Charting out his own course

22-year-old Ujjwal Kumar called Eyeway from his native place, Sasaram in Bihar. He was in search of coaching classes to help him prepare for Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) exams.

On engaging with him, Eyeway counselor learnt that Ujjwal lost his eye sight at the age of 12 because of an injury. He had to take a break from his studies after Class 7 because of the recently acquired vision impairment. Three years later, a friend informed Ujjwal of a local training institute where he could learn braille which finally helped him in pursuing his education.

But the journey was never smooth for Ujjwal as he didn’t have proper information of what was available in terms of assistance, technology or training programmes for visually impaired people like him. When he got in touch with Eyeway, not only did we give him several options of coaching centers that would help him prep for UPSC but also informed him of technology devices that could aid him. He learnt about audio books, screen readers, daisy player and so on.

Ujjwal joined the suggested coaching center but failed to clear his exam. But by this time, given the knowledge and confidence he had acquired from the engagement with Eyeway, Ujjwal decided to do something of his own. He opened up a UPSC coaching center of his own where he would teach students preparing for their exams. He made use of assistive technology devices to convert study material into accessible format so he could seamlessly deliver the knowledge in his coaching classes.

Apart from running the center with an income inflow of his own, Ujjwal is also pursuing MA in Public Administration from Indira Gandhi Open University.