Visually challenged persons marched to the Collector's office from Thangaraj Salai to draw the attention of the State government to consider their demands, which included issuance of house site pattas.

The members led by Sadasivam, Rajamani and others pleaded to the Collector during the grievance day meeting to direct the authorities concerned to issue free house site pattas.

District Collector U. Sagayam asked the authorities to examine their demands for house site pattas and issue necessary orders.

ANDREW Follows is often seen holding on to his guide dog with one hand and his camera with the other.

‘‘People can often see me [and must be] thinking that doesn’t look right,’’ he laughs.

Born with a condition known as retinitis pigmentosa, Follows has no sight in his left eye and tunnel vision and cataracts in his right eye. He has just a metre of clear sight compared to the 70 metres a person with normal vision has.

Despite being legally blind, Follows is proving that those without sight can still have vision.

Rekha Goyal, 23, lost her sight due to chickenpox when she was just three. But the fighter that she is, she educated herself at one of the best institutions and found employment in a bank.

With the help of her post-graduate education, and computer and English language skills learnt at the Venu Institute of Universal Education (VIUE), many visually impaired people like Goyal as well as those with other physical handicaps are successfully defying the stereotype that the physically challenged cannot be employed in regular jobs.

Imposing a litigation cost of Rs.25,000 on the Union Railway Ministry for delaying recruitment of physically challenged persons under the 3 per cent reserved category, the Delhi High Court has directed it to launch a special recruitment drive to clear the backlog of vacancies for them.

Visually challenged people across the country will no longer have to rely on radio or TV to catch up on national and international news. A fortnightly Hindi newspaper in Braille, Drishti (vision), will soon be available to more than 20,000 readers through 325 institutions working with the blind.

“There is no greater joy than reading whether you have sight or not. And this is a great way to empower and enlighten the blind through education and entertainment,” said K Ramakrishna, secretary general, National Association for the Blind (NAB).