Visionary Dr. Sam Taraporevala Shows The Way

When Superman wasn’t saving the world, he was working as a newspaper reporter. It’s practically the same with Dr. Taraporevala – he’s an Associate Professor and Head Department of Sociology and Anthropology at St. Xaviers College, but he doubles as Director, XRCVC (Xavier’s Resource Center for the Visually Challenged)”, is how Rtn. Freyaz Shroff introduced our visionary speaker, Dr. Sam Taraporevala, whose Club address on March 29th, 2016, left the Rotarians amazed and inspired.

It is said that genius arises out of the need for adaptability. Championing that truth Dr. Taraporevala has transformed his own visual impairment into a resounding success – as a visionary actively involved in the advocacy and awareness in the field of social inclusion, using applied research to address key access challenges for persons with blindness and low vision. Dr. Sam Taraporevala has been teaching since twenty-seven years. His consistent endeavors have resulted in the amendment of the Copyright Act, India in 2012, with the deployment of over 12,000 talking ATMs being made accessible to the blind and science education initiated for the blind and low vision students.

With forty million people facing print disabilities, Dr. Taraporevala’s relentless crusade has helped make the world more accessible to all. He has led new and creative thought right to action in his definitive purpose to redefine the word ‘disability’. “I’m going to help you understand the world of the blind. I can try to give you a taste of it. I would also like to help debunk a lot of myths about blindness,” said Dr. Sam Taraporevala as he started his address. “I’m going to request all of you to shut your eyes and try to read the latest message that you have received.” After a collective answer from the audience in the negative, he brought out his own phone and started operating it, using the voice-activated feature, guiding him and helping him operate it purposefully.

“I didn’t use my eyes to read this message, I used my ears. When we come down to ‘reading’, I can read, just that the pathway I chose to read, is an alternate channel. Today when we talk about different technologies, lots are being created with accessibility built into it. We can be as functional without using your eyes, as anybody else!” “In the world of the blind, we use brail. But we also need to use technology to avoid a digital divide – a separation between the haves and the have-nots. Today, there are a number of blind people who are not too well placed economically or educationally. But you can give the right opportunity through schooling and college, have blind persons playing critical roles in various sectors – I know of people who have done their MBAs working in corporates, lawyers and accountants – in the USA we even have blind doctors.” At XRCVC we are committed to promoting holistic development for the blind. We work at the school level to ensure that education for the blind children is inclusive.

A concern is that mostly all will tell parents of a blind child to send the child to a special school or a blind school. My question is why so? Why not regular school with integrated school programs? My brother and I were both born blind and my parents were asked to put us also in a special school for the blind. We are fortunate that our parents did otherwise. They asked those people April 05 to April 11, 2016 The Bulletin of the Rotary Club of Bombay Page 5 Winners of the ‘Chocolate Game’ receiving gifts from the Assimilation Committee Rtn. Sitaram Shah poses a question during the Q&A session a simple question – after school, will there be a special college? And after that will there also be a special job and a cocoon in which my children will live? And the answer was ‘No’. So they chose to put us through regular school.

Today lots of children are going to regular schools but many more are going to special schools. This builds awareness, sensitivity and a society where we can all live as equals.” “Another key area I would like to speak on is accessibility. Today all books don’t need to be in brail to be accessible to the visually impaired. Today technology can scan and read out a book. Earlier that was a criminal offence in keeping with the copyright violations. But the Indian Government finally amended the law and today organizations for the blind or print disabled persons can work on creating accessible books. We work with publishers to provide accessible copy but yet thousands of books aren’t accessible, especially in the area of study of Mathematics. Over the last couple of years, we have started preparing these books. Creating such a book in accessible format is very expensive, even so, we believe that a book-famine should not prevent a child’s quest for knowledge.

” Dr. Taraporevala’s presence on other national bodies include VP and Chair, Committee on Policy Intervention, DAISY Forum of India; Member of various premier institutions including The Braille Council of India (BCI); The General Council, National Institute for the Visually Handicapped (NIVH); and the Expert Committee to decide and list out modern assistive devices for all categories of PWDs under revised ADIP Scheme, Department of Disability Affairs, Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Govt. of India. “I would like to urge Rotarians to think about helping promote accessible study material for persons with print disability – this is not just for blind children – it could also be for a learning-disabled child or those who do not have effective use of upper arms and many different conditions.

If I had one wish with regards to changing things related to people with general disabilities and blindness in particular, I would wish for awareness. There are lots of misconceptions. We need to change the lack of awareness. We run a program in September called ‘Antarchakshu’ or the eye within, to spread awareness and sensitization, and I would urge you all to ensure you visit us– it will be an hour-long, eyeopening experience with your eyes shut. As a city and a nation and an individual, we need to be aware and we need to sensitize people to what is an inclusive workplace. I believe that each one of you can be agents of change to stimulate a thought process and we would like to work with RCB to take this awareness message forward.”