Name of the contact person: The Registrar, Jadavpur University
Contact Number: 033-2457-3024
Email: cpd@jadavpuruniversity.in
Address: Centre for Persons with Disabilities, Opposite to TEQIP Building, Ground Floor.
Jadavpur University’s Centre for Persons with Disabilities (CPD), located opposite to the TEQIP Building, provides specialized services to differently abled students. The Centre offers free Personality Grooming and Communicative Language Course (Foundation Course) for students with special needs, and basic computer training programs for visually impaired students. Regular Braille literacy competitions and quizzes promote literacy among visually impaired people. The Centre celebrates Helen Keller’s birth anniversary every year to honor her contributions and inspire people with special needs.
About
On 10th December 2004, a dedicated centre was established by Jadavpur University for its students with special needs and named as ‘Special Education Cell’ under the leadership of Prof. Sajni Mukherjee to look after diversified educational need of the students with disability. Later in 2010, the centre was renamed to HESPN Cell (Higher Education for Persons with Special Need) after availing a grant from UGC to ensure equal opportunity to the students with disabilities, provide training programmes, develop reading materials as ‘Talking Book’ for students with visual impairment. HEPSN Cell received multiple grants from UGC under the UPE-II (University with Potential for Excellence) scheme, but the focus was shifted to research and developments. As the number of students with special needs increased over the years, necessity for a dedicated cell solely to provide support and services for the students with disabilities was felt followed by repeated appeal from the Forum for Students with Disabilities (FSD, Jadavpur University) which led to establishment of the Centre for Persons with Disabilities (CPD) in February 2018 under the aegis of Prof. Suranjan Das, the then Hon’ble Vice Chancellor. Later in 2019, the HEPSN cell was dissolved and the Centre for Persons with Disabilities (CPD) remained as the sole service provider for the students with special needs.
Major Achievements
- Accessible Library (Contact Number: 033-2457-3016)
The Accessible Library for Persons with Disabilities was inaugurated on 5th September 2018 at the ground floor of the Central Library of Jadavpur University. The Accessible Library has about 150 users as of now.
The Accessible Library has audio books, Braille books, pdf documents and accessible e-books/e-texts. There are four computers for the students to access the e-resources in the Accessible Library They also access e-books from Sugamya Pustakalaya (a comprehensive digital library designed for individuals with visual and other print disabilities under the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities, Govt. of India), Bookshare and JSTOR. The Accessible Library uses Jaws Professional, NVDA, MAGIC 14, OPEN BOOK 9, Read (Braille) softwares to access the e-resources. They also access e-books from Sugamya Pustakalaya, Bookshare, JSTOR, Project Muse and RNIB Bookshare.
The Accessible Library has procured 35 Braille books from Lalbihari Shah Braille Academia and 14 Braille books from Ramakrishna Mission Blind Boys’ Academy, Narendrapur. Apart from that, 18 volumes of Rabindra Rachanabali in Braille were presented to this Library by the Society for the Visually Handicapped. The Accessible Library has embossed Braille books on their own. It also provides mail services to the students in the same manner.
The Centre for Digital Library and Documentation which is housed at the 1st floor of the Central Library is also used by the visually impaired students. Two computers of the Digital library are installed with NVDA audio software which help them to access the e-resources of the Central Library.
User service in Accessible Library for Persons with Disabilities
- Creation of Braille documents/Braille books for students
- Access to Braille documents/Braille books
- Creation of audio books
- Access to audio books
- Creation of pdf documents and accessible e-books/e-texts
- Access to E-resources
- Filling-up of forms required by students
- E-Resource Room
One e-resource room is located at the CPD with 10 desktop computers with necessary software and hardware accessories for better accessibility of the differently abled students. This facility provides opportunity for regular computer usage by the students as well as different skill development programmes.
- Battery Operated Vehicle
One battery operated vehicle was launched for easy movement within the university campus for the differently abled persons.
Activities
The Centre for Persons with Disabilities (CPD) has continued to organize different programmes in collaboration with Forum for Students with Disabilities, Jadavpur University (FSD) and other organizations since 2019 –
- Observation of Helen Keller’s Birth Anniversary every year since 2019
- Braille Exhibition in observance of World Braille Day on 7th January 2025
- Special Seminar on the observance of International Women’s Day on 19th March 2025
- Presentation of an Audio Description of Satyajit Ray’s ‘Pather Panchali’ on 4th April 2025
- Seminar titled ‘Exploring the impact and future of the RPD Act 2016 on disability rights’ on 21st June 2024
- Discussion titled ‘Disability Rights Movement of India: Relevance and Reality’ on 30th April 2024
- Seminar titled ‘Breaking Barriers: Seminar on Gender, Sexuality and Disability’ in observance of International Women’s Day 2024 on 14th March 2024
- Talk on ‘Intellectual Disability with Special Reference to Autism’ on 15th June 2023
- Disability assistance for candidates appearing for Jadavpur University entrance examinations
And many others
