But while his class listens attentively, few students take notes. They can barely see what’s on their screens because, like Alam, they are all visually impaired.
“Visually impaired people are often overlooked, and the government does not have adequate resources,” Alam told The i Paper. “So those with limited know-how must step up, otherwise they can’t empower themselves.”
While Alam had to learn to navigate his own education without his sight, he was not born blind. He gradually lost his vision after contracting typhoid at the age of 11. He recovered from the fever but by the time doctors realised the cause of the illness, it was too late to save his sight. By 13 his vision was gone.
Shahin Alam at his computer“Once it was gone, the pain was life-altering, something words can’t fully capture.”
More than half of children with disabilities in Bangladesh are not enrolled in any formal education, according to the government’s 2021 National Survey on Persons with Disabilities. Among children with disabilities between the ages of five and 17, only 41 per cent were in primary school and only 24 per cent in secondary education.
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He enrolled at the University of Dhaka and studied political science. The university had a resource centre for the visually impaired.
“I kept thinking about how to bridge that gap,” Alam said. The opportunity came during the Covid-19 pandemic, when the country went into lockdown and all aspects of life became digital. For many, the ability to attend classes, work from home or stay connected depended on having access to a computer, and knowing how to use it.
He created a free computer training course for the visually impaired and has since taught more than 400 people from Bangladesh and India. One of his students was Mohtasim Billah, 40, an English teacher from Birampur in northern Bangladesh, who was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa, which causes progressive vision loss. Billah runs a small English language centre, but around a dozen tuition and IT centres have popped up around him as demand for English proficiency grows.
Mohtasim Billah giving a class with his new computerFor Alam, Billah’s story proves why his work is so important: “Many people still believe blind people can’t work and are a burden. I started this project to prove them wrong.”
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