Naina Kulkarni.

I took the course , Space and Place  for the first semester as I thought it would be quiet interesting working on a project keeping the blind in mind. I never really knew we could do so much with light and dark. Braille was a completely new language for me, for most of us.  Braille to me, meant  elevated dots and nothing more. I never really bothered to find out how it was written or read.

Our facilitator Narendra showed us clips on how Braille was written and taught to the blind. Despite the technology available to the blind to help them get by in life, I realized how hard they have it. Learning Braille is not easy.

Our first assignment was to make visiting cards with only our names written in Braille, although I wrote most of my personal details in Braille for the visually impaired and also using the alphabet for the visually capable. In the process of making these visiting cards I learnt the ways in which Braille is written, what every dot symbolizes, the measurements required to make the scale for writing Braille and also about spacing between two Braille letters. It wasn't an easy task but I managed.

We soon had discussions about light and dark and it was eminent that for the existence of light , the dark in equally as important.

Narendra Set us another assignment of making brailled t-shirts. I Was quite confused initially because I didn't know if I could just elevate the existing design on a t shirt or create something new. I Went to buy a plain t-shirt and bought one that said being human. I thought I'd write being human in Braille so that the blind who'd wear that t –shirt would feel like he/she isn't any different. I decorated the sleeves and used sequence to make the t-shirt aesthetically appealing.  It didn't turn out so bad. Making the blind feel like they aren't any different from any one of us is crucial.

Late during the week , we were asked to shut our eyes or better, blindfold ourselves and walk along the corridor to know what a visually impaired person feels like. Since most of us did not have a cloth to blindfold our eyes, all we could do was to be true to ourselves and not peek when we felt like.  It was rather funny, how everyone kept bumping into each other. I realised why other senses of the blind are heightened. That's because to be able to walk around they need to feel more, smell more, listen more since they cannot see .

We then had to make a poster on creating awareness amongst the students of Srishti about the blind. Since we were divided into groups, my group worked on a poster that basically emphasized on treating the blind as equals. We used a variety of colours and ideas to make our poster look presentable. It was an interesting exercise. It sensitized me to the needs of the blind and also for the need to make people aware about the requirements of the blind. It was a step towards making the n3 campus blind-friendly.

All this was an effort to help us understand what it means to be blind. An effort to make us sympathetic  towards those with this disability. Narendra made us watch this artistic film by Andy Goldsworthy which was mostly about his relationship and understanding of stone. It was rather intriguing to see how he worked. His thought pattern revolved around this particular design and he stuck to that. It made me realize why it was important to have a vision. Everyone needs to have a vision. You don't need to be able to see to have one. Determination and perseverance are crucial in achieving what you believe in. Well thats just how I feel.

Working on the blind, involved us setting out in groups to various places to talk about the provisions and policies for the blind and whether they faced any inconvenience in any of these places. My group was in charge of transport. We travelled by auto, bus and a cab to find out what the blind go through as passengers. It was found that, people in Bangalore and really sympathetic towards the needs of the blind and help them in whichever way possible. Nobody seemed to feel that the system lacked any provisions for people who could not see. We interviewed auto valas, cab drivers, people at ticket counters at the airport and also a few on the street. All of them seemed to be pretty content with the system. We had to document our findings and our final presentation included videos of our one on one interaction with these people and also about the policies in these places for the blind.

Narendra divided the class, into groups yet again and set us another task of creating a manual and signages for a blind  visitor at the n3 campus. This was what my group had to do. The rest were involved in the production of ramps etc. We sat ourselves down and divided ourselves further into two groups-those who would do the signages and those who would make a manual for the blind as well as for the visually capable. I helped make the instruction manual for the visually capable and also with floor maps till the third floor which had to be made in Braille.  Our manual is yet to be faired out and turned into a hard copy. We found a number of discrepancies in the n3 campus as far as the blind were concerned.

All these exercises helped me understand the dark. It is not merely the absence of light, it's much more than that. Being blind isn't something to be ashamed of. Knowing that you cannot see is tormenting but John Lenon rightly said, "Living is easy with eyes closed"

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Cheers