Several years ago, I met my friend Alana Officer, then Director of Handicap International’s India office, for the first time (there always does have to be a first time!). She handed me her visiting card and there, to my amazement, I found her name (I assumed) printed in Braille. “I once gave my card to a blind man,” she said. “And I felt like an idiot.”

I made up my mind to do the same on my card. Living in Dehradun, the home of the National Institute for the Visually Handicapped which has one of the largest Braille presses in Asia, I assumed this would be a piece of cake. But, you guessed it, there is no free cake in a government set up. In fact, there is no cake at all. I tried. Various other Foundation staff members tried. Our calls weren’t returned. The guy in charge was on holiday. Our order was too small. Our order was too big. Go to the NIVH website and every Braille button you hit takes you to a “URL not found” page.

Then one day at a conference, I met Sachin Verma who works with “AccessAbility” in Delhi. He, too, handed me a card, and it, too, was printed in Braille. But this time I was smarter. I got the name and address of the person who did it for him and it couldn’t have been easier.

Here’s how it works: Take your box of 100 visiting cards, place 150 rupees – in cash! – inside , and mail the lot to:

K N Chandrashekhar, #11 Villa Suchita, Behind Giri Apartments, Bangalore, 560 078

Mr Chandrashekhar’s cell number is 0944-986-4777 and his email is hichandrashekhar@gmail.com

You can choose three things you want printed (name, organization and phone number, for example). The charge is one rupee per card and fifty to courier it back to you. I got mine within three days. The guy has his own little press right in his house. Small is beautiful.

Let’s all get our cards done this way. It’s a great message of inclusion. Thanks Alana, thanks Sachin, thanks Mr Chandrashekhar!

UPDATE FROM ALANA, now working with the World Health Organization in Geneva:

This is such fabulous timing. I have been trying to get WHO to get our cards printed in Braille since I have been here. Without going through the tedious details we have not as yet succeeded.

I have sent the blog details and asked the team to see whether this may be a solution for us also.

Thanks Jo,

Alana