A delegation of visually impaired children of National Association for the Blind, New Delhi along with the office bearers of the Associationmet the Vice President of IndiaShri M. Hamid Ansari here today.
Going to the cinema is for most people an easy-going form of entertainment. For the visually impaired community however, it has long been simply more hassle than it's worth.
With a visual impairment, using any software or service can be anything from tricky to impossible. Windows and other operating systems have long included features that make them easier for blind and partially sighted people to use, and now Google is adding similar playing-field-levelling features to Google Drives and Docs. While traditional desktop software has been quick to adopt new methods of opening up to as many people as possible, the same cannot be said of online tools -- Google is looking to change that.
For All To Play today announced the launch of Grail to the Thief, an interactive audio adventure for Windows, Mac, and Linux that can be played using only sound,
without the need for visuals. The game has been designed with the needs of the blind and visually impaired in mind but can be enjoyed by everyone. The game delivers an exciting, immersive experience in which the player is always fully aware of what is happening through the use of voice-overs, sound effects, ambient sound and music.
The London borough of Kingston has established a Visual Impairment (VI) Parliament which aims to provide blind and partially sighted people with the opportunity to represent the wider visually impaired community in the area.
Created in partnership with the Thomas Pocklington Trust, the initiative is the first of its kind in the UK and will see blind and partially sighted people in the borough selected as ‘MPs’. They will discuss issues such as health, transport and education, helping to empower people with sight loss to influence and improve access to services.
The government would work to encourage children to develop a positive attitude towards organ donation, particularly for eye donation, union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan has said.
The minister said he would request the human resource development ministry to include passages in school books to develop in children a positive attitude towards organ donation in general and eye donation in particular, an official statement here said Sunday.
India's eye donation fortnight ends on Monday, and in a bid to raise awareness about it, a series of 'Blind Walks' was organized in Bangalore during which sighted people could briefly experience what it is not to be able to see.
For a short while sighted people were asked to tie blindfolds and walk with the help of a visually impaired guide.
Though blindfolds can be removed anytime, the struggle is for those leading them. And for them, eye donation can be a life-changer.
Twenty-six-year-old Upasana Makati’s Pinterest profile reads: “An Indian classical music lover, a dreamer, a Canadian by heart, an emotional fool with a passion to live LIFE to the fullest.” She believes there couldn’t have been a more apt description of how she feels today. Even as she’s most defined by her literary venture White Print, a Braille magazine, Upasana, a student of Jai Hind College, Mumbai, knows that it is an association she’d be happy to have for a lifetime.
At present, above 1,500 visually impaired people are waiting for their turn for cornea transplantation at the Advanced Eye Centre(AEC), PGI. There is a glaring gap between the number of donors and recipients in the city, the common reason behind which is little awareness about eye donation. As many as 1,525 corneal blind patients are in the waiting list of AEC. Per year about 350 eye donations take place, however, the required number should be at least 1,000 donations per year.
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