Why do you do Esha?
I don’t know. Why do we breathe?
On 5th January, Esha (www.eshabraille.org) quietly completed
19 years and stepped into the 20th.
And that, led to a moment of introspection.
Of course, the first thing that comes to mind is how Esha has truly
remained a volunteer-driven initiative. In this year, I hope that we are able
to deepen ties with our existing volunteers. That has been a long-standing area
of improvement.
The second is that the last few years of uncertainty might have been
necessary, but they have put us back a little bit. So, we will have to work a
little harder to make up for lost time.
The third is that now that there is clarity of purpose and a clear
boundary around what we want to do, it should be a top priority to get things
going. Being a primarily action-oriented person, this one comes easily to me.
AND, given that there is much to do, we will take a minute to list the
work done so far, and then focus on the future.
We:
·
Were able
to talk about Braille enabled visiting cards and create a service center in India.
This service center, run by Venkatesh, services braille visiting cards all over
the country.
·
Were able
to create an online audio library in Indian languages which required no sign up
and no subscription – in 2010.
·
Were able
to create and help deliver a theater workshop that was conducted by a blind professional
for sighted participants. It was a super hit!
·
Were able
to create a structured student volunteering program, and then run it every
year, from 2012 onwards. Later, such programs have become a lot more frequent.
·
Do some
very interesting work in research in our sector.
It was good work, and we are grateful for being the medium through which
it was done.
So, if you are reading this post, do join us.
Esha currently has three clear verticals. You can help in any one.
A.
Knowledge
Democracy – www.clabil.org /audio.php –
· Content – Needed in Nepali.
· Please help us take the library to more
stakeholders.
· We need help in publishing our content on
archive.org – we started a channel but have not been able to upload enough
content.
B.
Sensitisation
– When I started the season of inclusion in December 2023, I thought it would
be as simple as going to a public place and hosting a blind walk. It wasn’t. We
realised that we now need organising support to conduct a Blind Walk. So, if
you are looking for an employee or student volunteering opportunity for your
own office/school/college, do consider a Blind Walk.
More details here: https://eshabraille.org/current-projects/ and here https://eshabraille.org/blind-walks/
C.
Research –
Saving the best for the last. Data driven policy making needs data. One of the
most important gaps we have is independent research. So, Esha’s third vertical
is going to be research. So far, two out of our three research reports are in
the public domain:
Career Choices:
https://eshabraille.org/3d-flip-book/career-choices-of-the-visually-disabled/
Attitudes towards specially-abled colleagues:
https://eshabraille.org/research-report-attitude-of-the-sighted-towards-specially-abled-colleagues/
This year, we are planning follow-up research –
What is the workplace experience of both sighted and blind colleagues, in an
inclusive workplace?
We are currently in the research design stage.
Amit Jain, who is a Fellow from IIM Cal and now a professor at SPJIMR is
mentoring the research. If you have inputs that can help, experiences to share,
that will be very welcome.
Otherwise, you can do one of the following:
1.
Join the
research. All responses are confidential and very important. Data gathering is
likely to be from April – Aug 2024.
2.
Connect us
to researchers. This is going to be a behavioral observation + conversation
study and we are going to need good researchers.
Long ago, I used to send an annual update on Esha which was emailed to
all Friends of Esha. That will, if all goes well, be resumed this year. Please
do wish us luck as we start this journey, and, hop on!
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