January 4, 2025
The biblical adage states, ‘One blind person cannot lead another blind person’. However, a school for the visually impaired in Mangaluru has disproven this adage! Not only are the students of the school blind, but the principal and majority of the teachers are also blind!
It is the Roman and Catherine Lobo Residential School for the Visually Impaired located at Kapikad in Mangaluru. Started in 2010, this is the only school for the blind in the coastal districts of Mangalore, Udupi, Uttara Kannada, and Kodagu. By imparting state-board curriculum education to the visually impaired in the English language and through Braille for over a decade, the school has dispelled the darkness from the lives of disabled children and has been striving to make them self-reliant.
Currently, 21 students who are fully or partially blind are studying in the school in different grades from 1 to 10. They receive free education and accommodation.
The school building is leased to Sevabharathi, the School Trust by Mrs. Carmin Bosse Ni Lobo, a German-based philanthropist.
Apart from the Braille, the universally accepted code for reading and writing for the blind, the students are trained to use computers with Job Access with Speech (JAWS) and Nonvisual Desktop Access (NVDA) programs. These computer screen-reader programs enable the blind to read the screen either with a text-to-speech output or by a refreshable Braille display.
In addition, the students are trained in music, dance, craft, and vocational skills. Ms. Renuka, the Mathematics teacher explains that kids also play Ludo, Snake, and the Ladder and Words games using the special tools.
Mr. Raghuram, a partially- blind teacher at the high school level explains that the children study mathematics and science only till grade 7, and instead of these subjects in high school, they study political science and sociology.
The children play cricket using a special ball which makes a sound as it bounces on the ground. As I walked into the playroom, Eswari the 7th-grade student proudly played the word game and read aloud the word ‘angle’. They play cards with braille. Arya a 3d grade student demonstrates how she can count the number 16 using a mathematics slate for the blind. Niriksha studying in 9th grade loves to sing. Mishriya, a 9th-grade student says she enjoys studying in the school and teachers teach well. Adithya who plays the keyboard well wants to be a musician. Except Adithya, all the rest of the class want to be teachers! By the way, Braille teachers are in acute shortage in India because only 1% of visually impaired people in India are braille literate.
As I left the class they stood up as a mark of respect, the heart-touching gesture is a pointer to the values they are taught at the school.
The school graduates are either pursuing higher education or well-placed in jobs. An alumnus is working at Reserve Bank of India Bangalore, two are employed by the State Bank of India. Another alumnus is working as a political science faculty at Mangalore University and is pursuing a PhD.
Commenting on the challenges faced by the blind, Callistus, a recipient of the ‘Daijiworld Swabhiman Award’ (2015), says, “The Persons with Disability Act (PWD) passed in 2002 says that all public buildings should be made accessible and barrier-free for the blind. However, its implementation is poor in the country, and almost nil in cities like Mangaluru.”
Callistus, an alumnus of Divine Light School Bangalore and a Master's degree holder from Mumbai University says that Hellen Keller who was deaf, dumb, and blind, and later learned to speak by lip reading is his inspiration.
Shedding light on the emotional toll blindness takes on one, he says, “I once dropped my soap while taking a bath. I groped for it everywhere in the bathroom, and finally found it near my leg. That was the moment I wished I had eyesight! However, as a blind person, I could empathize with my students and teach them better."
When asked how the blind conceptualize the world, he says “We imagine and see the world through the lens of mind and it is better than seeing through the eyes!”.
Speaking about the challenges faced by the school, Mr. Callistus D’sa says, “Many blind children in the coastal districts still have no access to specialized schools. Many parents in rural areas send their visually impaired children to normal Govt schools nearby. Such children lack skills and braille literacy because in normal school they can’t be failed till grade 8.”
Commenting about the lack of comprehensive information about the blind children in the district, he says “According to the statistics furnished by District Development Welfare Office (DDWO), there are 42 visually impaired children in Dakshina Kannada. Our school has only 21, so where are the rest? The Multipurpose Rehabilitation Workers (MRW) and Village Rehabilitation Workers (VRW) who are entrusted with the task of rehabilitating people with disabilities should help us locate the rest of the children so that we can give them specialized education”.
He further urges the teachers and social activists to identify any visually impaired children studying in ordinary schools and guide them to him.