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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | For deafblind individuals in India, grappling with twin challenges of stereotypes and inaccessibility hinders true progress -Srinidhi Raghavan

For deafblind individuals in India, grappling with twin challenges of stereotypes and inaccessibility hinders true progress -Srinidhi Raghavan

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published Published on Jun 29, 2021   modified Modified on Jul 5, 2021

-Firstpost.com

For many deafblind people, their paths and lived experiences are steeped in inaccessibility and hurdles — worsening in the times of COVID-19.

What is normal, anyway? In this monthly column, Srinidhi Raghavan explores the understanding of bodies-minds and navigating spaces as disabled, chronically ill and sick people. Read more from the series here.

For many of us in society, we often see disabled people as either ‘helpless’ or ‘inspirational’. For the longest time, all mentions of Helen Keller that I have heard have been through the lens of inspiration i.e. "She has accomplished so much despite being deafblind." Only recently, I uncovered a series of tweets, TikTok videos and posts which called her a "fraud/fake news". Every one of those posts assumed that it was impossible for a deafblind person to write books, to be articulate, to learn multiple languages. And therefore, she was not real or worse, people around her did the work and she took the credit.

These assumptions are definitely not new for disabled people. Doubting their capabilities or being surprised by them is almost the norm. India-based disability rights activist, Zamir Dhale, who is deafblind, was deboarded from a flight while he was heading to Geneva to advocate for rights of people with disabilities; only because the airline was unsure that he would be able to manage the trip by himself.

These assumptions about deafblind people are rooted in our severe lack of knowledge of how they live, experience and engage with the world. Haben Girma, a lawyer and disability rights advocate, says in her book, Haben: The Deafblind Woman Who Conquered Harvard Law: “By identifying as Deafblind, I'm telling the world that I'm part of a community where knowledge gained through touch is equal in value to knowledge gained through sight, sound, or other means.”

According to a study done by Sense International India, an NGO working to support deafblind people, there are more than 5,00,000 people who live with Deafblindness in India. Deafblind individuals who are across a spectrum of deafness and blindness access the world through different ways including and not limited to tactile sign language, braille keyboards, text messaging and even screen readers. But many of their paths and lived experiences are steeped in inaccessibility and hurdles — worsening in the times of COVID-19.

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Firstpost.com, 29 June,2021, https://www.firstpost.com/living/for-deafblind-individuals-in-india-grappling-with-twin-challenges-of-stereotypes-and-inaccessibility-hinders-true-progress-9762531.html


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