“Visual Impairment Has Enabled Me”: Jasdeep’s Brave Journey

By Jasdeep Kaur, 40, Delhi

Everyone in my Sikh family was well educated so I too went in for Master’s in Computer Application from Pune after graduating in mathematics from Delhi. In college, I began showing signs of a genetic disorder called Retinitis Pigmentosa, which led to loss of vision by the time I was working in a software firm in Noida.

A bad fall later, I quit the corporate life.

I soon got a freelance job as a technical writer for a Swiss firm that creates standards for accessible book publishing. It gave me confidence and the right tools I needed to navigate my world. I also married a wonderful south Indian man, Krishnan, who was a former colleague. Our daughter Sonakshi is now nine (pictured with me above).

I’ve always had a creative side: I write poems and sing. So, along with my guru, Ustad Amjad Ali Khan, I set up the Kirana Gharana Music Academy in Delhi’s Dwarka district a few years ago. I manage my workplace and home with ease, using voiceover apps in phones and screenreaders on laptops, though commuting across the city can be a problem.

Visual impairment has enabled me. It showed me a side of myself I would have never explored had I been sighted. I’ve done more after losing my vision. There is gain in loss.

First published in the September 2017 issue of eShe magazine