Readers Allowance to Visually Impaired Persons

What is the Readers Allowance to Visually Impaired Persons?

Readers Allowance to Visually Impaired Persons is a benefit of the Department for the Welfare of Differently Abled Persons, Government of Tamil Nadu. The department describes its purpose plainly: to facilitate the learning process for visually impaired students, an allowance is given to them for engaging readers.

The reasoning is practical. A visually impaired student in Class 9 or in a degree course works through prescribed textbooks, reference material, question banks and class notes that are often not available in Braille or in audio. The ordinary solution is to pay a sighted person, a classmate, a neighbour, a hired reader; to read aloud. That cost falls on the student's family, week after week, and it rises exactly as the syllabus gets heavier. The readers allowance is the state paying for that cost.

The allowance is paid annually, at rates fixed by level of education, to students pursuing education from Class 9 onwards.

Current annual rates

Scale. In the financial year 2024-25, an expenditure of Rs 65.67 lakh was incurred to benefit 1,454 students. A sum of Rs 100 lakh is provided in the Budget Estimate for 2025-26, a substantial increase on the previous year's spending.

Who is eligible for the readers allowance, and who is excluded?

A student can claim if:

• The student is visually impaired and holds a disability certificate issued by the appropriate certifying authority for that disability. Certificates are issued at medical boards in Government Medical College Hospitals, District Headquarters Hospitals, Taluk and non-Taluk hospitals, and at special camps.
• The student holds a National Identity Disability Card (NIDC) or a UDID card. Tamil Nadu issues the NIDC to persons with 40 per cent and above disability on the basis of the disability certificate. 8,94,220 UDID cards had been generated and delivered as on 31 March 2025.
• The student is studying in Class 9 or above: school, undergraduate, postgraduate or professional course; in a recognised institution in Tamil Nadu.
• The student is enrolled for the academic year being claimed, evidenced by a bonafide certificate.

A student cannot claim if:

• The student is below Class 9. The readers allowance begins only from the ninth standard; younger students receive the education scholarship instead and are not eligible for this allowance, so they cannot apply under this head.
• There is no disability certificate, or it has lapsed. A temporary certificate that has expired must be renewed at a medical board before the claim is filed.
• The disability is assessed below 40 per cent, which keeps the student outside the NIDC threshold on which the department's benefits are built.
• The disability is not visual impairment. This allowance is specific to visually impaired students; students with other disabilities receive the scholarship and other benefits but not the readers allowance.
• The student is not enrolled for the year claimed.

How to apply for the readers allowance

1. Obtain or renew the disability certificate for visual impairment from the appropriate certifying authority, a medical board at a Government Medical College Hospital, District Headquarters Hospital, Taluk or non-Taluk hospital, or a special camp. The State Resource cum Training Centres at Chennai and Tiruchirappalli also issue certificates.
2. Obtain the NIDC or UDID card from the District Differently Abled Welfare Office, on the basis of the disability certificate.
3. Get a bonafide certificate from your school, college or institution for the current academic year, stating the class or course.
4. Collect the prescribed application form from the District Differently Abled Welfare Officer during office hours, or download it from your district's website. The form is a printed hard copy in the department's standard format.
5. Open a bank account in the student's name, or a joint account with a parent or guardian, and seed it with Aadhaar so the transfer can reach it.
6. Submit the completed form with the disability certificate, NIDC or UDID card, bonafide certificate, Aadhaar, bank passbook copy and photograph to the District Differently Abled Welfare Officer. Schools and colleges normally consolidate the claims of all eligible students and forward them together.
7. Collect the acknowledgement and follow up with the office if the amount has not reached the account by the end of the academic year.
8. Renew each academic year, and claim at the higher rate when the student moves from Class 12 to a degree, or from a degree to a PG or professional course.

What else a visually impaired student in Tamil Nadu receives

The readers allowance is deliberately small because it sits inside a much wider package. Families routinely claim one benefit and miss the rest.

• Education scholarship, paid annually at Rs 8,000 for Classes 9 to 12, Rs 12,000 for a UG degree and Rs 14,000 for a PG or professional course. Rates for every category were doubled during 2023-24. In 2024-25, Rs 1,441.62 lakh benefited 20,239 students.
• Scribe assistance — visually impaired students in standards 9 and above in government and government-aided special schools are permitted scribes, with assistance of Rs 300 per paper to write examinations. In 2024-25, Rs 29.34 lakh benefited 535 students.
• Modern reading devices: procured during 2023-24 for 1,000 visually challenged students in higher education at Rs 13,200 each, with a total allocation of Rs 132 lakh.
• Universal Braille kits and tactile books costing Rs 5,000 to Rs 10,000 per kit, supplied to 430 students at a budget of Rs 34.50 lakh.
• High-tech electronic Braille devices installed in all ten government special schools for the visually challenged and two School Education Department schools, at a cost of Rs 100.08 lakh.
• Free special education with hostel, food, clothing and educational materials in government and aided special schools. Ten government special schools serve visually challenged students, and nine of the 48 aided institutions do the same.
• Uniform subsidy, increased to Rs 500 and Rs 600 for differently abled students in government special schools and visually impaired trainees in government vocational training centres.
• Chief Minister's Research Fellowship of Rs 1,00,000 for differently abled students pursuing PhD research, with an allocation of Rs 50 lakh for 50 students.
• Smartphones for hearing and visually impaired persons to 2,500 beneficiaries received them in 2024-25 at a cost of Rs 404.98 lakh, with Rs 1,512.50 lakh allocated for 2025-26.

Why readers allowance claims fail

• Disability certificate expired. This is the most common single cause. Renew at a medical board before filing.
• NIDC or UDID card not obtained, so the department has no record linking the student to the 40 per cent threshold.
• Bonafide certificate missing or for the wrong year, so enrolment cannot be verified.
• Claim filed for a student below Class 9, which is outside the scheme.
• Bank account not seeded with Aadhaar, which stops the credit even after sanction.
• Claim filed at the wrong rate. A student who has moved from Class 12 to a degree should be claimed at Rs 5,000, and a mismatch sends the file back.
• Institution did not forward the consolidated list in time. Check with the head of the institution before assuming the department rejected the claim.

Help and grievance

• Toll-free helpline: 1800-425-0111, set up exclusively for differently abled persons at the State Resource cum Training Centre, Chennai.
• Hearing impaired families can use the WhatsApp video call number 9499933703.
• District level: the District Differently Abled Welfare Officer, present in every district, who receives and sanctions these applications.
• State level: the Commissionerate for Welfare of the Differently Abled, Chennai, scd.tn.gov.in.

No fee is payable for the readers allowance application, and no agent is required at any stage.