Parvesh Sharma
Tribune News Service
Sangrur, September 18

Three visually impaired siblings of Nadampur village are living at the mercy of the area residents for the past two years after the state government stopped their pension. Reason: The trio failed to produce their disability certificates.

After struggling for one and half years, they finally got their certificates ready but are now unable to get Aadhaar cards prepared as machines have failed to take their thumb and finger impressions.

A few weeks ago, Tate Modern found itself at the centre of a storm after wheelchair-user Ciara O’Connor took to social media to protest that there was no ramp to enable her to enter and experience a key cylindrical work in an exhibition by the Danish/Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson.

Travel is never a matter of money but of courage,” Paulo Coelho once said. But for visually impaired, along with courage they need someone to be their eyes.

Delhi-based Amit Jain, founder, Rising Star Tours and Travels, has been working on this line of thought for a while. In fact, his travel agency will take a group of 15 visually impaired people on a holiday to Dubai from September 26-29.

In a significant order that will have far reaching impact, Delhi Disabilities Commissioner T D Dhariyal has ordered that unused vacant industrial plots in the National Capital Region be set aside for allotment to people with disabilities who wish to start their own businesses or production centres or relocate existing ones.

With the help of this model, the visually impaired will be able to easily communicate with everyone and pursue normal education as the model will be able to convert Hindi, English and Gujarati text into Braille. Not only texts but the model will also convert drawings and mathematical equations, and text to speech as well,” she told ANI.

A professor has successfully made a model to help visually impaired people gain more knowledge by translating the text of Hindi, English and Gujarati language to Braille language.

What is the exact number of vacancies for visually impaired persons in civil services exams since 1996, the Delhi High Court has sought to know from the Centre.

A bench of justices S Muralidhar and Talwant Singh has directed the Centre to give details regarding the backlog vacancies for persons with disabilities, particularly visually impaired, from 1996 onwards.

Raised Lines Foundation, at the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, has developed a colouring book especially for blind and low vision children, which aims to bring the joy of creativity to all children, regardless of disability.

All children love to colour the world around them, be it things from nature or cartoon characters. It's a joy that many blind and low vision kids do not get to experience. Raised Lines Foundation (RLF), the Indian Institute of Technology - Delhi (IIT-D)-incubated enterprise is out to change that.