Soon, people with disabilities (PwDs) can use their Unique Disability Identification (UDID) Card as a Photo ID to register themselves on the CoWIN platform for vaccination, the Union Health Ministry said on Monday.

“This has been done to further facilitate the access to vaccination by disabled people and in this regard, the Centre has written to all the States/UTs to include it as a Photo ID for registration,” said a statement issued here by the Ministry. The necessary provisions for the same are being made and would be available in CoWIN shortly, it further stated.

Yam Bahadur Gurung is a visually-impaired man but he is gifted with a good singing voice. Until the Covid-19 lockdown started in March last year, he had a busy schedule singing at various functions besides a regular evening job at the Indreni Dohori Sanjh, a restaurant with traditional Nepali live music, at Koteshwor in the Capital.

The 46-year old Chinese Zhang Hong has scaled the tallest peak in the world from the Nepal side, becoming the first blind man in Asia and the third in the world to climb Mount Everest. "No matter if you're disabled or normal, whether you have lost  your eyesight or you have no legs or hands, it doesn't matter as long as you have a strong mind, you can always complete a thing that other people you can't," Zhang told Reuters. Zhang completed the 8,849 metre-high Himalayan feat on May 24 along   with three high altitude guides, and returned to the base camp on Thursday.

In the wake of the disastrous second wave of COVID-19 in India, the Department of Social Work, University of Delhi is actively partnering with the Blind Relief Association, Delhi in the launch of a COVID Helpline for the Visually Challenged which is serving since 28 April 2021. Depending heavily on the sense of touch, a visually impaired person is much more vulnerable and needs special care/attention to be able to fight the pandemic and living through the widespread fears and unforeseen difficulties resulting due to the second wave.

PARIS: Scientists have for the first time managed to partially restore the sight of a blind patient by altering his cells, according to the results of a groundbreaking study published on Monday.

The technique known as optogenetics, which has been developed in the field of neuroscience over the last 20 years, involves genetically altering cells so they produce more light-sensitive proteins.