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Welcome to Inclusive Stories!
If you ask a sighted person
'What is your image of a blind person?'
The answer would be
'Black glasses
White cane
Guide dog
But what if none of these elements is there?
What if a visually impaired person
looks exactly like a sighted?
In this new story
I would like to raise
the topic of awareness
And our storytellers
Ravi, Aayna and Madhava
will share their experience and thoughts.
But apart from sharing
their stories with you
I am really looking forward
to know your ideas
and your experience in this
My name is Madhava
The problem is
we look like sighted people
See, blind people can be made out
They usually wear these black glasses
or even without this thing also
by seeing their eyes
you can make out
that they are blind
But for the people like us
we look like normal people
sighted people
So nobody will come forward to help us
and nobody will realize quickly
that we are having problem
It took a very long time for me
to know that persons like me
are called low vision
Because if I used to go
to a normal school or college
they told me
'We don`t take half blind people'
And I didn`t understand
what does that mean
It wasn`t that I couldn`t see
anything completely
and it wasn`t that I could see completely
For example, I am working
in front office
so some visitors who come
sometimes they show
their visiting cards to me
If I ask any question
like, 'Who do you want to meet?'
'What's your name?'
Like that if I ask
instead of answering me
they just show their visiting card to me
They think that
I am a sighted person
so that I can read the card
and make out his name
but I can't make out!
And everytime I can't tell them
'No, I am a visually impaired!
I can't read this. You just tell me'
This is the often problem
we are facing in the office
It's a very serious problem
And sometimes we feel shy
to tell everyone
that we are having problem
It's a very difficult thing.
Ny name is Ravishankar
We are not like others, you know
We are not totally blind
we could see a little
And this is such a sensitive point
It's only people who are sensitive
can understand this
But some of my relatives
they didn't understand
this sensitive point
and they used to treat me very badly
They used to say
'Are you acting?'
Purposely they come
and sit next to me
without talking to me
and I sat quietly
and after some time
they just talk
and then suddenly I am shocked
You know, I was feeling very bad
when they did that
And from far they call me
And one person came to an extent
to come and tell me
'Can you pick up my sleepers and give me?'
This sort of situations I had to face
very very bad situations
And that's the reason
I used to not go anywhere
I was not able to explain
to my relatives
and they were not able
to know what exactly my problem was
Every story teller I met
told me about the awareness problem
You know one of the biggest things
because they are not aware
The first way - we have to create
awareness in the society
Unfortunately I don`t think
even the awareness has been spread so much
Just to create awarenes
But has anyone of you
ever done anything
to solve this problem?
There can be small things
But they make a huge difference
Like an old Chinese proverb says
'A journey of 1000 miles
begins with one small step'
Everytime we can't say
that we are visually impaired
So that if some identifiable thing
which can make others
to show that we are visually impaired
for example a cap of some
particular combination of color
so whoever wears that cap
is a partially sighted or visually impaired
So let's open a discussion
and share our thoughts and experience
in raising awareness
And don't forget to subscribe
to the Inclusive Stories channel
at inclusiveplanet.com/stories