Vaikom Vijayalakshmi, the visually impaired singer from Kerala loved much for her unique voice recognisable among scores of new singers, is getting married next month. In a phone call, her dad Muraleedharan confirmed the news.

The groom to be, Anoop N., is an interior designer and mimicry artist who ‘has a taste for music’, Muraleedharan says. The engagement is happening on September 10 and the wedding on October 22 in her hometown, Vaikom. “At the Mahadeva Temple there,” the bride’s father says.

Actor Ayushmann Khurrana, who plays a visually impaired pianist in Sriram Raghavan's forthcoming thriller "Andha Dhun", regularly went to a blind school for three months to prepare for his role.

"I wanted to look 100 per cent genuine on screen. It is extremely sensitive to portray someone who is visually impaired and some of the great actors, the world over, have played these characters perfectly with sheer brilliance. I didn't want to let down my director who had faith in me and in my acting skills," Ayushmann said in a statement.

In 1996, only a select few of us were engaging with computers or accessing the Internet on a daily basis. As these trailblazers were mapping out the digital space as we know it today, Byungho Kim overcame adversity in the prime of his professional career and dedicated himself to making technology accessible to as many people as possible.

Several decades ago, I was walking briskly on the narrow road to my school on a Monday morning when something funny caught my attention. A 3-year-old boy was practising some dancing steps in front of his mum. I stopped momentarily to watch the scenario. Just then, an old man bumped into me. “Are you blind?” he asked. I was speechless. “Me! Blind? I wasn’t even moving at the time! “Sorry sir,” I apologised even though I felt it should have been the other way round. Many years later, I was able to provide an answer to his question.

The outdoors are exhilarating, inspiring, and even therapeutic, but unfortunately, not easily accessible to everyone. Challenging the status quo is a mission that Mumbai-based Anusha Subramanian has embarked upon. A journalist, she is a passionate mountaineer. As part of a 13-member team, she intends taking on the mighty Mt. Kilimanjaro (5895 m) in Tanzania, world’s highest free standing mountain, in what is being touted as India’s first inclusive expedition.

The Central Board of School Education (CBSE) has proposed to provide specific exemptions to differently-abled students in the board examinations in accordance with their needs and also said it was committed to shifting to the online mode of examination for such children. In a report submitted before the Punjab and Haryana High Court, the CBSE has said that the draft policy will be presented in the upcoming winter session before its Curriculum Committee and after clearance it will submitted to the Governing Body for final approval.