General

Inspired by Anand, Darpan wins historic chess bronze

It has been 16 years since India’s Chess Federation for the Blind (AICFB) gained recognition from the International Braille Chess Association. During this period, players have missed out on winning individual medals although the country’s chess players have gone from strength to strength. However, the dry phase has finally ended with 19-year-old Darpan Inani bagging the bronze medal at the International Braille Chess Championship in Belgrade on Saturday.

Breaking barriers

Imagine a place where blindness is considered a punishment for the sins committed in your previous birth and the visually-impaired live as outcasts! Sabriye Tenberken, a German who became visually-impaired at the age of 12, encountered this in Tibet. She visited the country in 1997 for an academic project.

12 teams take part in car rally for the blind

PATNA: Twelve teams, each consisting of a visually impaired navigator and a normal driver, participated at the 'Blind car rally' organized jointly by the Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) and National Association for the Blind (NAB), Bihar chapter, on Sunday morning.

Using Beijing's Tactile Paving Is "Practically Suicide"

Beijing has the longest tactile paving for the vision impaired among all the cities in the world. In theory, they are a great idea to facilitate mobility for the vision impaired, but in reality few use it because as one vision impaired person in Beijing said, "It is practically suicide to use them."

Tactile paving is made of colorful raised tiles, usually yellow, that allow vision impaired people to navigate their way.

Odisha: Painting Competition for School Children held to Promote Eye Donation Awareness

Nearly half the world’s blind are in India. Of the 15 million blind in India, 25% are corneal blind and again of this 60% are children below the age of 12 years. These children have a long dark life ahead of them, but we can give them light through sight by some dedicated effort. Drushti Daan, a registered voluntary society has been working in the realm of Eye Donation since the last decade in Odisha. Every visually challenged has a RIGHT TO SIGHT and see this beautiful world. Drusthi Daan has collected nearly 2000 corneas till date.

Banglabraille brightens prospects for blind students

A social networking group has stepped forward to help visually impaired students in Bangladesh through its unique efforts.

When school students in Bangladesh returned to their classes in January, those who are blind or visually impaired were left at a considerable disadvantage. Textbooks in Braille were months late in coming, leaving them without resources for their studies.

300 disabled youth audition for NGO Blind Dreams Indiyaah Talent Hunt in Mumbai

In a touching, heart-rending and soul-stirring event, more than 300 blind and differently enabled youth from all over Maharashtra participated in the western zone round of auditions for the Blind Dreams’ Indiyaah Talent Hunt for the disabled or differently enabled. The auditions were held at the Kamla Mehta School for the Blind at Dadar in Central Mumbai. Most participants came from far off towns and villages in Maharashtra and Gujarat.

Blind school students miss family on Rakhi

RANCHI: Blind school students miss the love and pampering that home provides and more so during the festival of rakhi. It seems admission to a blind school has made their loved ones forget them even during the festival.

Fun Sighted

Stand-up comedian Sundeep Rao begins poking fun at himself right from the word go. His latest act is called Out of Sight and the irony is obvious because Bangalore-based Rao suffers from a condition of partial blindness. He, however, strongly rejects the notion that he is "suffering", but instead sees his impairment as a silver lining. "I was bitten by an anaconda," says Rao to those who ask him about how he lost partial vision. Waiting some moments for an awkward silence, he breaks into a chuckle and explains, "It is a degenerative condition that I was diagnosed with when I was nine.

India needs more reading tech for visually challenged

Indian libraries currently undergoing book digitisation programme must include a text reading technology for the visually-challenged people, an expert said today.

"Such introduction of technology will help increase the number of books available for reading for blinds, and people with low-vision and print disability," said Dipendra Manocha, Delhi-based representative of Daisy Consortium.

Daisy consortium is a global organisation for creating best ways to read and publish.