The inauguration of activity lab for differently abled children was held at the INSIGHT office Vellayambalam. The lab was inaugurated by Vivek, a differently abled child.

The lab is an attempt to explore the use of various digital technologies to enhance learning and communication of children with disabilities. Children will be introduced to relatively simple activities of packages like Gcompris, and non-violent games, and slowly moved to programming interfaces like Scratch based on their improvement. Custom software will also be made based on recommendations of Parents/Doctors working in this field.

Customized input devices will also be developed for the physically challenged as part of the activities of the lab. Training will also be offered to physically challenged persons in using predictive text input devices like Dasher.

Dr. Mary Varghese, renowned Psychiatrist and author of several books on this area was the chief guest of the program. Mr. K. Vijayachandran, Director Future India Foundation was also present.

The Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) and Society for Promotion of Alternative Computing and Employment (SPACE) are organizing a workshop on web accessibility for web developers from the public and private sector from September 25 to 26, 2009. The workshop will take place at Christ Nagar International School, Kowdiar, Thiruvananthapuram, between 09:30-17:30 hours each day.

The workshop seeks to bring together practitioners from Government Departments, as well as from small and medium enterprises across the country. The primary aim of this workshop is to demonstrate the importance of creating accessible web sites and to educate the developers of government and private web sites on how to incorporate accessibility features into new as well as existing web sites.

The training comprises both theory-oriented and practical sessions.The trainers are specialists in various aspects of web accessibility. The main focus will be on WCAG 2.0 guidelines. The workshop is for persons already involved in developing web sites with good knowledge
of HTML, XML, CSS, etc. In addition to training web developers in accessibility, the workshop will also serve as a platform for capacity building by training potential accessibility trainers.

The programme is supported by Kerala State IT Mission, which runs INSIGHT - ICT Centre for the differently abled in association with SPACE.

Hurry! Interested persons are requested to register immediately as seats are limited.

Candidates may register directly on the website at http://c11.space-kerala.org/webw/ fill the application form attached and post/ submit to SPACE office

After the successful completion of the first ICT training programs for the visually challenged held in trivandrum,thrissur,malapuram and kozhikode districts, the next set of training was held at ernakulam and wayanad from 24-8-09 to 28-8-09. 10 teachers from ernakulam and 6 teachers from wayanad attended the training program.