General

India gets its own first blind newscaster

Amruta Bhople is 21 years old, a gold medalist graduate in English literature who has overcome the obstacles of bias and doubt that so often limit the capabilities of visually impaired people.

With an immense interest and determination, she applied for an audition and screen test, organised by BCN, a local news channel in Nagpur. Right from the first test onwards she realised that she could not only make it to the top but be better than the most. Such was her confidence.

The National Library Service Turns 75

To commemorate the birthday of the National Library Services’ (N.L.S.) Talking Book Service, the American Printing House for the Blind (A.P.H.), Callahan Museum, held a marathon recording session on 18 November 2006.

Gulliver's Travels became the first book recorded. Therefore, a commemorative version of Gulliver Travels was recorded as part of the event.

The estimate from our studio chief is that it will take about 13-14 hours", said one of its official before the event. Museum director, Mike Hudson, came up with the idea of the marathon recording session.

Art experience is open to all

This November, at the ‘Johannesburg (South Africa) Art Gallery’, visually impaired people were given an opportunity to discover the world of art.

The workshop saw participants explore alphabets in Braille, artist Willem Boshoff's sculptural pieces among other things. The event also had participants create original art piece in clay based on their experience and imagination.

Blind Cubans to celebrate music

More than a hundred artists and seven groups will take part in the 2006 Music Festival to be held between December 18-20 in the eastern province of Santiago de Cuba. The event is being organised by the National Council of the National Association of the Blind of Cuba (A.N.C.I.).

Professor Carlos Ramirez, technical adviser of the event, stated that group of amateur artists includes soloists, troubadours, instrumentalists and exponents of the most diverse musical rhythms.

A show with a difference

Twenty-year-old Ekta Rangani walked down the ramp in a designer saree, swaying to the beat of a pop tune and giving no indication of her visual disability.

Ekta and 30 other participants from across Gujarat participated in the country's first beauty and fashion show for visually impaired held recently in Surendranagar town, 112 kilometres from Ahmedabad.

Pakistan’s first internet café for blind

Visually Impaired get familiar with solar system

The programme is called ‘ACTIVE’ or Advanced Content Through Interactive Virtual Environments. It is aimed at educating blind and visually impaired middle school students about the solar system by using their other senses.

It is an interactive learning environment where Earth and space data combine with senses of touch and sound for a multi-sensory experience. Students use a ‘pen’ to maneuver over a 3-Dimensional image on a computer screen. Each ridge and crevasse is felt by the device through force, vibration or motions to the user.

Santa's letters in Braille

All children should experience the thrill of receiving a response from Santa Claus and that’s the intention of the programme. T-Base Communications (Canada) is assisting Canada Post's annual Santa letter-writing programme by providing response letters in Braille to blind and partially sighted children from around the world.

It is the fourth consecutive year the company has helped with the programme, offering the service to Canada Post at no charge. The company replies to children's wish lists in Braille on a daily basis.

Energy bills in Braille

California (U.S.) based Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) announced recently that it plans to send monthly energy bills in Braille to its visually impaired customers.

At PG&E, we recognize our business is all about the customers we serve, so we are constantly striving to find new ways to improve services to our diverse customer populations including blind and visually impaired people, said Helen Burt, PG & E ' s chief customer officer.

Dreams and aspirations

An amazing group of visually impaired youngsters catch your attention at the Pan-I.I.T. meet, at Bandra Kurla Complex in suburban Mumbai. They are handling tele-networking for Pan-I.I.T. meet and are in charge of answering your queries and helping out the delegates at the venue.

"We have been working with Pan-I.I.T. for about a month now. It has been a fantastic experience. Our job entails calling up people and informing them about the event. I.I.T.ians are very polite and interesting people to work with," says Arundhati Viswanathan.