Abhivyakti

CDAC, Mumbai has announced the new release of open source predictive text entry system - Anumaan . This release includes new version of standalone flavour of Anumaan i.e. Anumaan-standalone-0.2. This version has been released as part of the activities of project "Enhancing Accessibility for FOSS Desktops" under NRCFOSS-Phase II being carried out at CDAC, Mumbai. Anumaan gives predictions based on preceding text/words used by the user in his/her text and user can use these predictions, while composing text. By incorporating predictions, user can improve his/her rate of text entry to a great extent. Anumaan is mainly intended to help persons with motor disabilities, specially ones facing problems in hand and finger movement. Such persons face difficulty in using regular input devices like keyboard for text entry related tasks. Anumaan can help such persons immensely in their text entry related tasks by way of predictions. However, It is equally useful for com

एक वो दौर था - "गुमी हुई आज़ादी की कीमत सबने पहचानी थी, दूर फिरंगी को करने की सबने मन में ठानी थी, बूढ़े भारत में फिर से आई नई जवानी थी, चमक उठी सन सत्तावन में वो तलवार पुरानी थी, खूब लड़ी मर्दानी वो तो झाँसी वाली रानी थी|" एक ये दौर है - "जनता के पैसे की कीमत सब नेताओ ने पहचानी है, जम कर घोटाले करने की सबने मन में ठानी है, बूढ़े नेताओ में जागा ये कैसा लालच है, और देखो, चमक उठी सन बारह में यह महंगाई तूफानी है, जिससे लड़ रही जाबांज, यह भारत की जनता वही पुरानी है|"

बहन अक्सर तुम से बड़ी होती है, उम्र में चाहे छोटी हो, पर एक बड़ा सा एहसास ले कर खड़ी होती है| बहन अक्सर तुम से बड़ी होती है, उसे मालूम होता है तुम देर रात लौटोगे, तभी चुपके से दरवाजा खुला छोड़ देती है, उसे पता होता है तुम झूठ बोल रहे हो, और बस मुस्कुरा कर उसे ढक लेती है| वो तुमसे लड़ती है पर लड़ती नहीं, वो अक्सर हार कर जीतती रही तुमसे| जिसे कभी चोट नहीं लगती ऐसी एक छड़ी होती है, बहन अक्सर तुम से बड़ी होती है| पर राखी के दिन जब एक पतला सा धागा बांधती है कलाई पे, मैं कोशिश करता हूँ बड़ा होने की, धागों के इसरार पर ही सही, कुछ पल के लिए मैं बड़ा होता हूँ, एक मीठा सा रिश्ता निभाने के लिए खड़ा होता हूँ, नहीं तो अक्सर बहन ही तुमसे बड़ी होती है, उम्र में चाहे छोटी हो, पर एक बड़ा सा एहसास ले कर खड़ी होती है| by Prasoon Joshi (Courtsey: Bombay Times dated 02/08/2012)

GEM(GEstures with Mouse), a mouse gesture based input mechanism developed by CDAC, Mumbai ‘s accessibility team for physically-challenged people can now also be accessed from Sourceforrge.net .

About training In India, about 7-8 million people are suffering from full or partial visual impairment. Such people have to be provided with different kinds of support devices to access the world and to perform routine tasks like bill payments, banking transactions, reservations etc.. Now technology, either software-based or hardware-based, has made it possible for these people to access the world in their own way. But a large section of blind population is still away from advantages of modern assistive technologies. The main reasons for this gap are not only the lack of awareness about assistive technologies available and lack of hands-on practice to use it, but also the cost of technology. Free & Open Source Software (FOSS) tools/techniques play an important role in creating assistive technologies that are free-of-cost, available to all and easily maintainable for a large portion of population in a country like India. For visually challenged people, available co

Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (CDAC), Mumbai has released beta versions of GNU/Linux distributions for Differently-abled people. These distributions are part of the activities being carried out under “ Enhancing Accessibility for FOSS Desktops ” project under NRCFOSS-Phase II at CDAC, Mumbai . There are three distributions specific to three different kinds of disabilities namely: 1. GNU/Linux distribution for Visually-challenged: This is a GNU/Linux distribution (beta version – 0.1.1) created specially for visually challenged users. Visually challenged users can use it out of the box because accessibility settings required by them are already enabled. 2. GNU/Linux distribution for Physically-challenged: ‘ GNU/Linux for Physically Challenged-Beta-0.1.1′ is a special distribution for physically challenged people, so that they can easily access FOSS desktops. 3. GNU/Linux distribution for Cognitively-challenged: This GNU/Linux distribution has

Recently, work on Navi Mumbai Metro Rail Project has been started in Kharghar node of Navi Mumbai. As a result, various roads at various places in Kharghar have been dug up. Trees have been cut. But as a resident of Kharghar, I feel some question need to be asked from the concerned authorities. These questions may be: 1. Which company has been awarded the contract for the project? At now place where the work is started, the name of contracted company is displayed. 2. Whether any kind of feasibility study has been conducted, not clear. Sign boards showing the proposed locations of metro stations have been erected at various points whether residential or commercial or public. Will anybody make it clear how a metro station be built in a highly dense residential area? 3. Whether the consent of central railway ministry is required before starting a metro rail project in a city. If yes, has it been taken? If not, how is the work started? 4. How long will it taken to complete the work? 5. The

2011 has set in past now. It was not  like all other previous years by any means.  I often uttered throughout the year, "यह क्रांति का साल है|". Of-course, it was been a year of "Kranti" (Revolutions) throughout the world starting from Egypt, Tunisia, Libya etc. to far away in west . People demonstrated their dissatisfaction with their respective establishments by every possible means. Our country was also no exception. In the face of "Anna", we found a symbol to fight against corruption. His initiative mobilized general public across the nation and shaken the government  and political class. It is due to this initiative that public now desperately wants to have her say in governance matters. She is no longer ready to be the victim of corruption. This year has also witnessed events that will leave permanent marks in history.  One side, demon figures like Osama, Gadaffi met with their fate. On the other side, Steve Jobs, Jagjit Singh, Bhupen Hazarika, Dev