Chandrasekhar Sankurathri is working to erase blindness among the poor and rural communities of Kakinada in Andhra Pradesh. "Many are unnecessarily blind,” he said.

A biologist turned philanthropist, Sankurathri, 61, strongly believes that most cases of blindness can be cured with proper treatment. He relocated from Ottawa in Canada to Kakinada in Andhra Pradesh in 1989, after he lost his wife, daughter and son in the Air India bomb attack 20 years ago. Since then, he has dedicated his life to social activism through his community outreach programmes.

At the Manipur Civil Services Combined Competitive (M.P.S.C.) Examination 2005 (preliminary), visually impaired Sapam Jashobanta was disallowed from appearing, even though he was issued the admission card.

The 29-year-old candidate was given the examination centre: the L.M.S. Law College, Imphal. Sapam said: he was forced out from the examination hall as M.P.S.C. authorities could not provide him answer sheets in Braille, which authorities conducting the examination are supposed to provide for blind candidates.

The four one-day match series for Umer Rashid Memorial Trophy started on May 27 in England and ended on 31 May 2006. England was looking to regain the trophy, which Pakistan claimed with a 3-1 series win in 2002.

Esther Medley of Centralia (U.S.) is legally blind, but when she bowls, she can see a bit of the floor to line up with the lane.

Medley (94) can't see straight ahead, so her 86-year-old husband Ralph tells her which pins are left after her first ball.

That's how Medley recently bowled a score of 244, which included eight strikes. It was the second-highest score of the year for her league.

The Medleys have been playing in the senior league since 1979.

Legally blind Brittney Holland can't remember a time when she wasn't barrel racing. At just 15, the Aledo (Texas, U.S.A.) native has already made quite a name for herself.

Barrel racing is a horse riding event in which riders ride in a set pattern around three barrels in a triangular arrangement.

Brittney is placed in the top five of her district, for youth. Not bad considering most of her competitors can see.

With more than 29 years of combined experience and education in the high tech sector, Sharlyn Ayotte’s drive to make accessible materials available to the blind community resulted in the launch of her company.

Sharlyn’s Ottawa (Canada) based T-Base Communications provides companies and organisations with alternate format communication services for their blind and partially sighted customers. The company specialises in producing accessible communication materials in Braille, large print, e-Text and audio formats.

Annah Poteat travels across North Carolina (U.S.) helping manufacturing facilities increase their efficiency through N.C. State University’s Industrial Extension Service. She’s a specialist in Lean Manufacturing Technique.

The basic concept of lean manufacturing is to reduce the inherent waste in the manufacturing process by lessening the downtime that a product spends between stages of manufacture.

Visiting your favourite restaurant or pub may no longer be a chore. Now, pointing your cell phone in a particular direction, can precisely establish its location, and the easiest way to get there. Researchers at Britain’s Southampton University have reportedly developed a cell phone with interactive information to find local points of interest on a map. According to the research, a system called Map Snapper has been created that processes a snapshot of a printed map, captured on camera phone, and forwards an interactive version of the same map back to the handset.

After series of fruitful discussions with the members of the National Federation of the Blind (N.F.B.), the Prime Minister Mr. Manmohan Singh has assured to bring about reforms, to improve the condition of visually impaired persons in the country.

The major breakthrough being the participation of the Government to bring about change. The Prime Minister has agreed to three main demands of N.F.B. that will bring about an improvement in job opportunities for visually impaired persons.