In each issue of beyond the I, this column presents a first hand account of a visually-impaired person's experiences in the 'real' world. In Delhi, Pranay Gadodia travelled on the Delhi Metro to see how friendly it is for visually-disabled persons

In my childhood, I had once asked my father when India would become 'foreign'. I remembered this boyhood question recently when I travelled by the Metro in Delhi.

Though apprehension may be the first reaction to discovering that your child cannot see, positive parenting ensures that your child grows up with self-confidence and enjoys a good life. The family is a microcosm of the nation, and a well adjusted, confident visually impaired child at home will, in all likelihood, do well as an adult also, find out Naintara Jain and Anjali Sen Gupta

Access India; January 16, 2006

Sound recordings of a wide range of English language poems read by their authors have been compiled into an archive by a charity co-founded by UK Poet Laureate Andrew Motion. The Poetry Online Archive contains recordings from as early as 1932.

The Poetry Archive is the world's premier online collection of recordings of poets reading their work. The Children’s Poetry Archive is full of poems chosen specially for children. Meet old favourites and make new discoveries for children in this section.

A.N.I.
Nagpur; January 11, 2006

A gifted but determined blind girl in Nagpur may never see what appears on the television screen, but she has become India's first blind television newscaster and is now looking forward to scaling new heights. Amrita reads her news scripts in Braille.

At 21, Amruta Bhople is a television newscaster with B.C.N., a local news channel in Nagpur. The channel had organised auditions for newsreaders to which Amruta, a gold medallist in English literature, went with trepidation.

Neeraj Chauhan; www.dailypioneer.com;
New Delhi; January 17, 2006

The chairman of the Delhi Transport Corporation (D.T.C.), A. Mazumdar, has approved the first ever bus stand meant especially for disabled passengers in India at the Hauz Khas bus terminal in Delhi.

She may have been born with very low vision, but REHMAT FAZALBHOY made the vision of integrated education a reality in this country, finds out Laiq Qureshi

Rehmat Fazalbhoy looks frail and small in her bed at Masina Hospital, Mumbai, which has been her abode for the past five months due to spinal problems. Yet she looks refreshingly happy and begins, "It's been a beautiful and a satisfying life. I have been fortunate because what appeared to be a slap on the face turned into a lifetime of grace."

Saksham has taken the lead in audio describing films for blind viewers in India.
Sucheta Narang writes about the initiative

Like most Indians, persons with blindness or low-vision also watch movies. However, a lot of the story and crucial information in the movie is provided through facial expressions, costumes, ambience, environment and body language. Most such information is lost to persons with blindness; or at best perceived by guesswork based on audio clues.

Location: Bonn, Germany
Date: May 6, 2006 to May 7, 2006
Organised by: International Paralympic Committe