Ever seen a blind person walk? Have you ever noticed them walk with a sense of urgency and pride in every stride?

It's probably because the individual has come to the realization that one's true calling is not in choosing to be blind but in finding a way to reach their vision.

For most of their formative years, they might have struggled with the idea of having to perpetually be dependent on the kindness of their loved ones. The resentment of never being able to be fully independent and prosper on their own merit in society is something that bothers the members of the blind community very deeply.

Thus one can categorize a blind person's walk into various phases.

The first phase is marked heavily by the regrets of being in this condition, further exacerbated by the thoughts that intensive prayers and miracles will someday cure them.

The next phase is where they come to cherish the love and kindness that people around show unto them and appreciate the help they offer without them asking for it.

However, as they expect the help from their loved ones they gradually get expectant of it naturally and are filled with embarrassment when they find themselves in a position where they would have to ask unknown strangers for some help.

This comes into being not because they are a proud people personally but it is the realization that this is what their entire lives are going to be like.

This questions their sense of existence as they endlessly ponder over if they ever would find themselves in a position to return the love and care on their own merit.

Once they break free from this loop, that's when they gradually catch some steam and channel all their resentment and insecurity into cultivating a vision.

This vision consists of their personal and social goals, which are inspired by their own struggles and a sense of wanting to give back to the ones who have helped them along the way.

BREAK FREE TO BE SAKSHAM

That's when they begin to break free from the loop of resentment and take their journey to the next level of trying to become Saksham [A feeling of becoming capable] by adapting tools such as training to be mobile and implementing the use of assistive technologies to replace their dependence.

Dependence on their mothers to read for them.

Dependence on their teachers to write for them.

Dependence on their friends to dictate handwritten notes for them.

Dependence on strangers to navigate the streets for them.

Further, this newly found independence translates into a sense of newly enriched competence in their workspace, whereby their peers acknowledge their disability but don’t discount their ability to deliver a task on par with, if not better than, anybody else in the team.

Moreover, when the tasks become hard to navigate on their own merit, they are no longer embarrassed to reach out to their peers for assistance, as they acknowledge through their learnings of life that nobody is truly independent or self made.

Thus it is only through asking for and appreciating the assistance along the way that one can eventually begin to stride towards their vision.

Author of this article:

Joshua Lobo is a research scholar in the domain of Political science with a Masters Degree from Delhi University. He aspires to be a research enterpreneur in the field of Public Policy, comparative politics and constitutionalism. He is a Person with low vision Disability (90% blindness RodCone distrophe) and is currently an Intern.

He writes about finding inclusive and enabling policy solutions for the marginalized sections of society.