Impairment does not mean Incompetence

“Blind people taking photographs? Deaf people talking on the phone?”

Sightfeeling and Pedius... the former promotes the culture of “blind photography”, while the latter has designed a mobile app specifically for the deaf, with users all over the world. These are two social enterprises serving different physically impaired communities, but they share the same sense of purpose.

"We believe that visually impaired people can use blind photography as their first language to express themselves”

While discussing blind photography with Fishing Tsoi, co-founder of Sightfeeling , I immediately thought of a book I read many years ago called The Blind Photographer. It features the works of more than 50 blind and visually impaired photographers, bringing forth a powerful message. Although visually impaired people do not have the eyesight to record images, they can use their senses of hearing, touch, smell and space to create other possibilities.

"One year, we went to Taiwan to photograph the New Year's Eve fireworks. Every photographer had their equipment well prepared and had found the perfect spot to take pictures. However, due to environmental protection issues, the government organised very few fireworks that only lasted a short time. A lot of photographers failed to take any photos, but one visually impaired photographer captured a perfect moment using the smell of the sulphur from the fireworks," Tsoi says. She believes that, while normal people can learn to take photographs, visually impaired people use their other senses to take pictures, and their understanding of light and heat is very different from that of normal people.

“Ideas first before dealing with technicalities”

Sightfeeling is a social enterprise founded by a group of youngsters together with visually impaired people. Their vision is to enable the public to appreciate the work of visually impaired photographers through blindfolded tours and blind photography. Visually impaired photographer, Kwok Kin explains that when they go out to take photographs, the main cues are verbal descriptions and road guiding, such as the "clock reference system”, to tell the visually impaired photographers which direction images and things are, so that they can learn about the surrounding environment. The visually impaired photographers decide on the themes, ideas and presentations themselves. Technical skills are not the most important. The most essential thing is what they feel inside their hearts, or the "eye" in their hearts – that is “the decisive moment”. "Before I joined Sightfeeling, I would sometimes take a few photos, but the content and theme were singular and limited. Now I know I should ask myself, "Why take this picture?" Kwok says. Sharing his feelings and experiences with different friends helped broaden Kwok's mind and horizons. After that, he started to explore other aspects, such as techniques and ideas.

Being able to have a group of friends with the same interest is the purpose behind taking photographs together, and the mission behind Sightfeeling. They also have other partners working alongside them. "Receiving the DBS Social Impact Prize provided us with great encouragement. Apart from access to more resources, we can also take the opportunity to expand our circle, to meet more friends from other social enterprises, and continue with our mission," Tsoi says. She reveals that since the coronavirus hit, workshops and exhibitions have been postponed and cancelled. But Sightfeeling has other ways, such as selling postcards taken by visually impaired photographers online, so that people around the world can learn about their work. “I hope people will not doubt the capability of visually impaired photographers anymore.” Tsoi says.

“Everything starts with communication”

As Tsoi and Sightfeeling search for ways to explore other possibilities of photography, Italian social enterprise for the hearing impaired, Pedius hopes that technology can bring people closer together. Because of the pandemic, we talked to Pedius founder Lorenzo Di Ciaccio, who lives in Italy, through video conferencing. "So many people ask me why I founded Pedius. Well, the biggest reason is that there was one time a hearing-impaired friend had a traffic accident and was unable to call for help! Pedius, an app that interconverts text and speech in real-time and allows hearing impaired people to make phone calls, was then born about six months later," Di Ciaccio says. Since its launch in 2003, Pedius has been used in 12 countries, and was launched in Hong Kong last year.

Fiona Wat, the Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan Director of Pedius, thinks that communication is the key to daily life and interaction. "When we just launched Pedius, a woman was able to 'talk' to her mother in a telephone conversation for the first time ever. I was overwhelmed by happiness and excitement. After all, for aging parents, texting on a mobile phone is not an easy thing to do. We are very grateful to DBS Bank for sponsoring the programme for one year, so more hearing-impaired people can use this service for free,” she says.

Fiona says that, like Di Ciaccio, we should all pay attention to the people and the things happening around us. A small discovery or idea can benefit society as a whole and help the needy. Di Ciaccio hopes that Pedius can establish a school to provide hearing impaired people with an education and help them finish their studies. People putting their strengths together to assist those in need is probably the definition of everyday heroes.