Blindfolded for a cause

The whole exercise is to enable them to get a feel of what hardships visually challenged people may have to undergo when trying to board a bus so that the drivers and conductors make BEST travel easier for them.

For aiding visually challenged commuters,BEST and the National Association for the Blind (NAB) have together chalked out a training programme. The series of lectures is conducted every Tuesday to sensitise drivers and conductors to the need of passengers and improve services and politeness. They are trained by a group of NAB volunteers and the sessions had been on since June 2010.

The blindfolding exercise is an effective way to sensitise them to the needs of visually challenged commuters. “This kind of exercise gives the bus drivers and conductors an opportunity to know the problems of the visually challenged people and look at the problems more sensitively,” says Ashok Parihar,a field officer with NAB who is part of the training team.

“The problem for any visually challenged commuter starts when he wants to board a bus. Many a time,drivers do not stop near the edge of the bus-stop and leave a lot of space between the bus-stop and bus. The gap is used by motor-bikes which makes it difficult for visually challenged passengers to board the bus. It also leads to accidents. In the workshop we sensitised drivers about this.”

“There are several other problems being addressed through workshops,” explains Suhas Karnik,honorary secretary,NAB,who also works with the Bank of India.

“If a visually challenged person is waiting at a bus-stop,he knows his destination and also the bus no. But if he/she asks the drivers/conductor about the bus no,the reply is usually,‘where do you want to go’. If he is simply told the bus number,the complications would reduce and commuters’ time would also be saved. Secondly,one need not shout or speak loudly as they may be blind but they can hear perfectly well.”

Apart from it,drivers and conductors are also trained to be patient enough to explain any visually challenged commuter about monetary transactions for the travel. “Most of the time,a visually challenged person carries the exact amount as fare,but if he does not,the conductor has to explain him about the transactions,” added Karnik.

Bala Laxman Bali,a bus driver with the BEST for 17 years,says,“It’s not that we are insensitive to problems of the visually challenged. But through this exercise,we actually came to know the problems faced by them. This will surely help us in serving them better.”

“The association was important for both BEST and NAB. BEST got an opportunity to provide better services to commuters. For NAB it was a chance to help us know about problems of visually challenged people,” said Uday Tayshette,traffic officer (training),in-charge of the training.

In a step ahead,the advocacy department of NAB,which is looking after such programmes,is tying up with airlines to sensitise their staff as they have done for BEST.