Visually impaired voters of Citrus County, Florida, will be able to vote in private and without assistance. The AccuVote-TSX touch screen voting machines feature a standard telephone keypad with a raised indicator on the No. 5 key. A headset and detailed audio instructions make voting private.
A poll worker will be assigned to each machine to help the voters, if needed. The machines will be available at each polling location.
The Central Government has announced decentralisation of grants being given to N.G.O.s for blindness control programmes. On the occasion of, World Sight Day the Minister for Health and Family Welfare, Dr. Anbumani Ramadoss announced that “the power to provide grants to N.G.O.s working in the field of ophthalmology has been passed on to the states under the National Programme for Control of Blindness”.
In a campaign launched to mark World Sight Day, Sight Savers International, a U.K.-based charity, aims to track down and save Bangladeshi children in need of cataract surgery.
Since last year, Sight Savers' activities have saved 2,500 children from blindness. The procedure includes two surgeries: one to remove the cataract and a second to implant an intra ocular lens (I.O.L).
Keshav Chandra Pal, a 57-year-old sculptor of repute from Jamshedpur, refused to give up his family tradition of making idols despite losing his eyesight. He learnt the art of idol-making from his father and, except for a break of two years, has been working independently since the death of his father ten years ago.
“In 1996, I lost my eyesight and stopped working. After two years, my brother asked me to give it a try and I agreed. With full faith in God, I started work and now, even though I cannot see, I can make idols,” said Pal.
Legally blind chef Ken Lexer of Boynton Beach, Florida, U.S.A, displayed his culinary skills in the television show ‘Cooking Without Looking’. The cookery show, which is aimed at blind and visually impaired people, gives cooking tips and kitchen safety measures.
Chandrasekhar Sankurathri is working to erase blindness among the poor and rural communities of Kakinada in Andhra Pradesh. "Many are unnecessarily blind,” he said.
A biologist turned philanthropist, Sankurathri, 61, strongly believes that most cases of blindness can be cured with proper treatment. He relocated from Ottawa in Canada to Kakinada in Andhra Pradesh in 1989, after he lost his wife, daughter and son in the Air India bomb attack 20 years ago. Since then, he has dedicated his life to social activism through his community outreach programmes.
Kristen Cox and David Paterson, both legally blind, are running for the post of lieutenant governor in Maryland and New York this year. Paterson, a minority leader in the New York Senate, is the choice of Democrats and Cox has the support of the Republicans.
Cox said she knows her blindness will be an issue in the minds of voters. “They are curious about it. They have questions about it, and that's fair,” she said. “I hope ultimately in the election that blindness becomes a non-issue.”
A stall put up by the social welfare organisation, ‘Voice of World’, at the 31st Kolkata book fair, gave the visitors a chance to view the world of visually impaired people. Books and magazines on Braille were also on display.
Sukumar Chakraborty, former student and presently, the principal of Voice of World, said “Here we have our special collections on Braille such as the Sharadiya collection, Thakumar Jhuli, Romeo Juliet and Hashikhushi.”
With more than 29 years of combined experience and education in the high tech sector, Sharlyn Ayotte’s drive to make accessible materials available to the blind community resulted in the launch of her company.
Sharlyn’s Ottawa (Canada) based T-Base Communications provides companies and organisations with alternate format communication services for their blind and partially sighted customers. The company specialises in producing accessible communication materials in Braille, large print, e-Text and audio formats.
Facebook comments