42 year old Nilish works for the State Bank of India (SBI) in Indore, Madhya Pradesh. He was diagnosed with Retinitis Pigmentosa at the age of 20 after which he underwent treatment for 3 years but to no avail. He gradually lost his vision completely. But despite his vision impairment, Nilish pursued his education in mainstream institutions and he earned a Masters in Political Science.
Nilish started off by working with Canara Bank as a Probationary Officer and moved on to join SBI in 2006. Acknowledging and rewarding his efficiency, Nilish was then promoted to the Administration Department of SBI. Over and above his regular function, he was also asked to conduct training for his peers, as part of a bimonthly Disability Sensitization workshop conducted by SBI for all its employees. When Nilish was first asked to impart training to co-workers, with an objective to sensitize his sighted and able peers, he reached out to Eyeway for help. He contacted the Helpdesk seeking relevant resource material to aid in his training. Eyeway counselor not only lauded SBI’s initiative of sensitizing its sighted employees but also provided Nilish with adequate material that could help alter mindsets towards disability and persons with visual impairment. Our counselor shared with Nilish a 13 part video series called Nazar Ya Nazariya, each episode of which profiles successful blind people pursuing different lines of work despite their disability. The series also touches upon common themes like universal design, education, employment, relationships and so on. Apart from the videos, Eyeway counselor also shared various blogs and articles citing the Do’s and Don’ts of how to behave around people with visual impairment, how much and when to offer help and how to respond to their varied needs.
Nilish made efficient use of all the material provided by Eyeway in his training sessions. In a follow up call, he told us about the visible difference in the awareness levels of his co-workers.