Any reactions? I think she is ill-informed. And why to compare India with Switzerland? don't we have hundreds of switzerland in India in population/region-wise? http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/telangana/no-support-system-for-blind-in-india/article7779142.ece Blind people in India don’t have it easy. Apart from not having much infrastructure to assist their commute in public, their lack of vision is also seen as an impairment to do several other things, with attaining jobs being one among them.
However, 33-year-old Jessica Consuli, who runs the Casa Andrina, a centre for visually impaired in Lugano, Switzerland, feels that life can be normal for them provided they have access to infrastructure. From skiing to living their life completely on their own, Ms. Consuli, who was in Hyderabad a week ago for a conference, talks to Yunus Y. Lasania about the contrast in the lives of the visually impaired in India and her home country. How does Casa Andrina as an institution do to help the blind? What is the biggest difference between the visually impaired in Switzerland and here? The institution teaches blind people, and conducts activities for them. What I have seen so far is that there are no opportunities for the blind in India, be it jobs or anything. In fact, they even go skiing back in Switzerland! It’s amazing, because they just depend on the audio which tells them to go left or right. How different is it for such people in Switzerland? Do they receive help from the government? Over there, the government will pay for them, put them in a school. We have teachers in Switzerland who go from institution to institution to find out about what kind of support systems blind children require. Since there is a system for the visually impaired in Switzerland, how does it help them? The most difficult thing for them is to be independent, but they do get jobs like that of a waiter. For example, there is a restaurant where people eat in the dark and blind people work there. We have a blind person who is a politician! And another who is in-charge of a school. What do you think can be done in India to help visually impaired people then? Since there isn’t much infrastructure in the first place, what are the basic amenities that can be provided? Institutions are very important to help those who cannot see, and they need to be independent. Second, I have not really seen many blind people using dogs. In Switzerland, it is common to see them using dogs as guides. -- Avinash Shahi Doctoral student at Centre for Law and Governance JNU Register at the dedicated AccessIndia list for discussing accessibility of mobile phones / Tabs on: http://mail.accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/mobile.accessindia_accessindia.org.in Search for old postings at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ To unsubscribe send a message to [email protected] with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in Disclaimer: 1. Contents of the mails, factual, or otherwise, reflect the thinking of the person sending the mail and AI in no way relates itself to its veracity; 2. AI cannot be held liable for any commission/omission based on the mails sent through this mailing list..
