Assam Engineering Institute. Picture by Biju Boro

June 16: The Assam Engineering Institute (AEI) is all set to have the city’s first building with “barrier-free environment” as part of its bid to integrate persons with disabilities in the mainstream of technical and vocational education, but only if the PWD shows a bit of “interest”.

Miffed by the “lukewarm” response from the PWD officials towards the move, the institute has already started taking steps on its own with its “limited resources”. The institute being a government polytechnic, the PWD is supposed to execute the construction.

“The management of the institute in its own capacity has started construction of walkways, ramps and modifications of hostel buildings for the convenience of the physically-challenged students. But the major constructions have to be done by the public works department as we neither have the funds nor the required expertise,” R. Ahmed, head of the department, electronic engineering, said. He is also the “project champion” of the schemes for students with disabilities.

Appreciating the move, the assistant director of the vocational rehabilitation centre for handicapped, R. Laxman Swamy, a central government official, said the AEI would become the first educational institution in the city to make its campus disabled-friendly and hoped that other institutes would follow suit.

According to Ahmed, the department had asked the PWD to conduct a survey of the institute’s premises and submit a detailed plan and estimate for creating a barrier-free environment. “But till date no progress has been made by the department in this direction despite many reminders from the institute’s side,” he rued.

The institute will also construct handrails for visually-impaired students, put up signs for deaf and dumb trainees and make special seating arrangements for persons with disabilities apart from widening the existing narrow doorways.

Ahmed said their immediate requirement is an elevator, especially designed for the physically challenged. “As the formal diploma courses and non-formal courses for disabled students have started this year, in the absence of a lift, all the classes for the first-year students had to be shifted to the ground floor of all the buildings,” he said.

However, the problem will start once the students are promoted to the next class.

“It would be very difficult to conduct classes for them on the ground floor as the higher classes for theory and laboratories for practical exams are held on the first, second and third floors of the buildings,” he added.

“Therefore, it is imperative that the construction for a lift must start this year so that it could be made operational by the beginning of next year,” Ahmed added.

In 2003, 61 physically-challenged students were provided training under different courses by the institute.

The majority of those selected were physically handicapped with 49 trainees, whereas there were seven hearing impaired and five visually-impaired trainees.

The institute was selected by the department of secondary and higher education under the Union ministry of human resource development through a notification in November 2000, to implement centrally sponsored schemes for imparting technical and vocational education to students with disabilities.