It’s a Myth!

Catherina

Never let the myths make you believe that it is impossible for a person to do it.

I joined WinVinaya 8 months ago as an intern after completing my master’s in social work. I always thought that the PwD community depended on others for their daily needs and commutation. I had sympathy for them, as I felt that they could not do things by themselves. And I had many questions in my mind on how a person with visual impairment dresses up, or a person with hearing impairment travel and interact with others. But interaction and involvement with my colleagues who are persons with disabilities helped me to understand a little more about their life.

At WinVinaya I met Yogitha, who is an Accessibility tester and a person with visual impairment. She loves to dress up and do make up. It was then I got to know that person with visual impairment can also do make up or choose whatever they like to wear. Just because they are blind, it does not mean that it is not the only sense they use to understand the world. They use other senses like touch and feel, smell, or hearing to choose what they like or to understand the world.

There is an instance, wherein during the initial days I was clueless on how to interact with persons with hearing impairment. But being in a work place, where we all have to interact and work together, it was much needed for me to interact with one of my colleagues, Gayathri, a person with hearing impairment. Though I was not much aware of sign language, we were able to communicate and finish our work. That’s when I realized that simple body gestures that we use unknowingly on a daily basis, can also be a way of communication. And of course, the technology has helped us a lot in breaking many of the barriers. A simple text message, or email can also help us to communicate with a person with hearing impairment.

There’s another instance where two of our employees with visual impairment served lunch to more than 60 people – without spilling/ wasting food.  They were so happy to be given a chance and enjoyed every bit of doing it. This might sound like a small thing, but for them it was a moment to cherish, and it also helped me in understanding that there are things which we think are impossible for a person with disability, but they are just myths!

My perspective on the world of Persons with Disabilities changed once I started interacting and getting involved with them. And the experience of working with Persons with Disabilities in WinVinaya was priceless. And I believe that there are many new things that we can learn once we are ready to break the barriers that we built within.