ustin Wack looks like any other 12-year-old competing in the Edmonton international judo championships.
Looks can be deceiving.
Wack has been blind since birth.
The soon-to-be teenager, who proudly says he stands five feet “and one-quarter-inch” tall, has already achieved an orange belt after two years of judo training, and has won some silver and bronze medals in competitions.
Nine visually challenged students from Jawaharlal Nehru University called off their indefinite hunger strike on Friday after authorities assured them that immediate steps will be taken to address the stray dog menace on the campus.
They were on strike for the last two days.
According to Sandeep, convenor of JNU visually challenged students' forum, the campus has some 700 stray dogs. Over 20 blind students have been bitten by them in the last two years.
Students with disabilities will hold a protest on Wednesday demanding a more disabled-friendly campus from Delhi University authorities.
A month back they had submitted an application to university authorities regarding safety on roads, said a member of DU cross disabilities association (DUCDA).
“A week ago another reminder was sent but to no effect,” added the member.
The members also carried out a signature campaign where around 700 students showed their solidarity.
A three-month trial of kits for people with vision impairment to signal buses has begun in Canberra.
The kits being used in the trial were supplied from Canada by Ottawa's public transport provider Transpo.
Regional manager Guide Dogs ACT and NSW Beth Helmers has welcomed the trial.
A RISCA man took on a 24-mile wheelchair challenge to raise money for the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign.
Martin King, 42, travelled from the Twyn Carn Day Centre in Risca to the Senedd, to raise awareness of the condition.
Mr King is visually impaired and has been using a wheelchair for the past 14 years due to muscular dystrophy.
The father-of-four had trained hard for the challenge over the past five months in his local parks.
The study focused on implementation of the two nationwide government schemes –The National Handicapped Finance and Development Corporation (NHFDC) and the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS)—in eight states and found even the tentative efforts to include the blind in them were distorted.
The study covered two states from each region, one each for NHFDC and MNREGS programmes. While Punjab, Rajasthan, Meghalaya and Karnataka were probed for the MGNREGS, the NHFDC implementation was looked into in Haryana, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh and Tamil Nadu.
The award-winning Heat Conduction Bowl designed by Taiwanese student Tai Kuang-chin. (Photo courtesy of National Cheng Kung University News Center)
A "smart" bowl designed for the visually impaired by a PhD student at National Cheng Kung University in Tainan, a city in southern Taiwan, has won the prestigious German iF concept design award 2012, the university said in a press release Tuesday.
Saturday saw the opening of the city’s first hangout for differently-abled youth, Kalakkal Cafe, on the Vidya Sagar campus in Kotturpuram, a prime locality.
�� Anuradha Shankaran, a teacher at Vidya Sagar, says, “The menus are in braille language for the visually-challenged, text for those who can read and just pictures for those who cannot read. The place is accessible to wheelchairs, and has tactile walls, bathrooms and eating aids.”
Fed up with the rising number of dog bites and the alleged mishandling of situation by the administration , visually challenged students of Jawaharlal Nehru University have threatened to go on a hunger strike from Wednesday night.
Visually impaired or blind football fans in Ukraine will get an opportunity to follow Euro 2012 matches at Ukrainian and Poland stadiums through headphones with live match commentary.
According to Valery Sushkevich, head of the Ukrainian National Assembly of Disabled, Ukrainian specialists are training volunteers to comment on football matches for the blind, Xinhua reported.
The Union of European Football Association (UEFA) will install special equipment with microphones and headphones at each of the eight Euro 2012 stadiums, Sushkevich said.
o battle out the routine discrimination being meted out to the disabled, a conference organised by the Able Disabled All People Together (Adapt) discussed forming of a national front for the differently-abled.
Disabled people with traumatic experiences in rural as well as city slums along with activists attended the conference at Bandra on Wednesday to suggest that a front like Disabled People’s Organisation (DPO) would better address their concerns.
Phill Fernandes, a member of our Gnomies community and a visually impaired geek in his own right, recently brought a story to my attention involving his banking institution and how it has made his life more difficult.
We depend on companies we work with to cater to our needs to its best ability. Banks are where we keep our money, our precious possessions, and in some cases our trust to adhere to agreements involving our vehicles and homes. In recent years, the banking world has undergone a considerable amount of scrutiny for how they handle funds and determine risk for loans.
At Phoenix Market City, Viman Nagar, a large group of people gathered early on Sunday morning. A neatly painted lane pointed towards the exit from Gate number 4. From the starting point, 30 cars stood bumper-to-bumper waiting for the signal to be given. At about 7.45 am, the first car was released at the Blind Men's Car Drive. People sporting red caps and t-shirts spelt support.
Visually impaired by birth, he was inclined towards music from his nascent days. He not only practiced it, but also went on to give concerts both in India and abroad.
Now, he has a Ph D in music for his research on the subject- Recent development in Karnatak classical music, under the guidance of renowned violinist Mysore M Manjunath.
The foam ball sailed over the net, rattling as it bounced. Robin Patche quickly adjusted her feet and returned it with a smooth backhand, drawing praise from the sidelines.
"Robin, nice turnaround," called out Mary Alice Ross, an adapted physical education teacher at the California School for the Blind, then adding to a bystander, "She got really good really quickly."
Major Gopal Mitra (41) may desire to borrow vision for few moments to salute the Indian tricolour flying high at the UNICEF headquarters in New York on his first day of a new job tomorrow. A former Indian Army officer, Mitra is the first disabled person from India to be appointed at the headquarters of a major UN agency.
The Social Welfare Society at the Commecs Institute of Business and Emerging Sciences (CIBES) organised an event for collecting donations for the disabled, at their Share Faisal campus. The affair was held in collaboration with the Pakistan Association of the Blind, on Sunday.
This is no usual boy-meets-girl love story. Rakesh Solanki and Sunita Pawar, both visually impaired, will be tying the knot on Sunday.
And, NGO Louis Braille Apang Kalyan Sanstha, Lonikand, is playing Cupid for the couple by making it a grand affair, much
beyond the meagre means of the two.
The NGO works for the visually challenged by making provisions of home, education and vocational skills.
Attributing their alliance to the sanstha, Rakesh said, “The founder of this NGO, Arjun Kendre, was my batchmate at PR Lunkad Blind School, Bhosari.”
Blind students studying at the University of Pune and its affiliated colleges in the district have reason to cheer.
In order to increase their pace of learning and enhance their academic potential, the Pune University Blind Student Learning Centre which functions under the Department of Education and Extensive Education, has decided to distribute special MP3 players to its students.
Some of the devices have already been handed out and the results have been encouraging.
The ability to look both ways before crossing a street, read a simple recipe or punch in a telephone number is often taken for granted by those without visual impairment.
But nearly 15 million people living in the U.S. can’t perform some of these tasks. And that includes many American Indians.
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