Faculty of Disability Management and Special Education (FDMSE) (earlier referred to as IHRDC) is one of the off campus faculties of Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda Educational and Research Institute (RKMVERI), Belur Math. The faculty is intended to actualize Swami Vivekananda’s fundamental educational ideas of imparting life building, man-making and character-building education by providing quality special education to develop manpower for education, rehabilitation and holistic development of persons with various disabilities.
The faculty is situated at COIMBATORE, the second largest city of Tamil Nadu. It is housed in in salubrious and serene environment of Ramakrishna Mission Vidyalaya, befitting for imparting and receiving education. The faculty is a pioneer institute in the field of special education and rehabilitation of persons with disabilities in India. Here are some of the distinctive highlights of the faculty:
- The conception of RKMVERI was envisioned by Swami Vivekananda himself nearly 111 years ago, in recognition of which it has been awarded the tag of a ‘Special Heritage University’ by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), Government of India, on 1 July 2013, with certain privileges in the matter of governance and special grant.
- FDMSE is the only educational institution in India which offers all courses (D.Ed., B.Ed., M.Ed., Mphil., and Ph.D.) right from Diploma to Doctorate level in three major areas of disability viz. Hearing Impairment (HI), Visual Impairment (VI) and Intellectual Disability (ID) under one umbrella.
- In addition, the faculty offers Diploma in Indian Sign Language Interpretation and Diploma in Theatre Arts for Holistic Development for Persons with Disabilities.
- Ramakrishna Mission Vidyalaya, the campus in which FDMSE is situated has 13 institutions working in different areas such as physical and adapted physical, technical, agriculture and school education which provide a fertile ground for inculcating values of life and education in its true sense for our students as envisioned by Swami Vivekananda .
- For the first time in India, the faculty produced the most comprehensive Indian Sign Language (ISL) Dictionary keeping in view the communicative need of persons with hearing impairment.
- The faculty is one of the premier institutes and relatively largest producer and supplier of Braille literature, reference books and textbooks in the country. From 2011 till date, the unit has produced over 27, 362 volumes of books.
- UNESCO has created special UNESCO chair in the area of Inclusive Adapted Physical Education and Yoga, which is a unique area of work to promote inclusion. The UNESCO Chair in the area of ‘inclusive education’ at RKMVERI, Coimbatore, is the first of its kind in the whole of Asia.