A blindfolded walk held on IIT campus

“Wearing glasses is one thing and being totally blind is another,” said Vishwas M. Shetty, who participated in a blindfolded walk on the IIT-M campus on Sunday.

The Master’s student at the IIT-Madras said he had to wear glasses to correct his short sight. But Sunday’s experience at the event called ‘a walk in the dark’ gave him a perspective of what his friend Vishnu, a visually challenged person, faces every day.

“It is all about trust. I am going wherever he [the volunteer guide] is taking me,” he said.
 

Jaichand R, a first year mechanical student of VIT Chennai, said: “It felt completely different. I have attended several rallies on my campus but nothing like this.”

Vinod Daniel, managing trustee, India Vision Institute, which organised the walk along with IIT-M’s Blink at the ongoing Shaastra 2020 festival, said the aim was to create awareness that people can see with glasses.

“We have a programme called ‘Eye See I learn’. One in 10 need glasses but in rural and tribal areas, the teachers hardly realise the issue and term these children dumb or slow,” he said. Among the elderly too, such issues persist and to address them the Eye See I learn campaign was launched.

IVI conducts such walks across the country and so far four lakh persons have been covered, he said. Students from optometry colleges and schools volunteered to be blindfolded. The students walked from the Central Lecture Theatre to Himalaya Mess.

Minister for Tamil official language K. Pandiarajan flagged off the walk. He along with his wife Latha and Australian Consul General Susan Grace also walked the distance blindfolded.

IIT-M students have also created 3D printed puzzle for children to learn using Braille.
Source: https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/chennai/walk-of-a-kind/article30488845.ece