With the living example of a father who gave up and confined to the house with his partial blindness, Sumit Kumar’s parents were apprehensive of him doing the same. This thought always hurt his mother and brother who took the responsibility of the family on their shoulders after his father gave up his private job. Both mother and brother work in the public sector and earn for the family. Sumit’s mother intervened in his life strongly to empower him and help him live an independent life.
She put him in the nearby mainstream school and he studied there with the support of his mother, friends and teachers. His family and school authorities were unaware of scribes or special educators and aids or technology for the visually impaired that Sumit learned the hard way memorizing notes, listening to his parents and friends reading out loud, taking the help of friends to write etc. With the support of his mother he never left his education at any point. After school he joined for Bachelor’s degree in History. And by now he started taking the help of scribes to give his exams. He successfully finished his graduation and went on to pursue post-graduation. It was during this period he got know about Eyeway from his friends in college. Knowing about these services he contacted Eyeway looking for an accessible reference text book for his semester exams. Though there are online libraries like ‘Sugamya Pustakalaya’ where from one can download accessible books, he wasn’t aware of that. Eyeway counselor was quick to react. The required book was downloaded in an accessible format and shared with Sumit.
Sumit’s life could have gone the same way as his father’s which would have left his mother devastated like she was for her husband. But he chose otherwise, his mother thought otherwise and he has almost become a testimony to many people who give in to their problems by blaming it on their circumstances or parents or anything except oneself.