Poorva Subramanium is barely 10 years old, but has learnt an important lesson in life — not to trouble her parents when they come out of the schools they have been visiting these days. “It is frustrating. No school wants to admit her. She is good at shapes, colours and can also read,” says her mother, showing her report card from a special school here that deems her, ‘Fit to be admitted in a mainstream school'.
All was well with 24-year-old S Vinay Kumar till the day he was diagnosed with incurable congenital glaucoma. Rough days began as Vinay started losing his vision every day and finally lost it completely in 2007. "I was diagnosed with the disease in 2004 and went completely blind by 2007.
Only about 10 to 12 percent of the nation's blind population are able to read Braille, and some advocates are worried that the nearly 200-year-old system of writing for the visually impaired could be on its way out.
Michael Cush was born with vision loss and learned Braille when he was a child, but he hardly uses it now.
"It's just not practical in my day-to-day life, mainly because it is very laborious and expensive to produce and also it is not very portable," says Cush.
At a rare workshop organised by a city not-for-profit, 61 vision-impaired participants were given cardio-pulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and first-aid training on Sunday. This is probably the first workshop of its kind in India. “We wanted to eradicate the myth that the vision impaired cannot help anyone, and therefore thought the workshop was a good idea” said Sushmeetha B Bubna, founder director, Voice Vision, the NGO that organised the workshop that was held at HK Institute of Management Studies and Research in Jogeshwari.
There is not much by way of reading facilities for the visually challenged population in the State. While the vast majority has to make do with the help of others who read aloud for them, the practical impediments of Braille system make text books largely unavailable.
Singers like Suresh Wadekar, Kavita Krishnamurthy and Amit Kumar are set to perform together to raise funds for the education of visually challenged kids.
They will take to the stage for Shri Kulswamini Mata Charitable Trust, an organisation that has been working in the field of education for blind children.
Twenty-three-year old Mohana, one of the beneficiaries of the State government's free cattle scheme at Poorigamaanimitta village in Tirupattur panchayat union, expressed her gratitude to the government by taking proper care of the cattle and supplying 10 litres of milk each day to the Aavin milk cooperative society. This, in fact, brought the District Collector to her house in this small village and she fetched a shield in a gesture of appreciation and encouragement to keep up the good work.
Meet Lino Awomi, 19 years old girl, who was born blind, from Usotomi village under Zunheboto district, went on to become one of the visually challenged singers out of the dark. Reaching beyond the limitations, to show her inner strength she boldly said that her aim in life is to become a music director. No obstacle too hard, for this ambition to overcome presently she started music class on piano and vocal.
The payment system in the city's cabs is about to be more accessible for the blind or visually impaired — and advocates say the move is on the money.
Creative Mobile Technologies, which powers the touch-screen systems inside half the cabs in New York City’s fleet of 13,000, will begin upgrading their existing technology to allow the visually impaired to know their fare and use the credit card payment system.
“Be kind enough to call us visually challenged or impaired rather than calling us blind or handicapped” asks Habeeb and Akbar; the twin brothers, who fought their way out of numerous challenges since their birth in March 1982. Now Habeeb and Akbar are working as assistant professors at Farook College and Kalpetta Govt College respectively and are relentlessly working to achieve new heights in their career.
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