The Blue Orchid Years

Chapter 10: Don't Leave Anybody Behind

"Very egalitarian, I like that there is no 'main chick' and 'side chick' among you guys. So, you are a trio, right? There's not gonna be a fourth or fifth person? What is the agreement between you guys as a triad?"

"No, not in the foreseeable future. I don't want to date anyone else other than Hamza, neither does Izumi. Hamza himself also don't want to venture beyond just Izumi and me."

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The rain kept falling as Alex and I caught up with Vannie and Hamza in the library. Vannie was reading a book called The Abridged History of the Blind Community of Black Elm while Hamza was listening to a podcast called Around Black Elm in 30 Days. I gave Vannie a light tap on the shoulder and she smiled, asking me if I would like to borrow her book once she finished it so that I would be more informed about my own home world. I answered in affirmative.

"Hey, Hamza. Having fun?" Alex gave his boyfriend a quick peck on the cheek. The boy took his headphone off and nodded, saying that the podcast made him want to go backpacking.

"I always admire backpackers and their resourcefulness. They are daring, adventurous, and are not afraid to take risks. Everyone should follow their example." Vannie chimed in. "But enough chitchat. Let's get Nardho and Alex up to speed with what we've been doing."

The girl showed us the many emails that she had been writing to Gibran and Risma, in which she had secured their permission to be in correspondence with the community leaders of Crystal Lilacs tribe in the Amethyst archipelago. In one email, Vannie asked the leaders to give the blind members of the tribe a questionnaire that she and Alex had designed. The questionnaire was a survey meant to gauge the level of accessibility available to the blind children in Amethyst schools, both the mainstream schools and the schools for the blind.

The rest of the emails indicated that, in terms of schooling, accessibility for the blind remained a challenge because most of the sighted teachers in Amethyst archipelago were not equipped with the knowledge of what the blind students needed and wanted. Vannie and Alex hypothesized that this would be a hindrance to activism and the dissemination of information about the Kulambas.

"Out of all 30 public schools in Amethyst, only 21 of them have textbooks in Braille, only 13 of them have blind principals, and only 8 of the 30 schools provide their blind students with fully-trained aides free of charge. This disparity in equal access to education means that blind Crystal Lilacs children who are mainstreamed would be at risk of falling behind their sighted peers. Now, when it comes to learning about the environment and the native species, the lack of Braille in the classroom makes it extra hard for the blind students to learn at the same pace as their non-blind counterparts." Hamza recited the findings, the statistics, and their significance.

"Fortunately, we live in an era in which textbooks come in many different formats!" Vannie added enthusiastically. "So, I asked the school teachers and principals if they have audiobooks. Apparently, they do, but the problem is that the information presented in the audiobooks are not as detailed as the information found in traditional textbooks. For example, when traditional books have 75 pages of information about the Kulambas, the audiobooks only cover the equivalent of roughly 35 to 45 pages of that information. The blind children are missing a lot!"

"That's so unfair that they only get less than half of the information!" Alex exclaimed.

"Is it because there's a shortage of people who volunteer to be readers for the audiobooks? It must be a lot of work to turn textbooks into audiobooks, right?" I speculated.

"You're right, Nardho, that's one of the reasons—the blind community is an afterthought in Amethyst archipelago. The other reason for the abysmal quality of audiobooks is that audiobook readers are not paid that much—you can't live comfortably being a reader because the payment is very meager and you could barely buy lunch with the hourly wage." Hamza explained.

"After Hamza and I learned of this fact, we sent out another batch of questionnaires asking if there is another form of multimedia that are largely preferred among the blind community of Amethyst archipelago. The responders told us that the students love to listen to vlogs." Vannie opened a file on her laptop and I could see her report on the percentage of vlog listeners who also happened to be blind and the prevalence of young vloggers who cater specifically to blind followers by providing descriptive audio in their videos.

"It's great that vloggers are becoming more inclusive! Are the descriptive audio any good?" I asked, hoping that vlogs could be a step in the right direction for improving the education the blind children received. Vannie shook her head sadly, saying that the quality varied widely.

"Nardho, you know 'descriptive audio' means that there is a separate audio track that describes the visual content of the video, right? Now, for the sighted people who are not visually impaired, those aspects do not need to be mentioned in details. For the blind, however, detailed descriptions are everything. The problem is, not all video makers are gifted with the talents of being descriptive. Think of, for example, how you would describe a fighting scene in an action movie. There are a lot of things going on at once, right? It's very challenging to describe everything accurately."

"Wow, I could only imagine. So, have you and Hamza come up with some solutions?"

"Yep, we get some ideas from Moira! She is a painter and very artistic, right? This means she will be the best person to talk to aspiring vloggers about how to describe visual elements of a video. Moira is the kind of talented person who can visualize almost everything. However, we also need someone who is linguistically gifted and that's why we are gonna be counting on you, Nardho. You love poems and you are a polyglot who speak five languages, so if you combine those skills with Moira's astute observational ability, we can teach the vloggers better techniques in creating audio descriptors."

"I would be honored to be of assistance. So, this means once we get to Amethyst with Gibran and Risma we will reach out to the local community and ask if they'd be interested in learning better ways to script and film vlogs, correct? Anything else I should do in preparation of this collaboration?" I got my notebook out and was ready to hear more of Vannie's thoughts.

"I will send you and Alex some samples of short documentaries that have descriptive audio settings enabled and I want you to 'watch' those with your eyes closed. Pay attention to how the narrators narrate the documentaries and then take a lot of notes on what you think is working and what you think needs to be improved. Then, you can turn off the audio descriptions and watch with your eyes open like you normally do—this way you can compare what a blind person can understand to what a non-blind person does. I want you to write about your experience and we can schedule another meeting where you, Hamza, and I can discuss your comparisons."

"That should be interesting. Thanks, Vannie, we will be on it!" I gave her a thumb up.

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When I returned to the dormitory, my phone vibrated and I realized I had several miscalls and unread messages from Moira, my siblings, and my mom. I went through them one by one.

Moira: Hey, honey, you're turning 19 soon! I have a surprise for you but I need time to prepare it, so whatever you do, don't come into my room for the next few days or it's not gonna be a surprise. Before you ask, no, it's not a painting but I promise you'll love it. Also, could you tell me what kind of flowers Nardhia likes? I'm gonna surprise her too!

Nardhia: Tony has been asking me a lot of questions about your favorite colors and your favorite TV shows, I think he's gonna get you something for your birthday. It's sad that he doesn't ask the same questions about me—it's gonna be my birthday too! Seriously, did he forget that we are twins? I love him but he frustrates me sometimes. Grr. Go lecture your best friend for me.

Johan: I'm trying to get a day or two off work to celebrate your and Nardhia's birthday next week, but no promise. If I can't make it, then I'll make sure Kenta will be there to celebrate with you two. By the way, how time flies so fast. I remember when you were still like 5 or 6 years old—you were into superhero comics and Nardhia was into proving that she had superpowers.

Mom: How is it going? I'm sending a package for you and Dhia, it should arrive soon. I love you so much, take care of yourself. Don't give Johan a hard time. Study well but stay healthy too!