Visually impaired since birth, this 11-year-old from Tamil Nadu achieved his long-cherished dream of becoming a TV news anchor, to be remembered proudly as the world’s first visually impaired news anchor as claimed by the channel.
T Sriramanujam went live for 22 minutes on the Lotus News, a satellite television channel based at Coimbatore. The young boy read the first news bulletin of his life with the help of Braille.
As he read the special news live, speaking about the latest news developments including a follow up story on Nepal earthquake, his family watched him with tears of joy.
“Talent cannot be restricted by disability. No disabled child should be isolated by society. My request to all parents is if you have a disabled child make them an achiever. Disability should not limit the disabled child to achieve what a normal child could otherwise achieve,” said Kalaiarasi, Sriramanujam’s mother.
Sriramanujam is a student of the blind school. Even though he has never seen a television set, he is a devoted listener of the broadcast programs and dreamt of becoming a news anchor someday.
He was offered this opportunity by Lotus News Channel. According to the channel Chairman, G.K.S. Selvakumar, the primary purpose of choosing a visually impaired reader was to create awareness on disability and also to promote eye donation.
Currently, he is a news reader of a special weekly programme but will soon become a permanent daily news reader.
With Sriramanujam, the channel is proving as a good example and has further opened doors for several opportunities for people with disabilities.
