New Delhi: A national institute, which focuses on creating universal designs to ease access for Persons with Disabilities (PwDs), would be established in Delhi.
Touted as the first-of-its-kind institute in the country, the National Institute for Inclusive and Universal Design (NIIUD) would be engaged in designing products, buildings, softwares and transportation for the differently abled persons, making their access a hassle-free process.
According to officials in the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, the national capital was chosen for convenience as New Delhi is the seat of several government institutions.
The proposal for selecting Delhi to set up the institute would be sent for cabinet approval, the sources said.
Asked about the role that the institution would play, the sources said that it would explore designing products among other functions to suit the requirements of the PwDs.
“For instance, a TV remote can be used by a normal human being (without any difficulty). But, how to make the device convenient for the usage of a visually-impaired person? The institution would explore such modalities,” an official pointed out.
Issues concerning senior citizens, whose population is on the rise, is another crucial area that the institute would concentrate on.
The official further claimed that only few institutions, dedicated for universal design, were functioning in other parts of the world.
The objective of the institute includes promotion of inclusive development in rural and urban pockets for PwDs and creating awareness about universal design among environmental design professionals.
The Centre made an announcement for setting up the NIIUD in the union Budget of 2014-15. As per the 2011 Census, 2.68 crore PwDs were living in the country, which constitute 2.2 per cent of India’s population.