Visually Impaired People Also Have Eyes

Please walk once with closed eyes in your house. What you will do first is you will try to reach a chair or a table which you can locate easily to make sure of your position.

Now, imagine of those who are sightless human being touching to see. This will highlight the difference the saying "Seeing is believing" for those with eyes and the sightless people’s saying "Touching is believing". Through reading of Braille characters and touching of the objects visually impaired persons can ‘see’ and understand the world. The fingers are ‘eyes’ for the visually impairment humans. With the support of the finger tips, not will the vision impaired see the surface of objects, but also help them to know the truth.

So please let visually impairment people touch things like a statue of God, tree, flower etc. And also during the shopping, let them touch the objects.

"Hello, Namaste! May I help you?"

When you see sightless people who across the street, looking for the bus at bus park or have lost their way, please say like this. And introduce yourself and shake hands or join hands with the visually impaired people. For touching of hands is a first rule for visually impaired people.

Through touching of hands visual impaired people can learn in which direction a person is talking to them and don’t have a wrong guess while returning a greeting. And also they can know the height of persons talking to them. And if you want to gain the trust from visually impaired people, you must give your name first.

The life of visually impaired people is beset by two main difficulties. One is, they can’t go out freely. Second is that they can’t read papers written in block letters. Visually impaired people call such kind of paper printed in block letters "ink print" and another kind of letters that are made of holes on thick papers by needles "Braille". The Braille is very useful. A combination of six kinds of dots in Braille can express any kind of language in all over the world. Of course, Nepali language can also be expressed in Braille. However, the use of such kind of important and useful Braille is known to only few visual impaired people in Nepal. Lack of Braille books may be the reason why only few people are getting a chance to study Braille.

(In Nepal many sightless people are short of information.) But we still can help the visually impaired to get lot of information through "ink print". Before you throw away the daily newspaper or handbills which are distributed in a town, please read them aloud for sightless people.

Their most biggest problem is to move from one place to another place. "We want to go freely out from home", say every visually impaired people. In a familiar place or in the home, they can move freely. However, when they must go to unfamiliar place they need some guide. If their parents or friends are busy, sightless people must wait until they finish their business before they are taken out. I want to go to music concert or visit of friend", many visually impaired people say. But sometimes, they also must go to hospital, to government office or to shopping also.

For such purpose, visually impaired people need your help. Walking with visually impaired people need a little technique and experience.

I have stayed in Nepal for more than one and half years. In this period I’ve got many impressions from Nepali disabled people. One of them is: in Nepal, there is not enough volunteers to assist the visually impaired people. Please take care of another person. There are a lot of ways to help them, like reading of some book or by guiding them.

Finally, I would also like to express about the Nepali word "andha. In Nepal generally people use this word for visually impaired, sightless people or blind persons. Using this word for the blind is very impolite. May be this word come from "andhyaro" (darkness). However, visually impaired people live in not only in darkness, they also can not feel light. When they strike a white cane they can learn from them vibration the width of the road. When a window glass becomes cold they know that daybreak is coming. Or through faint flower smell they can catch the changing the seasons. Through touching of many objects they can know a figure and by asking the colour, they can imagine a beautiful world in their mind. Visually impaired people therefore are walking for tomorrow’s "light".

Visually impaired people are not "andha".

Through some cause and effect they became sightless. These causes are individually difference. However, they didn’t choose this way and they didn’t want to become blind. That is why if you meet them, please don’t ask "why can’t you see" and don’t say to them "bichara" (pity).

They are not asking for pity. They just want more opportunity, so that they can live a meaningful and dignified life.

(That writer is associated with the Rainbow Club Nepal For the Blind.)