He cannot see but has always wanted to reach out to people through his voice. Now Rishi, 21, is doing just that, thanks to Panjab University's community radio Jyotirgamaya that gave him a chance to host a radio show.

Enthusiastic and determined, Rishi, who goes by only one name, does not want his visual disability to come in the way of his dreams. 'I always listened to radio and fantasised to explore the world with the help of my voice,' a visibly excited Rishi told IANS here as his programme went on the air recently.

Satish Navale, the man behind the Braille Vani web radio for the visually-impaired, on Tuesday demonstrated how to plant saplings to visually impaired students in Nashik, Pune and Assam.

Braille Vani is the brainchild of Navale, a former visually impaired student of the University of Pune (UoP).

The 25-minute programme, which was aired from 107.4 FM of UoP through teleconferencing, was coordinated by public information officer of Rahuri Krushi Vidyapeeth, Sandeep Patil, and retired IAS officer from Assam, Mohini Mohan Budagoa. The programme was conducted in Hindi.

The band, Black, performed on Saturday at a charity event at Sri Satya Sai Nigamagamam. All 13 members of the band are visually impaired and while a few of them have learned music on their own, others have attended music school or are still music students.

Hailing from Mumbai, Black, has already recorded three devotional albums and have toured the US, Jordan, UK, Canada and other countries. They were here for a charity function organised by JCI, Hyderabad Deccan.

When I was 16 years old, I had no person with a physical disability that I could look up to as a mentor. My heroes were Bob Costas, Dick Stockton and other Syracuse University broadcasters. All able bodied.

I craved someone with a physical disability that I could emulate. I needed to see the path to success -- a role model, a mentor. As I speak to individuals around the country, other people with disabilities share the same story. They had no role models. It is true today with the next generation of people with disabilities.

An NGO for the visually challenged has requested the West Bengal chief electoral officer to ensure better arrangements in polling booths for blind voters in the Assembly election.

The Calcutta chapter of the National Association for the Blind has written a letter to poll panel chief Sunil Kumar Gupta, asking him for adequate Braille ballots in all booths, as well as ramps to provide easy access for the wheelchair-bound.