Company's advanced technology uses Braille

Blind entrepreneur Shakila Maharaj has dedicated her life to lobbying for the rights of disabled people.

Her zest for life and positive attitude is an inspiration to many as she has been involved in countless projects to help the visually impaired.

But this year Maharaj, from Durban, achieved one of her greatest goals after her company, Disability Management Services, designed South Africa's first voting aid for the blind. The plastic aid, which makes use of Braille, was used during May's local government elections.

In April, the Independent Electoral Commission awarded industrial psychologist Maharaj a tender to come up with an accessible way to enable visually impaired voters to cast their vote in secrecy.

The 51-year-old said she was aware of the challenges blind people faced when voting. "There is no secrecy; you have to rely on someone to read the ballot and to make your mark. You just have to trust that they are making the right choice for you. In many cases you have to use the presiding officer at the voting station."

Maharaj's company, together with Miracle Mould and Gap Moulding, made 25000 voting aids.

Modelled along the lines of the device used in Canada, but with enhancements and research by the South African National Council for the Blind, the gadget has a frame into which the ballot paper fits. There are apertures for the voter to make his mark .

"However, you still have to rely on a sighted person reading the ballot paper telling you the party and its corresponding number," said Maharaj. "Then you go into a cubicle and make your mark."

This is an improvement on previous methods, she explained. "In the past, we didn't have that - if you tried to mark it and went outside the square it was considered a spoilt vote."

Maharaj said they had one month to design, manufacture and produce the mould and employees worked 24-hour shifts to meet the deadline.

The aid can also be used for those who are illiterate and have limited motor dexterity, learning disabilities and dyslexia.

Maharaj said although the aid was a step forward for disabled people, unfortunately it offered only half a solution. "It only helps us to write independently and not to read independently."

Her initial proposal consisted of a ballot paper in Braille and an audio recording, she added.

When Maharaj was 10, she fell down a flight of stairs and damaged her optic nerve. Her family relocated to Dublin, Ireland, when she was 12 so she could undergo eye surgery. But she lost her sight by the time she was 22.

She returned to South Africa and matriculated at the New Horizon School for the Blind in Pietermaritzburg.

She studied industrial psychology at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, after getting her degree with honours, she received a scholarship to complete her master's at Columbia University in New York. She lived alone in the Big Apple for two years .

Maharaj moved back to South Africa after her husband, Naresh, proposed to her. The couple have one son, Prashant, 19.

After working as the head of the Kwazulu-Natal training division for Spoornet, Maharaj started her company in 2002. A former board member of the KwaZulu-Natal Blind Society, she was named as the Best Business Achiever by Christ University in Bangalore, India in 2009 and sits on the board of Tourism KZN.

She said although advances had been made, life was still hard for disabled people. "You're a misfit because everything is designed for someone with two eyes and two legs. So you have to rely on lateral thinking, using other ways to achieve things," she said.