Times Of India Article 5
12th Oct 2007
WORLD SIGHT DAY
Visual impairment no deterrent for this youth
Prathima Nandakumar |TNN
Bangalore: His deft fingers can play five percussion instruments — tabla, dholak, combo drums to rhythm pads. Perhaps, the last time he felt out of beat was six years back, when the doctor broke the news of his fading sight. Vishal Kumar Jain (21) was detected with Retinitis pigmentosa, an inherited disease where vision declines as photoreceptor cells die.
Vishal, a III semester B.Com student at Mahaveer Jain College, is blind. But that has little effect on his academic performance, his pursuit of music or his passion for computers. He scored 80 per cent in both SSLC and PUC exams, and balances his studies with giving music performances in India and abroad.
“Today, everything seems possible. But this was not the case six years back, when I left Bellary, my hometown. My eyes failed me in Class IX and I could no longer read. I came to Bangalore and visited NGO Samarthanam to learn music and computers. That was the turning point,’’ beams Vishal, son of businessman Mohanlal Jain.
What did the trick? The question excites Vishal. “I took refuge in screen-reading software — JAWS (job access with speech). The software reads out scanned texts. It has helped me prepare for my exams. I appear for exams along with a scribe, who writes the answers I dictate. I listen to lectures in class and back home, I study using JAWS,’’ says Vishal, who is helping his two visuallychallenged siblings in their studies.
“Of my three siblings, two are blind. My parents and teachers lost hope. But once in the IT city, I felt we were in a new world,’’ recalls Vishal. Admitting that studies are a challenge, he says: “We have no visual memory to our aid. Research states that human beings learn 83% through sight, 11% through hearing, about 3.5% through smell, 1.5% through touch and 1% through taste. Now you know what visually-challenged people are denied.’’
His favourite pastime is a jam-up with his brother Amit on the keyboard, while he plays the drums. There are moments of silence too — when he flirts with the idea of regaining sight. “A lot is being talked about stem cell research and I feel it can help the retina grow back,’’ says Vishal, with a breath of optimism.
To help those without sight but with dreams, Vishal hosts a website http://vishal.hello.googlepages.com. “Awareness is opportunity. Most visually-challenged persons are doing well. Apart from academics, what they need is training in computers and communication skills. The bigger responsibility lies with the sighted too, to learn to interact with us normally,’’ he reasons.
WHAT IS IT?
Retinitis pigmentosa (RP) refers to a group of inherited diseases causing retinal degeneration. The cell-rich retina is responsible for capturing images. People with RP experience a gradual decline in their vision because photoreceptor cells (rods and cones) die
TECH AID: Vishal Kumar Jain works on the JAWS application which reads out text to him