CHALLENGING THE MYTHS. ESTABLISHING REALITIES

Often the biggest roadblock that people with disability face is a disabling attitude from the people around them. This attitude is because people lack knowledge and information and not necessarily due to cruelty.

Awareness generation is a critical area of work for the XRCVC. We wish to not only help people see things in a different way but to help break the novelty, and therefore the apprehension related to people with disability. We strongly believe that only when each of us becomes more open and aware will we make our society equally open.

Our current efforts in this area include:

1. Antarchakshu - the Eye Within:

An event developed and conceptualized by our students, Antarchakshu - the Eye within is a simulation workshop aimed at creating a sneak preview for the sighted into the worlds of the visually challenged and other persons with disabilities. It’s a simulated environment where blind folded participants walk through an obstacle course and perform a series of daily activity tasks.

This simulation is then followed by an interactive session and/or presentation depending on the nature of the audience.

We have expanded the event to include other disabilities across different venues. Over last two years the XRCVC had conducted Antarchakshu at various venues. It has become and event to look forward to annually during Malhar- the Intercollegiate festival of St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai. This year as well at Malhar 2008 we had over 700 participants go through the Antarchakshu experience.

Antarchakshu 2010

Antarchakshu 2010 as part of the Mumbai Eye Care Campaign of Sightsavers was conducted as a 2 day mega event on the 8th and 9th of September 2010 at the St. Xavier's College Hall, Mumbai. The theme for this year was ‘A Day in the Life Of' with emphasis on Education, Transport and Consumer Products. Going by this year's theme, the target audiences were educators, students, Corporates, transport service providers in the city, etc.

The highlight in exhibition area of this year's event was Bus Identification and Navigation System that allows a visually challenged person to independently access public buses and the Smart Cane which is an above-knee obstacle detection system that uses ultrasound to detect raised obstacles like open windows, raised bars, railings, etc. which cannot be detected by the white cane. Both these products are developed by IIT Delhi in collaboration with the Saksham Trust and the National Association for the Blind Delhi.

Antarchakshu 2010 was thus a successful event with a lot of participants admitting that their experience at the event helped them to look within themselves and to break their myths. It was a simulation and awareness event with a fun twist to it. This year the total footfall for the 2 day event were 1301 participants including educators, future educators, Corporates, people responsible for the law and order and legal departments, people in the hospitality business, transport service providers and students across various faculties.

Antarchakshu 2011

Antarchakshu 2011 as part of the Mumbai Eye Care Campaign, was conducted as a 2 day mega event on the 9th and 10th of September 2011 at the St. Xavier's College Hall, Mumbai. The theme for this year was ‘Legal Access, Consumer Products and Recreation' with a special emphasis on banking and the true meaning of an accessible ATM.

Download Antarchakshu 2011 invite

Please check out the following links

http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-eye-Within-antarchakshu/156299801049605

http://antarchakshu.blogspot.com/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTo2LicUnAw

2. Presentations at Seminars

For groups and events where we cannot replicate Antarchakshu, depending on the need of the groups the XRCVC runs various small group workshops and presentations

Some of the groups we engage with are:

• Accessible Design for the visually challenged (aimed at architecture students and/or professionals in the field)
• Getting to know the world of the visually challenged and persons with disability (aimed at potential employers, school children, any other group)
• Copyright access and the visually challenged
• Step towards Inclusive Education (aimed at teachers and teacher educators)
• Technology advancements and their applications in Education of the Visually Challenged (aimed at special educators or helping professionals)

Download a short ad-film "Antarchakshu"