On Tue, Apr 26, 2011 at 8:44 PM, Srikanth Ramakrishnan
<rsrikanth05(a)gmail.com> wrote:
Aravind, thank you for the link.
It comes very handy.
Good to know that the state government is involved in this. Maybe, we could
try it in other states.
Regards,
Srikanth.
The project i mentioned is not limited to wikipedia. It is more on
e-accessibility level.
And the attention received for Kanija encyclopedia , just by using a
Text to Speech system(TTS) implies theneed of lobbying on
E-accessibility policies to make Free Knowledge available for Indian
Population
India has a phenomenally large percentage of disabled persons.
Aproximately 6% of the population has a disability. An additional 34%
of the population is illiterate and an additional 77 million are
elderly (as per 2001 Census). The largest democracy in the world
cannot afford to exclude this significant a chunk of its population
from participating in the life of the country, which is increasingly
intertwined with the Internet.
Such exclusion is contrary to the Indian Constitution which guarantees
to its Citizens a Right to receive information. The Freedom of Speech
and Expression enshrined in Art. 19(1) (a) is inclusive of the right
to receive information. This right extends to receiving speech that is
of a commercial nature as well.
India is signatory to the United Nation Convention on the Rights of
Persons with Disabilities, 2006 (UNCRPD) and the Biwako Millennium
Framework Towards an Inclusive, Barrier-free and Rights-based Society
for Persons with Disabilities in Asia and the Pacific, 2002
In my perception a policy on E-accessibility on web&Computers must
cover Free Knowledge available to all in accessible formats, including
offline access (in the lines of WMF's vision) , Localised Interfaces &
Free Technologies supporting Local language( Text to speech, speech to
text etc , and indic on web Projects) , Open standards ( WCAG 2.0
Guidelines
http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20/) and Trainings in FOSS based
accessibility tools for Disabled for ensuring e-accessibility
A process for building a national e-accessibility Policy is in place.
Groups like Centre for Internet & Society is pushing WCAG 2.0 adoption
to that
If WMF can involve in this work by highlighting the link between
E-accessibility , and Free Knowledge Resources , it will be an
interesting step.
Anivar