Adarsh Chandak.

"Space and Place A" was the first course I had opted for my first semester at Srishti. One of the main reasons I opted for this course was the project on visually challenged people in the society. This project mainly focused on knowing visually challenged people and making life easier for them through design. We tried to understand what they go through in their daily lives and how their lives are different from ours. How 'Dark and Light' separate the world and people who are visually disabled.

In the first class, we were all blindfolded and told to just walk around one floor of the campus without anybody's help. This was the time when I actually realized the difficulty a person has to face when visually impaired.  When I was walking blind folded, I was scared and insecure that I'd fall and hurt myself. The environment around me,  just felt like a new place to me after being blindfolded. After this exercise we all realized the difficulty a blind person has to face, but we shouldn't look down on them because if they are disabled with one of the senses the other senses of theirs are more powerful than ours.

The next exercise I got was to design a universal visiting card for people with and without vision. I researched about braille and used it in my visiting card so that it can be used to give a visually impaired person too.

The next day I also designed a t-shirt for the visually impaired. While doing the designing of the t-shirt I realized that its not the color and print for a visually impaired person. A visually challenged can only feel, so I used textures and different types of material on the t-shirt.

We were divided into groups and were told to design a poster, which could spread awareness about the visually impaired at the Srishti campus.

After the designing of the poster the next day we were sent out to different places and document on how a blind person is treated and how they manage at public places and institutions. My group went to an institution and we made a documentary movie on a visually challenged girl who had studied at Malya Aditi International School.

The last week we worked on making our home 'Srishti N3' blind enabled. I made notes in braille and fixed it on the railing of the staircase so that a visually disabled person is made aware about the number of steps he/she has to climb .We also put boards and notes in braille in the lift, washrooms, and different classrooms. Other members of the group also worked on the bathrooms and made ramps to make it easier for a blind person to access.

This entire project gave us a clear idea about the difficulties those people experience in their lives. We learnt the details and even experimented by doing the assignments. These lessons will give a clear idea about what kind of products on needs to make for the blind people. I want to create an environment in which visually challenged persons can help themselves, and where they don't need to ask for help from others.