The Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) has given its approval to back the certificate course provided for the differently abled at INSIGHT. INSIGHT, a project of the Kerala State IT Mission, has been endeavouring to empower the differently abled, mainly the visually challenged, through computers, Internet and other ICT tools.

INSIGHT has been running a customised training programme, spanning over 160 hours, for the benefit of the differently abled.  Training is provided in Free Software and is aimed at comprehensively equipping the differently abled to make best use of ICT. More than a 100 students from educational backgrounds have been trained by INSIGHT so far.

Further to this approval, all students completing the training and clearing the examination thereafter will be issued a certificate from IGNOU. More modalities on the actual implementation are being worked out.

Second batch of Training , jointly conducted by Kerala State IT Mission and District Panchayat has started for differently abled students of Pallichal Panchayat . The training adds a new dimension as it gave them opportunity to use the accessible technologies available today to become self-reliant in life. It will continue for three weeks.

A two day training programme was held for the Akshaya Entrepreneurs at Palakkad on 10^th and 11^th February 2010, for training the Visually Challenged in using computers. 34 participants from different Akshaya centres participated in the training programme which was held at BPL Telecom Wireless and Computer Training Academy, Chandranagar, Palakkad.

The first batch of training for differently abled, jointly conducted by Kerala State IT Mission and District Panchayat has started on 1^st February 2010. 21 visually challenged students are undergoing training at INSIGHT centre, on the use of computers with the latest free and open source ICT tools in two separate sessions.

The next set of trainings will be starting shortly.

The inauguration of training for the differently abled, jointly conducted by the Kerala State IT Mission and District Panchayat was held on 30^th January 2010. Hon. District Panchayat President Sri. Anavoor Nagappan inaugurated the programme.

KSITM Director Dr. Rathan Kelkar IAS, Sri. Anad Jayan( Member, District Panchayat), Sri. V.S Santosh ( Secretary, District Panchayat), Sri. K.Vijayachandran ( Director, Future India Foundation), Sri T.M Suresh Kumar (District Social Welfare Officer) and Dr. V. Sasikumar (Coordinator, SPACE) were also present for the function. Sri. V.S Aravind (Chairman, Social Welfare Standing Committee) presided over the function.

The first batch of training for 10 visually challenged will begin on 1^st February 2010. The training will attempt to equip them with the required free software ICT tools.