Deafblind lecturer from Chennai wins CavinKare Ability Award

Meet Miranda Tomkinson, a deafblind lecturer with multiple postgraduate degrees, who recently received the CavinKare Ability Award

What does it mean to be a lecturer without vision and hearing? Interviewing 45-five-year-old Miranda Tomkinson, who recently was among the awardees at the 23rd edition of the CavinKare Ability Awards, was a humbling experience for this journalist.

Miranda Tomkinson is a lecturer (on contract) in the Department of Special Education at National Institute for Empowerment of Persons with Multiple Disabilities (NIEPMD), taking classes for diploma, B.Ed and M.Ed courses with a majority of the class being populated by able-bodied students.

Miranda speaks fluent English but cannot hear. He is independent and uses public transport for the commute to his workspace in Muttukadu on East Coast Road from his home in Kottivakkam.

Miranda navigates the world of communication with special tools, which include a “refreshable braille” that helps him with text messages, and quick application of mind in sticky situations. While on the telephone with him, he would not want the one on the other side of the line to speak as he can only hear vibrations when someone is talking. If the person wanted to say something, he would want them to type in the message. He could however respond to the message by speaking over a voice call.

Miranda’s story is one of sheer grit. He was born blind and found difficulty in hearing during his middle-school days.

“Teachers those days were not trained to handle students like me but I was good at studies,” says Miranda, adding that his father was deafblind like him.

A happy-go-lucky youth who loved adventures, Miranda studied sociology at Loyola College following which he went on to pursue a B.Ed programme.