Dilmah National Cricket Tournament for the Visually Impaired 2017 My Experience.

This year we had our qualifies at Monaragala. We had 5 teams in our group. They were Shakthi, Super Kings, Senehasa, Rathmalana School Team and The Sri Lanka Council for the Blind. We had to travel for 8 hours to reach Monaragala, but everything was arranged nicely for our players and we had a good rest before our matches.

We won our first match against the Thangalle Senehasa Team. Kalyan Kumar scored a half century, in balling me and Kalyan took 3 wickets each. Kalyan Kumar is a member of the national cricket team since 1998 so it was a great experience for me to play with him in the same team. After the first round we placed 3^rd in the group. In the quarter finals we lost to Super Kings Team. In that match Madusanka Vishvanath scored a half century, In balling he took 3 wickets, me and Kalyan took 1 wicket each.

I’m satisfied with my performances in the tournament this year. 

Chess for the visually impaired in Sri Lanka

For a long time I wanted to write something and create awareness in the SL chess community about the Visually impaired chess players of Sri Lanka.

Most of us do not have the faintest idea that such 'visually handicapped' players exist in Sri Lanka. That includes most of the National players who have played against IBCA in the Olympiads.

Recently I (along with Marlon Fernando) had the good fortune of assisting the preparation of three Sri Lankan players who represented Sri Lanka at IBCA Asia Pacific Chess Championship for Visually Challenged, 2017 held in India.

Few simple words of encouragement would also mean a great deal for Visually handicapped players. Also please note some of them learned to play chess AFTER they became completely blind, which is something incredible. (Most of them are soldiers who fought the war and lost their precious eye sight due to explosions)

The leader of our Visually handicapped Chess team Mr Tuan Rushdi Cassim has following message to our chess community. In his message he discusses the need for them to play in regular tournaments in order to improve. I implore all our International rated tournament organizers to consider his request and provide them with an opportunity. (FIDE rules allow Visually handicapped players to play in regular tournaments)

"Chess is the only sport a visually impaired player can play with a sighted player with an equal-ground. Chess for the visually impaired first started in Sri Lanka in early 2000’s. The Sri Lankan national visually impaired Chess team has represented the country in the Asia Pacific Chess Championship for Visually Challenged in the year 2003 and 2017. There are about 40 visually impaired Chess players in Sri Lanka. As a member of the visually impaired national Chess team I feel that, the best way to improve Chess for the visually impaired in Sri Lanka is to give us an opportunity to play in some tournaments organised for the sighted Chess players. This will help our players to get tournament practice and to get ratings"

How visually impaired play Chess

The Chess Board of 64 squares has the following modifications:

•All the Black squares are raised about 3-4 mm above the white squares. By feeling the squares, the player is able to determine whether the square is a black or a white one.

•Each of the squares on the Board has a hole in the centre so that the pieces can be fixed in these holes.

•Each of the pieces has a downward projection (nail) at the base, which fits into the hole in the squares on the Board, thereby fixing the piece securely on the board.

•All the Black pieces have a pin fixed on their heads helping the player distinguish between a white and a black piece.

The players therefore, by feeling the raised or the lowered squares can figure out whether the piece is on a black or a white square. By feeling the shape of the piece, they can determine whether the piece is a Pawn, Rook, Bishop, Knight, Queen or King. The touch of the pin on the pieces helps the player from distinguishing a white piece from a black one. The player is therefore able to have a clear picture in his mind of the position on the Board. He is now ready to take on any opponent, sighted or otherwise.

Reference : http://www.ibca-info.org/how-visually-impaired-play-chess.php

Workshop on Supporting Inclusive Society 2017

“Inclusive Society”, a topic which is so close to my heart. Firstly I would like to share my experience and what I know about an inclusive society. When I started my first job as a manager at a wedding decoration firm I was just an undergraduate.  At that time I didn’t know my eyesight was so poor to work in an office environment. Employees who worked under me at that time had noticed I had a poor eyesight and they have told this matter to the director of the organization. They have tested my eyesight while I was at work in different ways that I didn’t have any clue that they were testing me. One day the director told me I got a poor eyesight which is a barrier for the position I was working at that time and told me to resign from the job. It was a shock for me, I can still remember the day I left that job. I stood in the bus stop wondering what to do or where to go for a long time. After that I was afraid to apply for any jobs and I was at home for 2 years trying different treatments to improve my eyesight.

Then I joined the Sri Lanka Council for the Blind rehabilitation program, to learn how to use the computer with screen readers and to learn Braille. I also joined the Employers’ Federation of Ceylon ICT program for the visually impaired. I gained good knowledge about screen readers and I also served as a volunteer information technology instructor at Rathmalana School for the Blind. At that time I was confident that I can work in an office environment because I had good knowledge in tools that a visually impaired person can use in an office environment to perform different tasks. When I was a member in the Sri Lanka Federation of Visually Handicapped Youth I got my dream job, the job that I loved to do. To be an e-Marketing Consultant. I was very happy about my new job. I had lots of experience and knowledge to apply at my work to improve the business for the new organization I joined.

As usual I started analysing their web site and recognised some changes and started working on them. I checked their email marketing system and fixed an issue they were facing at that time, I created new social media pages which are essential for their kind of business, checking emails, social media inquiries, analysing website hits etc. e-Marketing was a new area for business at that time so no one at the organisation didn’t know much about e-Marketing. For them e-Marketing was, the number of Facebook Fan Page likes and the number of Facebook friends. I was working with screen readers, a magnified computer screen and a video magnifier to read printed documents. I felt like I was an “Alien”, who has come from another world, where others were performing their tasks normally. Other employees in the organisation  made me feel like that. They were focussing more on things I couldn’t do than things I can do. For example designing leaflets, which is challenging for me to do with my vision. They didn’t believe in building a strong e-marketing base which will help an organisation to improve their business in the future and a visually challenged person can do it for them. I didn’t want to work there anymore because my working environment was very uncomfortable.

After that I got an opportunity to work with the Employers’ Federation of Ceylon. To manage the e-Marketing campaign for their biggest event, “The EFC Business Symposium”. And to manage the e-Marketing campaign for the project “Local Empowerment through Economic Development” (LEED), organized by The Employers’ Federation of Ceylon Disability Network. It was a totally different working environment for me. When I was working with them I felt that my voice was heard and I’m an important person in the organization. I also got an opportunity to work as a “Bio Medical Support Technician”, a job title many visually impaired persons would skip when applying for a job. Managing a person with disability at a working place is a rare skill for an employer. I saw that quality in all the workers in the company where I worked as a Bio Medical Technician. It’s amazing how encouraging they were, my boss always used to say “Believe in God, He can do miracles” and he told others to support me at work. I had my own tool set. I had a portable video magnifier, a torch, a normal magnifier and my screen reading software installed to the laptop. My boss used to take my opinion in IT related issues in the company. I felt that I’m an important employee in the company. I supported in repairing bio medical equipment’s, preparing documents, managing maintenance reports, handing over repaired machines to hospitals and managing IT related tasks in the company.

In sports I got the opportunity to practice and play with regular vision players and I was welcomed to join with them both in Swimming and Chess. When I was reading for my degree and other courses I got all the resources I needed to complete my tasks. Lecturers and my colleagues were very supportive and friendly. With all these mixed experiences about an inclusive society I was so excited and happy to participate in the workshop on “Supporting Inclusive Society”.

The workshop was organized by the Asian Blind Union (ABU). venue of the workshop was Opulent River Face Hotel. It was a 4 day workshop, starting from the 21^st May to 24^th May 2017. The facilitator for the workshop was Ms. Soha Fleyfil. Members from India, Pakistan, Afganistan and Sri Lanka participated in the workshop.

The main topics covered in the workshop were defining inclusion, disability inclusion, Characteristics of an inclusive organisation, Characteristics of an inclusive manager, the project cycle, vision, mission, overall strategy, accessibility and areas of accessibility. We did lot of practical’s to understand the meanings of all the lessons and how we can practically use what we learned from the workshop. The lessons were structured in a way that we can understand everything about an inclusive society. Among South Asian countries I felt that India is in front when it comes to protecting rights for a person with disability. In Pakistan and Afganistan it is similar  to what we are practicing here in Sri Lanka.

According to my experiences and the knowledge I gained from the workshop I feel that if you are a person with a disability no matter what tools you use, for a visually impaired person even though you have a synthetic pair of eyes that you can use at your workplace, if the working environment is not comfortable for you, it is hard for you to perform your tasks effectively and efficiently. For me an inclusive organisation is an organisation which values the contribution of all employees, including individuals with disabilities. Our voice should be heard. It makes us feel we are also a part of the organisation. I felt that, if employers can participate in these kinds of workshops they would also learn something that they can use at their workplace. The manager plays a crucial role in an inclusive organisation. For an inclusive organisation, “Full participation  is not the goal it is the action”!