an online magazine from eyeway.org

issue 5 july-august 2005
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sections in this issue: by george | focus | feature | interview | perspectives | profile | headlines

Voices of People: Leisure and Entertainment

Eyeway asked some people what being a blind citizen of India means to them, with a focus on one specific aspect of life.

Pranav Lal

Information Security Consultant with Mahindra Special Services Group, Delhi

When it comes to entertainment or pastimes, everyone has a different set of things they would ideally want to do. For me, nothing beats relaxing with a good book or a good movie.

But I am blind, so what do I do? People who prefer hanging around at a bar or a pub have it different, because as a blind person who likes to read and watch movies, I don't have much to choose from. We should be allowed to scan books or have access to international libraries since there are very few books available in accessible formats here. You can, of course, purchase audio books from some sites but electronic books are hard, or almost impossible, to find.

The alternative is to watch television. But a lot of it goes without any audio captioning, so that becomes another problem.

Related stories:
Voices of People: Education
Voices of People: Society
Voices of People: Culture
Voices of People: Media and Communications
Voices of People: Business
Voices of People: Employment
Voices of People: Sports
Voices of People: Transport
Voices of People: Being a woman
Voices of People: Relationships
Voices of People: Public Services
How has the government fared?
It's India, but is it home?