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Sona Avagyan

Sipan Asatryan: Overcoming the Challenges of Being Sight-Impaired in Yerevan

“I leave the house with my cane to show society that disabled people exist and to teach them how to lend a helping hand”

Sipan Asatryan strolls so confidently down the street by himself that many don’t believe he has sight problems.

Once, a taxi driver told Sipan, “Not seeing is tantamount to death, no? If I were to immediately lose my sight, I would commit suicide.”

Sipan could only laugh at the man’s remarks.

“I tried to convince him otherwise but it was a lost cause. Now, I leave the house with my cane to show society that disabled people exist and to teach them how to lend a helping hand.”

Sipan has been deprived of sight since the age of four. The family resided in the town ofTchambarak.

His mother was an Armenian language teacher who urges him to attend classes. Family members would read textbooks for him.

He then transferred to a special school in Yerevan for students with sight problems from the sixth grade onwards when the family relocated to the Armenian capital. The Nikoghayos Tigranyan School is the only one of its kind in the country.

Sipan now works at the National Leadership Institute run by the Ararat Diocese of Armenian Apostolic Church. He prepares articles for the NGO’s website. He’s also taught Sunday School classes for the church in the village of Ohanavan.

On November 25, the Forte NGO, which caters to those with sight related issues, organized a concert commemorating the 55th birthday of Artsakh hero Monte Melkonian. Sipan wrote the score and conducted the concert. Sipan learnt to play the piano on his own.

Sipan walking with the assistance of a cane

This year, Sipan graduated from Yerevan State University with a Masters in Diaspora studies and linguistics. He prepared for the entrance exams on his own and did not attend private tutorial classes like many other aspiring college students in Armenia.

He says that the major problem he faced at the university was the lack of digitalized text books. Sipan also laments the fact that sightless pupils are not provided with books in Braille.

Right now, Sipan is taking intensive English courses in order that he’s able to attend university overseas, majoring in Eastern Studies or the psychology of the disabled.

Despite the fact that Sipan believes that Yerevan isn’t “sight-impaired friendly, he‘s been maneuvering the street and sidewalks of Yerevan with the assistance of a cane for several years now and disagrees with other sight-impaired residents that it’s impossible to overcome such challenges.

He also laments certain stereotypes, holdovers from the Soviet period, regarding sight-impaired citizens.

“Even when I take a bus or other public transport, adults don’t even think of telling me if there is an empty seat or not. Some don’t even want to sit next to me. The new generation is different in their attitude. They ask me if they can help and escort me to my destination,” Sipan says.

On the whole, Sipan says public attitudes are slowly changing for the better in Armenia.

“Today, most of the public is ready to assist. We constantly hear in the media that society doesn’t accept us. But I believe that the disabled must take the first step for the public to accept us as full members of society,” Sipan notes.

Sipan tells me that he really likes to travel.

Two years ago he fulfilled a lifelong ambition and travelled to Western Armeniafor a week. He visited Van and Kars, the land of his forefathers.

“I had made up my mind to go no matter what. Me and my mother saved up over the years and saw our dream come true.”

Comments (2)

Zohrab
Good on you spin do your best
Manukjan
Ուղղակի Հայաստանում դժվար է քայլել :

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