Eyeway- Support the Blind

Are we excluding millions of blind people from mainstream education?

Persons with vision impairment are as normal as those with eyesight. They have similar aspirations, abilities and desire to learn as any other person. The only thing that differentiates them from the ‘sighted’ is their lack of visual interaction with people, things and the overall environment. However, there are other ways they can use to engage.  What they also lack is an accessible environment and an encouraging attitude from people around them. Going through school, college and later securing a job becomes doubly challenging for blind people if their abilities are discounted simply because of their inability to see.

Inas is a 25-year-old student of 2^nd year, pursuing B. Com from a mainstream college in Alibag, Maharashtra. He was born blind but his family accepted him with full joy and brought him up as any other child. However, his parents weren’t aware of special schools for the blind, so Inas was enrolled in a mainstream school. Studying in a school with sighted peers and teachers was very difficult as Inas battled with visual forms of teaching. He dropped out of that school after Class 4 and then for two years he struggled to get admission in another school. Most schools denied him admission on grounds of his visual impairment.

21-year-old Drishti from Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh had a strong ambition to open her own pathology lab. But when she was pursuing her Class 8, one day she woke up with a complete loss of vision in her left eye. Her dreams came crashing down. With no support from her teachers, she struggled to study further and failed her Class XII exams.

22-year-old Pankaj from Motihari, Bihar wasn’t blind by birth. His eyesight started to deteriorate when he was in Class 8 due to glaucoma. He managed to complete that year with deteriorating eyesight but could not pursue his education further. When the doctor declared that his eyesight could not be restored, Pankaj and his parents were very upset and lost hope for his future. Although his parents were illiterate and had little money, they wanted to look after him, but they had no idea as to how. For the next two years, he spent his time sitting idle at home, losing out on education.

How can we expect a change to come about in the condition of visually impaired population of our country? Are reservations in education and jobs an answer to inclusion? Or do we need a policy overhaul? Will educational reforms bring about a reasonable shift in the current process of inclusion? Schemes and provisions can act as temporary enablers but are they the long term means to empower such a large section of the Indian population?

Despite legislations like the Right to Education and Rights of Persons with Disabilities 2016 in place, Eyeway has first-hand account of thousands of visually impaired students who either don’t make it to a school because of the non-cooperation of community and inaccessible environment or those who make it, drop out of the system after Class VIII.

Eyeway Helpdesk gets a regular stream of calls from blind and visually impaired people who lost out on opportunities of education at an early age and very often it’s too late for them to be accommodated in the regular course of academics. At a later age their priorities also shift to employment as a means for financial independence. Read here about how Eyeway counselors enabled Pankaj, Drishti, Inas and several others to move forward in life despite their blindness.

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