Turab, This is a good account of what is going around. Mind sets form the basic problem.
-----Original Message----- From: AccessIndia [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of turab chimthanawala Sent: 14 November 2015 13:20 To: AccessIndia: a list for discussing accessibility and issues concerning the disabled. Subject: Re: [AI] (AI) Need for change in attitude of people towards visual impairment Sorry for the inconvenience. I have pasted here the content of my article. Change in attitude of persons towards visually impaired Visual impairment is a handicap and such persons are dependent on others but adequate changes in the mindset of other persons may enable such persons in living a complete life. Sadly in India, despite the widespread of education and modern ideas people’s notion towards disability especially physical disability is very conservative and narrow-minded. Although globalization has brought in new products, technology, knowhow, latest services into our country and aping the Western ideas, dressing styles, habits, customs is the ‘ in thing ’ for most Indians, we have not been able to appreciate the attitude of foreigners towards handicapped persons and inculcate it into our lives. In India due to the narrow-minded thinking of people towards disability we are not able to perform even routine tasks properly and many of the common public utility services do not have adequate provisions for handicapped persons. On one hand people are so shrewd that they can comprehend one’s thought process merely by facial expressions then why can’t they understand that a person is handicapped by his mannerisms? Do they have to be told everytime? The other day at the dentists’ place I was struggling to find a seat (although I had come holding my driver’s hand) a lady sitting there perceived me as acting fresh and took a brief interview of me. Once at our shop counter I was taking time to figure out the currency note, the customer passed a stray comment “ Is the note false? Better install a checking machine if you are so suspicious! “ Can’t he see I am taking assistance. Some people also consider visually handicapped as hearing impaired, instead of saying Hi they say HIIIII. There is even a strange and baseless mindset among some persons that visually handicapped persons are mentally incompetent. I have experienced this on a number of occasions. Once in a departmental store, the shoplkeeper instead of speaking to me kept talking to my driver. Also in India people make mountains of molehills while helping visually handicapped persons. Once during my flight from Mumbai to Nagpur ( I was travelling alone) , the flight crew made such a Hurrah about me at the time of embarking ‘ Blind passenger on board!!!’and ultimately I had to get off on my own. I feel if they would even make 10% of the noise for some suspicious criminal many criminals would be prevented from fleeing. On my trip to Switzerland the guide on the tourist bus was so elegant in helping me that I think hardly anyone on the bus got a clue that I was partially sighted. Also despite being highly educated and having large exposure,people lack the basic common sense required to interact with visually handicapped people/ For instance people instead of verbal communication resort to funny nods of head or strange bodily actions which are difficult to comprehend even for normal people. I just pray and hope that the ‘Modi wave’ which hass led to a new awakening among people about different ideas such as love for daughter ( Selfy with daughter ), popularising India’s rich panorama ( Incredible India) tries to positively impact people’s mindset towards disability. Cheers Turab 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.. 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..
