Experience what it is to be Deafblind : Our story on how we made it happen
In the month of November, 2015 we met with this organization called Sense International India. It was one of our regular rounds of connecting with organizations and pitch about their communication needs; we were all but half a year young company then. We were eager and we were hungry to create something new in the way we make designs, illustrations, graphics, films and stories. By this time we had worked on a couple of corporate films, doing a round of campaigns for a couple of merchandise brands and had a couple of animated films under our kitty to brag about, some wonderful packaging.
We yearned for something more. Something that was not at all conventional.
We came to this organization with a hope to score what we can call a good design and communication package that can be different that what they normally do. Within the first few meetings, we had certain ideas that were exchanged and there were a quite a few discussions that were made. The main point in all of it was ‘HOW TO SPREAD AWARENESS ABOUT DEAFBLINDNESS’ & ‘HOW TO LET PEOPLE KNOW ABOUT THE ORGANIZATION’.
Then it happened. A Chance meeting. A meeting that would change everything we had discussed with them up until now:
- We met a deafblind person for the first time in our life.
- We were knocked out of our seats for the person he was, ZAMEER.
We met Zameer, a deafblind, who became deafblind, gradually. He had his vision and hearing till certain years, and then due to some sickness started to lose his senses. He was quite young at the time he lost it. So he vaguely remembers certain things, but cannot identify them.
A deafblind persons method of communicating is:
- We can write on their palm and they recognize the gestures(High IQ people like Zameer can easily do them, lot of others need practice)
- Sign Language: They use sign language, but they need to touch your hand as you sign them, so as to understand
- They can be taught braille and they also have a device that can help them read things from cell phones and digital stuff.
- They communicate back mostly with sign language.
Over the few days, Zameer took us on a journey about him and the work he does. He was sharp, sharper than so many fully abled people we see around. He coaxed us to learn more and in process opened our eyes to the world that they were living. Some of our questions knocked his memories and some made us cry. He was funny and he was patient. He was challenging and never a bit sad about what and how he was. He was proud of what he has achieved and the work he does. He was also patient with 1. questions about all cliched deafblindness related queries 2. He was thorough with them over the years that he has presented at various places. He was in the team that trained @SrBachchan and #RaniMukherjee for the movie #Black.
Anyway, that is how it all began. Moving on to SensX, it took three home made simulations with noise cancelling ear phones, ear plugs and blinds and other experiments to not even get close to what it felt to be without sight and sound. And in all the experiments, however far we were from the actual thing, we were still terrified about what we were experiencing.
That whole first meeting made us realize, our loss of senses. How we have taken so many of our senses for granted.
This is how it started. (to be continued).
