Diff-abled ask government for new ‘scribe’ guidelines

In a letter to Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami, the association has said that as per the guidelines issued by the Ministry of Social Justice an Empowerment for appointing scribes in both regular and competitive exams, the government should formulate its own set of guidelines.

The association pointed out that the ‘Guidelines for conducting written examination for persons with benchmark disabilities’ had clear rules for the candidate such as allowing them to choose their scribes and facilitating a meeting with the scribe a couple of days in advance to find out the suitability and if found unsuitable, they should be given an alternative. The guidelines mentioned that in the case of blindness, locomotor disability and cerebral palsy, they should be given the options for scribe or lab assistant or reader. The guidelines also included the option for the candidate to choose their medium of examination — braille, big letters or e-texts. The candidates should be given an extra 20 minutes for every one hour of examination. They should also be allowed to sue assistive devices like talking calculators.

The association has sent the petition to the Chief Minister and commissioner of the Department of Welfare of Differently Abled Persons, apart from School Education Department and Higher Education Secretary.