"You see, that sound is called a screen reader. There are several screen readers for both computers and phones.
The ones we use on our computers are called JAWS, which means Job Access With Speech. There are other screen readers for computers like narrator, VLC, etc."
After a pause, the proprietor called out to some of the students, asking for their phones. Mrs. Righteous was surprised upon seeing the students handing him their Android, blackberry and iPhones.
Before she could ask the pressing question about how the students were able to operate the sophisticated mobile phones, the proprietor resumed talking.
"Just like the computer, phones like Symbian, Android, BlackBerry and Apple phones also have their screen reader and voice commands.
"In Symbian phones, the talking software is called Talks, for Android phones, it's called either TalkBack or Android accessibility suite, and finally for the Apple phones, it is called Voiceover."
Another "wonderful" emanated from Mrs. Green while Ayanate continued listening in silence, drinking in the new information.
93
"With these screen readers," Mr David continued, "any blind person can literally do anything that's possible for people who can see to do on their devices."
Mrs. Green almost mumbled another "wonderful", but the proprietor beat her to the punch.
"Before you say how wonderful it is again, let me finish what I was telling you.
"With the use of the screen readers, either in their phones or laptops, they can browse the internet, make receive calls, send SMS and read messages sent to them. They also have social media accounts and they can type as fast as you when they want to reply to your messages."
Then he added with a wink, "You could even be chatting freely with some of your social media friends, not knowing that they are blind or visually impaired." At this, the proprietor couldn't hold back himself from laughing out loud and hard.
Mrs Righteous shot him a 'why are you making fun of people's predicament' look.
He replied to her with the wave of his hands. "Oh, come on, Madam. Life is not always hard and serious. You need to cheer up. These people also make light of their situations everyday. You need to hear them joking and laughing sometimes about it. A lot of them are happy people and fun to be with, and they don't get angry over trivial things like this.
"You could also spend some time with them, joke and laugh with them about it. I'm sure you understand that there's a difference between when you are playing with someone and when you're insulting them because of their predicament.
94
"These people are normal human beings like us and thus, they are not all saints because there are both the good and bad eggs among them, thus it would be wrong to stereotype them because of their physical challenge.
"Oh, Mrs. Green, did I tell you that there are wonderful blind comedians and MC's both in this country and al over the world?"
The proprietor cackled again, this time holding his belly. "You need to hear these people cracking jokes. I assure you that you can't hold yourself back from laughing.
"Besides all these professions I have mentioned so far, there are physically challenged politicians, government workers and on-air personalities that are beautifully doing their work in several organizations.
"A lot of them also work as international translators. I know a handful of blind lawyers and I'm sure you're going to come across them one day in your career. There are also blind lecturers, blind business men and women and some of them are even the CEO of their companies. Most of these people developed themselves from scratch.
The proprietor's voice became more serious as he spoke the next sentence.
"I want you to understand clearly that your daughter's problem is only with her eyes. It hasn't incapacitated her abilities to live normally like you and I. Every kind of feeling and emotion she had before the eye-challenge is still there. This means that if your daughter is currently not in a relationship yet, sometime in the future, she could fall in love, go into a relationship, get married and have kids if she wishes to. I'm just telling you all this because a lot of her counterparts are happily married with kids, either with their fellow physically-challenged or
95
the non-physically-challenged. So when it happens with her, I don't want you to restrain her because of her condition.
"Your mind might be going to the big question everyone tends to ask whenever this topic is brought up. But before you ask, let me tell you that you shouldn't worry about that because they can also meet up to their partner's sexual needs."
With that information from the proprietor, all the emotions Ayanate felt for Munachimso Onuoha, her secondary school crush, that she thought she had successfully tucked away at the back of her mind began surfacing itself like a water cascading down a hill. Then, unable to push back her resolve anymore, she broke down crying, unable to exactly explain why.
Her mother and the proprietor hastily rushed her back to his office. They retook their seats and she just continued sobbing hard.
Her frantic mother wrapped her arms around her and cried along with her saying, "It's alright now, my baby.
It's alright. Mommy is here and mommy will never leave you, okay? It's alright, baby. All will be well now. I promise. We're going to fight this thing till the end and all will be fine. You'll see. I swear, I'll stay with you and fight this monster even if it's the last thing I do on earth."
"I see he left you when this condition started. You must really be heartbroken," the proprietor, who had been stoic since the recent turn of events, remarked with so much care and concern.
Ayanate shook her head forlornly. "No, he didn't leave. I was the one who broke contact with him and the rest because I thought they wouldn't want to have anything to do with me anymore."
96
She should have felt embarrassed discussing her private life with a man she barely knew before her mother, but it only made her feel better.
"Oh, but I can see that you still love him."
"Yes, I did love him, even though we were never an item, and I still love him," Ayanate mused. "He never liked me before I became blind, and when my sight condition started, I concluded I had lost any sliver of chance I might have had with him."
"Don't worry, dear, all hope is not lost. You are a young and very beautiful girl, and your eyes are still beautiful.
Anyone looking at you can hardly tell that you're blind.
"I also want to believe that your heart is as beautiful as well. If you have those wonderful qualities that are expected in the life of every human being, it's only a big, fat, ignorant fool that would still think that you don't meet up to the standard of a human because of your physical condition.
"But like I told you earlier, don't worry because we are here to help you in every possible way that we can. There is so much we are going to teach you if you stay with us."
After encouraging both mother and daughter, they finally processed and completed her registration.
Both mother and daughter tearfully gave each other a hug before Righteous finally let go of her daughter to take her first step into her new world.
97
Ayanate struggled in her first week in the school, but she finally moved on and succeeded once more to push the thought of Munachimso to the back of her mind.
With so much eagerness and determination, she learned the ABC in braille in one day. After three months, she had perfected all the abbreviations, and eight months later, she could read and write braille flawlessly.
Her mother who was trying her best to provide anything she needed had bought her both an Android and an iPhone. When Ayanate raised an alarm about it, her mother told her that it was because she only wanted her to be comfortable. She also got Ayanate, a laptop computer. In no time, Ayanate learned how to make good use of all her electronic gadgets.
During her days in the special school, she was also able to hear the stories and experiences of her fellow visually impaired crew. Even though her own story was touching, she was moved by the stories of some of the students whose situations were worse than hers.
Apart from the blindness, some of the students were also challenged in other parts of their body.
Ayanate drew her encouragement daily from God and her fellow students who could relate to her situation.
Just like the proprietor predicted, some of the male students approached her and confessed their growing feelings for her, but she simply wasn't interested.
98
At the end of one year, she was ready to graduate, and she emerged as a whole new person.
She returned home and prepared for her admission into the university. She assured her mother that there was no need of retaining their house help anymore and the lady was relieved of her job.
And she had been doing just fine with managing the house for the past two years.
But it was during stressful days like this that she needed the generous help of her mother and brother. Each time she received assistance from them, she'd chuckle and call them her saving grace. She'd also reward them with a smile of appreciation, and each time she did it, it seemed to hypnotize her brother, making him want to do more.
Oh, my lovely brother, Preye.
It was at times like this that she especially missed him.
With the absence of a father and a lover, he was the only male figure in her life and he was dutifully and benevolently playing that role.
Maybe she should give him a call. After all, she was finally done with her house chores and all her lectures for the day. She was currently doing nothing except waiting for her favorite gospel TV program to start.
And so, she pulled out her android phone and dialed his number from memory.
99
100