Karnataka High Court Introduces Digital Accessibility Training For Visually Challenged Court Staff

The Karnataka High Court launched the Digital Accessibility Training programme on Monday for visually impaired employees in both the High Court and District Judiciary, marking the first of its kind venture among South Indian High Courts.

The training programme was inaugurated by Chief Justice Prasanna B. Varale at the Karnataka Judicial Academy, Bengaluru, in the presence of Justice P.S. Dinesh Kumar, President of Karnataka Judicial Academy and K. S. Mudagal, Board of Governor of Karnataka Judicial Academy.

The press statement read as follows: 

“In the State Judiciary a total of 371 visually challenged employees are working. In order to make them Human Resource and make them work in the accessibility ecosystem of the Judiciary, the High Court of Karnataka has taken initiative to impart training to such visually challenged employees of the Judiciary starting from 11.09.2023, for two days by dividing into 18 batches.”

The training is being imparted by Rajendra Kumar Negi from NIVH Dehradun who is accompanied by Muthuraj and a team of SAMARTHANAM Trust, Bengaluru.

The E-Committee of the Supreme Court had recently prepared a Standard Operating Procedure for preparing Accessible Court Documents. As per the said SOP, the State Judiciary staff have been trained to prepare Accessible Court Documents and are now under the guidance of the e-Committee, Supreme Court. 

Further steps have been taken by the High Court in association with Karnataka Judicial Academy to impart training to visually challenged employees of the High Court and District Judiciary to make use of them in day-to-day work.

The programme has been launched as a Regional Training under the aegis of the e-Committee, Supreme Court on Digital Accessibility under the guidance of Justice S. Sunil Dutt Yadav, Chairman, Accessibility Committee, High Court of Karnataka.