My first experience

My first experience in a blind school was overwhelming. It was nothing like what I had imagined it to be. It seemed like an entirely different world. Although I knew they used the Braille system to read, it was interesting to find out how they took notes in Braille using a slate and stylus. I immediately felt like touching what they had written.

On entering one of the class rooms I was amazed by how they sensed us. It was heart warming to see them greet us with a smile without any prompting. They seemed pretty intense in their work as there was nothing to distract them visually.

I found the computer skills class very interesting. The computer was programmed in such a way that it would prompt the student the key typed on the keyboard through an audio note. We were lucky enough to get a welcome note from one of the students on the computer.

KiliKili an organisation which designs spaces for special needs, contributed towards these children by designing their school walls. Their interactive and tactile installations were very interesting. I left the school guessing how much more I would experience in the following days.

My second experience started with The Rakum School at Jakkur. It was unfortunate we could not meet the blind students as they were shifted to another branch in Indira Nagar. We had a brief session with one of the visually impaired faculty who gave us some insights about the Braille slate and stylus.

Then we moved to the Indira Nagar branch of Rakum School only to find it was a mixed group. It seemed like a mainstream school along with the visually impaired. Here we experienced how the visually impaired students were given an equal chance as the rest of them for higher studies. It was amazing to see how they were happily interacting with each other, like any other mainstream school class room.