Keshav Chandra Pal, a 57-year-old sculptor of repute from Jamshedpur, refused to give up his family tradition of making idols despite losing his eyesight. He learnt the art of idol-making from his father and, except for a break of two years, has been working independently since the death of his father ten years ago.

“In 1996, I lost my eyesight and stopped working. After two years, my brother asked me to give it a try and I agreed. With full faith in God, I started work and now, even though I cannot see, I can make idols,” said Pal.

Chandrasekhar Sankurathri is working to erase blindness among the poor and rural communities of Kakinada in Andhra Pradesh. "Many are unnecessarily blind,” he said.

A biologist turned philanthropist, Sankurathri, 61, strongly believes that most cases of blindness can be cured with proper treatment. He relocated from Ottawa in Canada to Kakinada in Andhra Pradesh in 1989, after he lost his wife, daughter and son in the Air India bomb attack 20 years ago. Since then, he has dedicated his life to social activism through his community outreach programmes.

Kristen Cox and David Paterson, both legally blind, are running for the post of lieutenant governor in Maryland and New York this year. Paterson, a minority leader in the New York Senate, is the choice of Democrats and Cox has the support of the Republicans.

Cox said she knows her blindness will be an issue in the minds of voters. “They are curious about it. They have questions about it, and that's fair,” she said. “I hope ultimately in the election that blindness becomes a non-issue.”

With more than 29 years of combined experience and education in the high tech sector, Sharlyn Ayotte’s drive to make accessible materials available to the blind community resulted in the launch of her company.

Sharlyn’s Ottawa (Canada) based T-Base Communications provides companies and organisations with alternate format communication services for their blind and partially sighted customers. The company specialises in producing accessible communication materials in Braille, large print, e-Text and audio formats.