The Government Ophthalmic Hospital, Egmore, one of the major referral centres for eye care, has been left out from the list of recognised facilities for performing corneal transplantation in the State. Officials attribute it to a “clerical error.”
The hospital's name does not feature on the State government's website of cadaver transplant programme.
Aravind Jayabal bagged the prestigious ‘Silver Eye Award' for his short film titled “Vizhigal” on eye donation recently. Aravind is the founder and creative director of Raindropss, an NGO, comprising Chennai-based artists whose aim is to spread social awareness through short films and theme songs. “Vizhigal” is Raindropps' first project to bag an award. The NGO recently released two films that send out a powerful social message.
Taking a strong view against the off-loading of a differently-abled 42-year-old female passenger from a Spicejet flight at Kolkata airport this past Sunday, disability rights organisations have criticised the action and demanded an apology from the airline.
Can you empower a person with disability by giving him a calliper and teaching him physiotherapy exercises? It is not props, but the creation of an inclusive society that can essentially empower differently abled persons.
The Asian Blind Union is hosting a three-day event at Hotel City Park in Pitampura here beginning this Monday to discuss problems faced by visually impaired women in the Asian region.
“Blind Women Meet” will be inaugurated by World Blind Union president Maryanne Diamond from Australia. The second day will see “Conference of Asian Blind Union”.
On the last day, general assembly of blind representatives from the Asian region will discuss organisational matters and election of the new team.
Visually challenged persons marched to the Collector's office from Thangaraj Salai to draw the attention of the State government to consider their demands, which included issuance of house site pattas.
The members led by Sadasivam, Rajamani and others pleaded to the Collector during the grievance day meeting to direct the authorities concerned to issue free house site pattas.
District Collector U. Sagayam asked the authorities to examine their demands for house site pattas and issue necessary orders.
The Centre has decided to link payment of pension for the elderly, widows and disabled persons to the Aadhaar to ensure timely delivery.
The decision was taken here on Tuesday at a meeting chaired by Union Minister of Rural Development Jairam Ramesh. The present structure of payment is a time-consuming one and does not allow for monthly payment of the pension of Rs.200 to those eligible under these three categories.
ANDREW Follows is often seen holding on to his guide dog with one hand and his camera with the other.
‘‘People can often see me [and must be] thinking that doesn’t look right,’’ he laughs.
Born with a condition known as retinitis pigmentosa, Follows has no sight in his left eye and tunnel vision and cataracts in his right eye. He has just a metre of clear sight compared to the 70 metres a person with normal vision has.
Despite being legally blind, Follows is proving that those without sight can still have vision.
For those who grew up in the age before cable television when programmes aired on Doordarshan were the stuff that Sunday afternoons were made of, news broadcast in sign language would always remain etched in their minds.
Fast forward two decades later, the communication intended for the benefit of the hearing impaired is hard to come by on our television channels. Yet another sign of a society that excludes the concept of ‘inclusion', activists would concur.
Lack of awareness
Rekha Goyal, 23, lost her sight due to chickenpox when she was just three. But the fighter that she is, she educated herself at one of the best institutions and found employment in a bank.
With the help of her post-graduate education, and computer and English language skills learnt at the Venu Institute of Universal Education (VIUE), many visually impaired people like Goyal as well as those with other physical handicaps are successfully defying the stereotype that the physically challenged cannot be employed in regular jobs.
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