Indian-Cities.dz
The Communication Empowerment Lab (CEL) at IIT Kharagpur was founded with the objective of developing technology that will meet the communication and educational needs of the differently abled. CEL is dedicated to developing technology to enable education and communication of the visually impaired with the help of The Sparsha Transliteration System that enables education and communication of children with neuro-motor disorders (such as cerebral palsy) and speech impairment through tools like Sanyog and Akashvani.
https://www.rediff.com/business/report/a-technology-designed-to-touch-many-lives/20150922.htm
