Celebration of International Disability Day
DATE Dec 03, 2020
VENUE Online event
SPEAKER Dr. Akhilesh Kumar
To mark the International Day for Persons with Disability, the Department of Special Education, MIER College organized an online guest lecture on the theme “Building Back Better: Towards an Inclusive, Accessible and Sustainable Post COVID-19 World.” The resource was Dr. Akhilesh Kumar, Assistant Professor, School of Education, Vardhman Mahaveer Open University, Kota, Rajasthan. Prof. Adit Gupta, Director MIER and Principal MIER College chaired the session. Dr. Moolraj Sharma, HoD PG Department, Dr. Rohnika Sharma, HoD UG Department along with the faculty members and students attended the guest lecture.
Dr. Rohnika Sharma extended a warm welcome to the resource person and introduced him as an expert in the field of e-learning, special education, development and use of open educational resources, research and project management. She further said that Dr. Kumar is a distinguished researcher who is well presented and published at the national and international level.
In his address, Dr. Kumar said the things which were considered normal such as social proximity, face to face teaching, distance from social media to increase productivity have changed to social distancing, on-line learning and use of ICT and social media as new normal during COVID era. He discussed factors which increase the risk of people with disabilities during pandemic namely severe health conditions, higher rate of mortality, greater risk of discrimination in accessing health care and life-saving procedures and being the disadvantage group. Dr. Kumar deliberated in detail on the problems faced by persons with disabilities such as loss of job, double discrimination, more restricted mobility, domestic violence, and lack of digital accessibility. He also shared measures that could be taken to make society, workplace and education inclusive, accessible and sustainable which includes engaging persons with disability, ensuring proper services for them, ensuring equal participation, prioritize vacation for them and implementing research based practices. This was followed by open house session which was conducted by Dr. Bharti Tandon, Associate Professor PG Department where the students and the faculty member actively interacted with the resource person.
Dr. Adit Gupta in his presidential remarks said that the International Day of Persons with Disabilities (IDPD) is annually observed to promote the full and equal participation of persons with disabilities and to take action for the inclusion of persons with disabilities in all aspects of society and development. He added that during the current pandemic prioritization should be given to persons with disabilities for accessing health care services as well as in employment for sustainability.
Dr. Monika Bajaj, Deputy HoD UG Department presented a formal Vote of Thanks.
