Coronavirus has altered the existing scenarios. As the world grapples with change, blind people are faced with new set of difficulties. A long-term associate of Eyeway, Praveen Kumar shares what it means to be visually impaired in today’s times.

As a visually impaired person, being independent has been my priority in life. Now with the situation of corona there is going to be a change in my life and also for many others with vision impairment.

It will be difficult to ask people for help to cross the road, find the bus stop or locate the lift at the metro station. People won’t be forthcoming as they may think I have coronavirus. Now everyone is a suspect.

Touch is an inevitable part of life for visually impaired people. We touch the tops of tables, walls, handles etc. to identify objects. To make purchases, we touch the food packets in a super bazar and inside an elevator, we touch to identify the buttons. These simple aspects have now become high risk.

Travel has become challenging too. I travel a lot for my work and in my experience, blind people are looked upon with suspicion as to the reason of our travel. Now it will become even more difficult as I’m not sure if I’ll easily receive assistance at the airport. The process of contactless travel will be difficult for people with disabilities.

Digital transactions are gaining more importance at a time when most of the web platforms are not accessible for visually impaired people who use text to speech screen readers, therefore posing another challenge.

But life is full of challenges and I am sure over time we will find solutions to overcome these as well!

Praveen Kumar lives in Noida, Uttar Pradesh and works as a Social Exclusion Advisor with VSO.