Nathaniel Fernandes

Saksham

The Saksham Trust was established in 2003 under the leadership of Mr. Dipendra Manocha, himself a visually impaired person, with the sole purpose of empowering persons with blindness. It plays a key role in advocacy and act as a service provider in the field of rehabilitation, education, training and assistive technology. In addition to a school for children with visual impairment and multiple disabilities, it runs a distribution center of assistive aids and appliances for education, mobility and independent living. It has developed entertainment and education comprehensible for blind children through audio description of movies, creation of accessible books in Braille, e-text and audio compliant to DAISY standards. Saksham plays a vital role in the SmartCane project by determining the user specifications, involving users for trials and collating feedback and nationwide distribution with a network of partner welfare organisations.