Visually impaired since birth, Bajrangbali from Kaimur, Bihar, studied in a blind school till Class 10. Before reaching out to the Eyeway Helpdesk, he mostly read and wrote in braille. However, he was keen to find an alternate solution as he enrolled in Class 11.

Blindness can be disorienting and traumatizing especially when it involves young children. This means all the habits, routines and processes one relied on have to be relearned. As a parent, it needs acceptance and careful handling as it has a significant bearing on the child’s future.

Pawan Kasliwal from Ichalkaranji, Maharashtra, went through the pain of watching both his children, a boy and a girl lose vision. Not losing hope, he continued supporting them to live an independent and fulfilling life, instilling confidence in children about their future prospects.

17-year old Sachin Porwal lives in Udaipur Rajasthan. After successfully completing his Class 10 examinations from a special school for the blind, he was keen to pursue higher education in an inclusive set-up. But when he applied to a renowned school in his state, he was denied admission on the grounds of his blindness. This however, was not the first time he was meted with such discriminatory behavior.

While on a regular visit to the hospital for an eye check-up, 33- year -old Sudheer learnt about Eyeway Helpdesk. When he contacted the Eyeway counselor in Kochi, his love for reading fiction was evident.

Sudheer was born sighted but gradually began losing his vision due to a degenerative eye condition. Despite his vision issues, he completed his Class 10 successfully. Due to financial constraints in the family he had to give up on his dreams of pursuing higher education and take up daily wage jobs.

26-year-old visually impaired Bhuvanray Hardikar is a resident of Solapur, Maharashtra.  When the nationwide lockdown was imposed he suddenly found himself cut off from the world outside. A regular Eyeway client, he contacted Maharashtra Eyeway Helpdesk seeking status on the ongoing crisis. For the counsellor it was evident that Bhuvanray was anxious.

Blind people irrespective of their education or socio economic background, have reported instances of denial of banking rights to Eyeway in the past. More recently, on behalf of 12-year-old Vicky Mahawae, his elder brother, Pawan called us from Kota, Rajasthan. A nationalised bank in Kota refused to open a (student) account for Vicky because of his vision impairment. Clueless about how to respond, Pawan sought Eyeway’s intervention.

Rohit Sahu, a resident of Delhi, was in Class 9 when he started to lose his vision. Soon after, he could not read and write on his own. He failed thrice in the same Class. His family was unaware about provisions and benefits that visually impaired children could avail, for example opting for a scribe facility to write exams.

Ashok Mishra from Mumbai suffered from the rare Stevens-Johnson syndrome leading to vision loss at the age of 29.  Born into a lower middle class family, he dropped out of school after Class 9 to support his family financially. Having worked in various businesses before, Ashok settled for a private company job and was engaged to be married.

Neeraj Kumar was only 12 years old when he started losing his eyesight. He had to drop out of school as he spent most of his time visiting eye hospitals for diagnosis and cure. Little did he know that his vision loss was permanent. He lost five years trying to figure out what he could do without vision until he learnt about Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan (SSA) camp for children with disabilities. At the camp, he learnt braille and use of cane for mobility. At SSA, Neeraj was also introduced to another visually impaired boy, Sandeep by his teacher who could help him with extra classes for braille.