Panyam Sai Vinayak can swiftly play his fingers on the keyboard of his laptop typing Telugu as well as play a musical keyboard producing nearly perfect tunes.
With total visual impairment since birth, Vinayak, 17, is pursuing under-graduation in English literature, politics and history in the Andhra Loyola College (ALC) and uses his voice-enabled laptop and tablet extensively for education, music and cricket, to sing songs and other activities for recreation.
Topper in Intermediate
His dedication to achieving big in life has always put him at the forefront in education. Vinayak scored 886 marks in Intermediate last year becoming the topper among the visually challenged students in AP. He was recently bestowed upon with the Prathiba Award by the Education Department for it and has become an inspiration for many students studying in ALC and other colleges.
“He can perform many tasks with ease and competes with other students in the college. Not just education but he does well in music too,” says P. Bhargav Ram, a proud father of Vinayak.
In SSC, he scored GPA 9.7, the highest in AP and Telangana that year among the visually challenged, Mr. Ram adds.
“I want to become a civil servant and it is the reason why I have selected the current degree course. After UG, I shall go to the JNU for MA where I can pursue politics while getting trained for civils,” Vinayak explains his career plan in a nutshell.
Against all odds
However, scoring top marks is no easy task for Vinayak. He had to face difficulties like not being able to find a proper scribe, unwanted subjects like mathematics, lack of material for the visually challenged and others.
“No school granted him admission when we moved from Hyderabad to Vijayawada. Finally, St. John’s School came forward. His greatest support is his maternal uncle K. Deepak and braille teacher Nirmala,” says Mr. Ram. Vinayak studies subjects through audio recordings of text book content by Mr. Deepak.
“AP has no institution that prints braille books. It would be a huge problem for students who cannot afford electronic devices for learning,” he says.
“Except the ALC, there is no institution that could provide the required support to persons with vision disability. The college provides scribes and also training in computer usage. The governments should make subjects like mathematics as optionals for the challenged or provide special teaching instead of forcing them to study and pass unwanted subjects,” Mr. Deepak says.
Vinayak, who regularly plays cricket with a special ball with his uncle Deepak, wants the AP government to set up a cricket training institute for them.
