Twenty-six-year-old Niranjan Patil was born sighted in a village near Belgaum district in Karnataka. He lost his father at a young age and the financial burden rests on his mother who is a farmer.
Niranjan studied in mainstream institutions up till graduation but in the latter years of his schooling, he started encountering eyesight issues. Due to a lack of understanding about the problem, he could not articulate it to anyone in his family or even at school. He continued struggling to study with weakening vision.
It was only in college that the challenge worsened, and he had to see a doctor. Niranjan was diagnosed with Retinitis Pigmentosa which is a degenerative eye disorder. The loss of vision affected his competence and also his social life. He started steering away from friends, not wanting to share his limitation. He struggled on the playground as well as in the classroom.
There was a total lack of awareness as to how he could lead a normal life despite deteriorating vision. While writing one of his final semester exams, the examining officer who came over to sign Niranjan’s hall ticket, noticed how the boy was struggling to read his question paper. He then put him in touch with a former student of the college  who is also blind. And that’s how Niranjan came in touch with the Eyeway Helpdesk counsellor.
The counsellor informed him of the various tools and technologies available to assist blind students. He also learned about vocational training courses that could make him independent once again. At a point when the boy’s family had totally given up on him and written him off as dependent for life, Niranjan requested to be sent to the training institute in Bangalore as advised by Eyeway.
At Enable India in Bangalore, he learned mobility and employability skills. He went through a foundational as well as an advanced course, spending a good year at the organisation enhancing his skills.
As a result, today Niranjan is gainfully employed with a company which makes smart devices. His job involves testing the accessibility of new products and services being developed by this company.
Appropriate information disseminated at the right time can help change the course of life, making persons with blindness and low vision, lead a life of dignity and independence.
Team Eyeway