By John Aguiar
‘If a person has determination then sky is the limit’ is rightly suited for any disabled person who has firm determination to achieve the peak of success, says Smt. Leena PrabhuT eacher with the National Association for the Blind, Goa State Branch at Santa Cruz.
Goa State Branch of the National Association for the Blind, was established on 10th February 1983.
At present NAB Goa, caters to about 2000 visually impaired persons. We also conduct several awareness programmes in order to spread awareness about the visually impaired.
The NAB conducts activities such as Education (Integrated Education Programme),Vocational Training, Multi-handicapped, Sports, Theatre, Employment, Computer Training, Extra curricular Activities, Picnics and celebrations
Smt Leena tells us just to close our eyes for five minutes. I am sure she says that for the first two minutes it is relaxing but now I can see you are restless and want to open your eyes to see the beautiful world around you. As we know eyes are the precious gift, God has given to us, due to which we are able to accomplish our day to day activities more independently without any sighted assistance. She is absolutely right.
Quoting Father Carol who she says has rightly mentioned that when the person loses his eyesight he faces twenty losses which hinders his life. But he can easily overcome them if he is given the opportunities and facilities to achieve his desired goals.
Smt Leena says that during the early times visually impaired were considered as an unproductive member of the family due to the negative mind set. The main reason behind their negative mind set was that the parents did not know the appropriate way to bring up the visually impaired children. Therefore they felt it was their duty to provide him with only basic necessities of life such as food, clothing and shelter. The parents also had a question in their mind that since he is not able to see, what will he achieve in his life? Institutions were not able to provide sufficient guidance, even the schools were not ready to accept them as they had several queries such as, how the blind child will move in the surrounding environment, will the other students accept the blind child as their classmate, teachers also did not know how to teach them, how to conduct their exams etc.
The parents of the blind child Smt Prabhu says were ashamed that they will get the stigma of being a parent of visually impaired child, so he was confined to the four walls of the house. They were not willing to take him out for any family functions, festivals or any kind of social gatherings where the child could come in contact and interact with the sighted world.
Employers were not willing to employ person with visual impairment as they considered that without training and basic educational background what output they could provide to the respective firms/ companies.
But times are changing she says. Early intervention can only take place if the parents as well as family members accepts the disability of the child. Now we see parents have started accepting their blind child not as a burden, but they have realized that they have to take a positive steps towards their total development. Therefore they started approaching institutions; NGO's to receive guidance for the upbringing of the blind child and started deciding what is best for their child's bright future.
When the blind child receives love, care and security from his parents he gets immense courage to accept and overcome the obstacles that come on his way and gets motivated towards achieving his goal of success.
Asked about the role of NGOs for the cause of blind, Smt Leena says that recently various NGO’s and institutions are playing a major role in shaping the life of the visual impaired, by providing training to the parents through home bound program so that they understand the appropriate way to nurture the child. The home bound program enables the child to overcome the difficulties of accepting the school education and simultaneously he learns the extracurricular activities/skills like Braille, mobility, concepts of direction, colour, shapes, size, development of senses etc.
As regards admission to these students for regular classes she mentions thate arlier, we noticed the regular schools were not ready to accept the blind students in their schools but now they are given admissions in the schools as the government has taken the concrete step to integrate disabled children in the regular school set up. This pattern of education has provided equal opportunities and experiences to the visually impaired children. There are many positive effects of this system. Visually impaired students study and compete with the sighted children. Even the teachers try different methods to train the blind children. Sighted children also consider them as their friends and help them in their difficulties. They also help the child to learn all the mannerisms and etiquettes which are accepted by the society and make them aware of the things which are not accepted by the society. When the visually impaired child is placed in this pattern of education they do not feel they are segregated from the sighted but feel they are one of them.
Asked about the role of technology in shaping the visuallybimpaired students she says advanced technology has helped the visual impaired to visualize the world academically, socially and professionally. Today most of the people cannot imagine their life without assistive technology. The technologies have helped us even to carry out our day to activities with much ease and comfort. Technologies like smart phones, embossers, computer with screen reader software, tactile makers, sonic labelers, smart canes etc. has transformed the life from dependency to independence.
She is happy that Employers who were earlier not willing to employ Visually Impaired persons, due to the lack of formal education and training are now willing to accept them, as they have realized their potentials, abilities and skis which have made them efficient in their work areas.
Smt Leena says that she is glad to inform that most of the visually impaired are employed in the banks, Hotels, Government organizations etc. Some of them are even self employed and they are now no more a burden on the family. They have proved to the sighted world that they too are the part and parcel of this challenging world.
Smt. Leena strongly believe that 'Education' in any field is the key that provides us with a positive outlook to face the competitive world and can change the social negative attitudes of the people
