Blindness is a worldwide problem. In India, we have about 4.6 million people with corneal blindness and this is expected to increase to 10 million by 2020. The number of people awaiting corneal transplant is outnumbering the available donors. 

I spoke at the Foundation Fighting Blindness conference last year and thought I would share the audio recording here on the blog. Now, it’s cataloged on my website – which makes it easier for you to listen, learn, and share it with anyone else you feel needs to hear me tell IT – Tell it like it is.

India suffers from a significant shortage of donor corneas along with a waiting period of over six months for corneal transplants among patients suffering from corneal blindness across the country. Blindness maybe a result of several conditions like cataract, refractive error, glaucoma, age-related macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy and corneal blindness that stands as the 4th leading cause of blindness across the world.

Today on Teachers Day we start a month-long campaign called #ThankYouTeacher on teachers who are making a difference to the lives of people with disabilities. Our first story is on three teachers in Bengaluru. Common Admission Test (CAT) and banking entrance exams can be hard to crack for visually impaired aspirants given the multiple barriers in school and college. Srilatha Yegneshwar, Satyavani Vempati and Mamata Mutt are helping to break that glass ceiling.

Ludo and Snakes and Ladders are board games that many children love to play. Thanks to heritage architect and access consultant Siddhant Shah, these games can now be played by children who are blind and low vision as well.

Games period has now become cause for much excitement at the Kamla Mehta Blind School in Dadar, Mumbai. Everyday you find students gathered around a table playing Snakes and Ladders, Ludo, X&O to name a few.

TogetherWeCan, a prominent parents support group in Kerala recently sent a petition to the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) highlighting the plight of students with disabilities in schools and the need for an inclusive educational environment. Both CBSE and state government run schools in Kerala have not rightly implemented the RPWD Act, 2016 which is clear violation of laws. This is our focus on #StoryOfTheWeek.

Scientists from Switzerland and Italy are working on a technology for blind people that will bypass the eyeball directly and transmit visual signals. Called OpticSELINE, the technology has been successfully tested on rabbits.