When a judge refused to accept a blind man attesting a will as a witness in a case he was pleading, SK Rungta argued that the law didn't disqualify a blind person from being a witness. Had that been the case, a blind person couldn't have practised law, as a lawyer has to identify the clients on accepting the brief, he said.

Rungta got his point across. That was eight years ago.

Last week, the Delhi high court judges voted to designate the 57-year-old blind advocate a 'senior' - a first for the country.

Maharashtra government on Thursday assured the high court here that it would immediately remove all barriers from public buildings to allow smooth movement to physically challenged and the elderly.

As compared to its neighbours, Karnataka is not disabled-friendly. The state funds just 30 schools, a dismal number when compared to Maharashtra, which funds 900 schools, and Kerala, which supports 244 schools.

Making this incisive criticism, on Saturday, disability commissioner KV Rajanna said the commission is sending teams to neighbouring states to study how special schools are administered.

The reason for the government’s apathy is not absence of funds, said Rajanna.

“Saima is no more,” wrote Ammar Masood, husband of the visually-impaired activist for the blind people, on his Facebook page on Thursday.

Messages from across the globe poured in expressing condolence and sharing the pain with the bereaved family.

A large number of visually-impaired people, friends and admirers of Saima started turning up at her residence. Saima’s father Brig Niaz along with his father-in-law Anwar Masood, a famous Punjabi poet, was seen sharing their grief with the well-wishers.

Inspired by author J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series, a visually challenged 18-year-old from a farmer's family in Gokavaram of East Godavari district, has spent seven years of his life writing Pharaoh and the King, a story based on Indian and Egyptian mythology.

Viswanath Venkat Dasari, a second year student of the Rajiv Gandhi University of Knowledge Technologies, Nuziveedu, suffers from Nystagmus and Photophobia — his eyes cannot focus clearly on any object for more than a second.