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.

Individual Reflection- Srishti Saxena

The area of the course "space and place" introduced by srishti faculty for the foundation study students 2012 is wide and contains never ending exploration. The experience has been a revelation to me about the dark and light. The interdependence of dark and light is undeniable and surprising. Understanding the world of 'differently abled' has made me wiser and opened my thinking towards new possibilities. Several activities and presentations have made me sound to the world of differently abled and now it is hard to look at a product or a thing without looking at its feasibility for them. Being in new surroundings the course activities has definitely made me more familiar and aware of my surroundings. The blind or any other differently abled person deserves as much space as much as one of us does and I as designer feel the responsibility to add to there betterment. I am aware that we cannot even come close to experiencing what these differently abled people do but we can definitely try and step into there shoes and offer them a better life.This world has been designed mostly by abled for the abled. Its time that an initiative should be taken to design this environment for the disabled as well. In order to do so we need to acquire the understanding of their lifestyle and day to day working. So our group set out in the public spaces to understand the perception of the local people about the blind. Public is indeed sensitive about these differently abled people but it remains our duty to make them a part of us and make their life as easy going as ours is. We need to arise empathy among the masses more than sympathy for them. And give them every stage to stand as equals and work as the same.
The activities and analysis brought up interesting innovations like special clothing for blind, visiting cards in braille and an attempt to make our surroundings blind friendly starting from our own institute "srishti school of art,design and technology". Above being a starting point I look forward to take the initiative to a higher level.

Reflection- Mariona Pereira

Darkness helps you to fight to look at things in a different way, with your mind not eyes darkness is as important as brightness blind people are normal people like us, in fact they are much smarter in fact. We saw a brilliant documentary "what braille means to you''. When we were given our 1^st project to make name cards for the blind I had to think of how to make it so that the blind  can read  and feel what is in the name card and even if I had to use braille then how to do it , what material should be used. So I decided to braille with stones and make a 3d pop out so that they can feel what I have done and I was successful in doing that I made an coconut tree at one end and waves at the other  to show that I am from GOA,and.2^nd thing we had to design was a t shirt for blind so I decided to make a dungaree on the t-shirt  so that they could use it to keep their stuff in the pocket but because of lac of time I made a top with a bow and a small fancy pocket  and tag behind which said what was written on the t shirt. Next exercise was a group exercise in which we were  divided in 3 groups 1.public policy,2 Industrial policy ,3. Transport policy. In which we had loads of fun as a group and went to the post office , the library. And found that non of them were aware or had any policy's for the blind except for 1.the  next project was the poster project in which we were suppose to make our campus aware of the blind and not to consider them handicap but special in which we made a  different one. our next project was to make a manual  and sign boards I enjoyed the most in this project working  together after class in collage and having fun  though we had to keep all the aspects' for the blind and normal person in mind not only that ,we were also looking at this issue in a designers point of view ,eg..design of boards  for the class rooms we wrote as O1 which means ORANGE ROOM 1^ST FLOOR and so on we made these boards in bright colours and we pot a contrasted  bored on each door ..

Through my eyes- Fiza Jha

While choosing our courses for the first semester, the space and place module struck me as one of the most challenging, yet most interesting. As soon as I read the brief, I knew it was an experience I wouldn't want to miss out on. As a part of the first module, we were going to deal with issues of the visually impaired, the problems blind people face.  We started with 'empathy' towards the blind.  It is one thing to feel sympathy , pity or even sorrow for disabled persons. As a part of school, we would regularly visit old age and paraplegic homes. Interacting with such persons is always a humbling experience, but it cannot instill empathy in you. Narendra, our facilitator, started off with making us walk around the corridors of the campus blindfolded. That tiny exercise alone gave us an insight into a blind person's world. Personally, I was terrified. I could barely take two steps without panicking as I was so afraid that I would fall flat on my face and hurt myself. Then I tried to imagine being in the same position on a crowded, bustling street, not a secure corridor of a college building. There are probably no words to describe being in that state of darkness and insecurity 24x7.  `````````````````````````````````````````

We were shown film on Braille and blind literacy. It  was an eye opener in a sense. It made us realize that irrespective of not being able to see, thanks to an innovation like Braille, visually impaired persons have had the privilege to gain literacy and to be able to read books for so many generations now. It's been years since Braille was invented, but its still a crucial prerequisite for blind literacy. It was quite inspiring to see clips of blind children who were voracious readers, and no different from any of us.   

We were given an exercise to make braille business cards which took us a step closer to understanding the language of braille.

The next step to sensitize us and widening our knowledge base was to send us out to see for ourselves what issues the blind face in their day to day lives.

We were divided up into three sections handling different phases ; Public Spaces, Institutions, Transport.

I was in the group looking at institutions so we choose to survey our own Srishti N3 Campus, Mallya Aditi International School, a Post Office, a Police Station and a Library. Our group learned some interesting things about policies these different institutes had for blind persons and how infrastructure wise they were friendly or unfriendly to the visually challenged.

I focused on Mallya Aditi Internation School  and picked an ex student, Shalini, as a case study. Shalini Mennon was a visually impaired girl studying in MAIS for four years. She was an exceptional student and went on to get accepted to the likes of Harvard and Stanford. The school, along with her mother who was a tremendous support,  made it possible for her to be a part of the school and reach her fullest potential. Her story just proved that with the help of cooperative institutional policies and a broad vision, it is possible to incorporate disabled persons into mainstream society and allow them to unfurl their potential.

The other groups also unearthed interesting facts and our whole class had a new understanding of the systems in place. More than anything, we had a new understanding and respect for the visually impaired as we were amazed at how capable they were of being independent and how desperately they wanted to be viewed as normal and not different or inferior.

You can be as charitable as you want, you can think you're the most sympathetic and humble person in the world but you can't even begin to understand someone else's issues unless you step into their world, into their shoes. We are nowhere close to understanding the issues blind persons face or how they feel about the world, but we're a long way ahead from where we started. The disability itself is something disabled persons learn to cope with beautifully. But having to be dependent on others is what cripples the disabled, I feel. So the best way to help them really, would be to ensure that they need the least possible help from others.

After a long discussion in class, we decided that our next project would be to instill change within ourselves. We took on the task to make our N3 campus blind enabled. After some doing some research, throwing around some ideas, making a few presentations and lots of discussing, we divided ourselves into groups again. We split up into different groups; product design team, instruction manual group, signs and documentation. Some of us worked on instruction manuals for blind visitors which would be in braille. I worked on an instructional manual which could be used by the security, cafeteria staff, administration etc, to to act as a guideline on how to help a visually challenged visitor. To go about such a task, I firstly had to survey the campus, see how the visitor would go around themselves and what would be the challenges or issues they would face. To do this, one again has to put themselves into the subject's shoes. Empathy, I was beginning to realize, something an aspiring designer could not do without. Research, formulation of ideas, follow up, execution, feedback, revision is what it takes to finally complete a project.

On our first day of the course, Narendra told us straight up, "Don't expect to change the world with your first project. But do expect to learn a lot". And that's what we did.

Personal Reflection- Christine Lungalang

Personal Reflection

                Over the course of the core classes held with Narendra, we were made to do a lot of hands-on work, whether it be making Braille t-shirts or going out and researching more about blind policies. We began, firstly, by making visitor's cards which had to be understood by both people with sight and also the visually impaired. We were then asked to design t-shirts in Braille. Eventually, we were split up into groups to go and conduct surveys to find out as much as we could about the blind policies in and around Yelahanka and also in the city. Finally, by gathering these new insights, our most recent project was to make the Srishti N3 block more blind-friendly. Carrying out these various activities was quite an eye-opener and a very useful way of gaining knowledge on the blind community.

Very often, we tend to overlook the luxury of having all our senses. We take for granted that we can see the pillar in our way, or the bump on the road. All the touch, tastes, sights, smells, and sounds around us are unnoticed, in the sense that despite the obvious acknowledgement of them, we disregard the importance of having a complete set of physical senses. Even without one of our senses, life would be so much more challenging. In this case, we focus on the absence of sight. I have learned that without their sight, the visually impaired can do just as much as people with sight. This is because they are made to depend entirely on all their other senses. This, to me, is really intriguing because it shows how suddenly, every sound, smell, and touch matters. Doing this project has not only shown me a fraction of how the visually impaired go about their lives without one of the most crucial senses, but it has especially made me realize and appreciate the importance of the presence of all my senses. Hopefully, through the united efforts of our class, more people can also come to not only appreciate their five senses but also try to do something to help those without them.

Documentation-Aishwarya Kumar

In the past month, Srishti has taught me to think and look beyond what is visible to the naked eye. From the basics of what it takes to be a good designer Srishti helped me grow in many ways.
Our first assignment was the understanding of the difficulties faced by the Blind. It went from the actual understanding of darkness to realizing how we, the normal people are actually not sensitive to a world beyond what we see, and how the visually impaired are actually more normal than we think. The invitation cards were an initiative to understand the visually impaired. By the time we reached the documentation of our work for two weeks, from t shirts to posters to making N3 blind enabled I realized that understanding anything took more than research or paying attention in class. It was about getting into the project to understand it, to empathize with the matter we are tackling.

Each project took a certain amount of interaction with my course mates. Sharing ideas, manipulating them and further executing them took time, as we had to learn to collaborate. We had to first understand the system, look at each aspect of the matter to actually figure out what the need was, the aspects being the target group, need requirements etc.

After that we analyzed the different ways to understand the system, which was when we realized that there was more to the topic we were handling than we initially thought. My outlook towards all the visually impaired changed drastically after just two weeks of the course. I had always sympathized with them. Always against the ill treatment of the handicapped, I hadn't realized that I had infact sidelined the status of the visually impaired just by feeling sorry for them. They were as much a part of the normal as we were a part of the handicapped. As the society we had failed to notice the actual hardships faced by them. What's the use of giving a discount on clothes or food to them? They don't see how their vision impairment is a setback to get a Zara or Vero Moda dress, they do not see how by getting a discount on a pack of Choco actually helps them in anyway except making people so aware of their disability that they are treated differently- and not in a good way.

So we need to think different, be different. They aren't the ones at a loss due to their disability. Its us who lose the sense of humanity and empathy even after having all our senses intact. We ignore what we dont see. But in the process we miss out on much more than them. They aren't disabled, they aren't to be felt sorry for, for their world is much larger than what we can see.

Reflection- Anshruta Anirudh

Working with the disabled has always been something I have wanted to do, so this course immediately caught my attention and got me interested. 

With all the excitement and enthusiasm, I completely lost track of what a delicate project this was and how carefully it needed to be handled. It was only after the first few sessions of discussing and understanding the blind did I realize the seriousness of the project. 

How we take our senses for granted was one of the first things that hit me. The sensation of touch, smell and sound, all go unnoticed in our daily lives. But for the blind, these are essential for their daily functioning. Doing exercises like designing visiting cards and t-shirts for the blind helped me realize this. Experimenting with braille, for me was hard to do. It seemed easy because we could see the patterns but not being able to see it and only to 'feel' it was difficult and challenging.

What gave me a deeper and greater insight and understanding to this was exploring the town - understanding what other people think of the blind and finding out the facilities and policies the blind people are offered. This helped in figuring out the difficulties the blind face on a day-to-day basis as well as the sympathy and the empathy they get from the people. We then made posters to spread awareness about the blind and to make them understand that the blind need to be treated with empathy rather than sympathy. 

This was the beginning of my 'understanding' as well. It was only after this that we began to bring in a change to Srishti. We went around Srishti identifying places that we could bring in a change so that it would be easier for the blind to move around the campus. Most of the things that went unnoticed for us, suddenly became a prominent issue.. For example, the raised flooring and the uneven surfaces, the tables with sharp edges, the different rooms with the different coloured doors.. etc. We noted all the places that we thought we could improve and immediately got to work! We divided ourselves into groups and started bringing a change to the campus. We began by making signboards directing people to particular floors and rooms. We also made ramps so it would be easier for the blind to walk around. Manuals were made for the faculty as well as the security guards to ensure that they know how to treat and help the blind. Lift buttons made in braille were stuck so it would be easier for the blind to know which floor there would be going to.
All of these changes were brought about in a week in order to make Srishti blind friendly. And even though we could not bring about all the changes we had in mind, there is always a start..  and this was ours.
We are hoping that this change that we have brought about makes people more aware and brings them to realize that the blind need to be given all the privileges that we are given and that they are no different from us!
I am really looking forward to actually going and interacting with the blind so I can get a better understanding and feel of what we have been trying to achieve. But this experience has been wonderful and has given me a lot to think about. Things that I had never really given a thought to or even noticed for that matter are now a big part of my everyday life.