With school Board examinations and college semester examinations on the slate, the months from February to May make a busy time for non-governmental organisations. As in every year, finding volunteers who can scribe and help with reading sessions for the visually-challenged is a huge challenge facing these NGOs.
Barath SN, founder, Lit the Light, needs at least 60 volunteers next week. Students of Presidency College are having their model examinations. There is also a requirement from a few other educational institutions.
Lit the Light has been in the service of connecting scribes to visually-challenged students since 2012 and has a database of 2000 volunteers. “But we would only have a handful of them who are active and can come at a short notice,” says Barath. A majority of students come with their requirements, he says, a day before the examination. “Previously, we had corporates like Cognizant sending us volunteers even on week days which was extremely helpful. Now, all that we ask corporate volunteers is to spare two to three hours on weekends,” says Barath.
The NGO has requirement for volunteers from at least four institutions in the city — Nethrodaya in Mogappair West; Poonamallee Blind School; National Institute For Visually Handicapped in Poonamallee and St Louis Institute for the Deaf and the Blind in Adyar.
“Ideally, one volunteer for every student is the ideal ratio but when that is not possible a group reading session of 1:5 ratio is what we think of as ideal,” says Barath.
Where to volunteer
Some use recorder or CDs to learn lessons if no volunteer is available.
VScribe, an initiative of Chennai Social Service (CSS) focusing on the educational needs of visually impaired students, says the bigger challenge is finding volunteers who can write in Tamil. “If we have 100 people who have signed up for scribing only 10 would know to read and write in Tamil, so this becomes a challenge as a majority of our requests are from students who take the examination in their mother tongue,” says N Sathish Kumar, a senior volunteer with CSS.
Students coming up with a request at the eleventh hour is another problem. VScribe insists students have a backup plan in such cases. Sathish Kumar says another criterion they insist on is ethical writing. “A scribe is only supposed to write what the visually-challenged student says and not based on his/her knowledge,” he says.
Young volunteers
Not all organisations bank on college students to build their volunteer pool. “Unlike senior citizens, college students might have a better flow when it comes to writing examinations but they would be preoccupied with their academic schedule,” says Divakar Balasubramanian, a volunteer who leads Udhavimaghil.
The support group is planning to take up campaigns during the last week of February and the first week of March to have a ready pool of volunteers. “Apart from colleges, we are also planning to go to corporates,” says Divakar. He says the group, in association with Thiri Foundation, is also working on a website that will post requirements of the visually-challenged.
‘Constitute a committee with faculty and volunteers to create a portal’
For some years now, V Sivaraman, an associate professor at Presidency College, has been asking the office of the Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities to initiate a common portal for scribes and students. Nothing seems to have taken off yet. “Most colleges have examinations at the same time, and so depending on students is not completely reliable. Besides, a volunteer would not want to come every day,” says the professor who himself is visually-impaired.
Though there are many volunteer groups helping find scribes, the professor thinks a portal from the government that lists needs of the visually-challenged and availability of volunteers would be more sustainable.
“A committee comprising faculty and volunteers should be constituted to explore the best ways in which we can help the differently-abled students prepare and write for examinations,” says Sivaraman.
Presidency College has one of the highest number of visually-impaired students in the city studying in English, Tamil, History and Political Science Departments at both under graduate and post graduate levels. The professor also wants the State government to provide for a scribe allowance.
