The visually impaired may not see anything other than black. But they have imagination to perceive colours, says Mustafa Khan. He has trained a group of blind students in crayon-drawing. The students from CSI Victoria School use a specially designed crayon-holder that helps them identify blue, orange, green or any other colour. Mr Khan, who has designed the crayon-holder, says his design is based on what he calls the concept of pop-up symbolism. The concept exploits the sense of touch, feel and symbolism to enable the visually impaired to perceive varied colours.

As a normal person, I can’t say I grasp what he is saying. The handicapped apparently have a visual edge. That Mr Khan has effectively used pop-up symbolism to train the visually disabled to perceive colours proves the point. For the benefit of ‘tube-lights’, such as yours truly, he has cut a promotional CD explaining pop-up symbolism.

Mr.Khan is a spare-time artist who works for a living at Bharat Earth Movers Ltd (BEML), Mysore. His passion is teaching the young ones to draw and paint. “I have kids coming to my place to learn drawing,” Mr khan said, “they include some deaf-mute’. When he found the blind students at the school near Wellesly Church were equally eager about drawing, Mr Khan thought, ‘why not?’  

NCERT, which has been inspired by ‘Iqbal’ to introduce teaching sign language in its schools, could learn from Mustafa about helping the visually disabled to ‘see’ colours in their lives.

Mr.Khan can be reached at 0821 – 2414307 or e-mailed – mkhan_graphics@yahoo.com