{"id":6273,"date":"2020-09-28T08:15:15","date_gmt":"2020-09-28T13:15:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blindabilities.com\/?p=6273"},"modified":"2020-09-28T08:16:50","modified_gmt":"2020-09-28T13:16:50","slug":"around-the-world-with-covid-19-from-a-blindness-perspective-episode-19-manique-gunaratne-from-sri-lanka-success-is-not-inclusive-for-all","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blindabilities.com\/?p=6273","title":{"rendered":"Around the World with COVID-19 from a Blindness Perspective &#8211; Episode 19: Manique Gunaratne, from Sri Lanka &#8211; Success is Not Inclusive for All"},"content":{"rendered":"<!--powerpress_player--><div class=\"powerpress_player\" id=\"powerpress_player_1739\"><audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-6273-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/traffic.libsyn.com\/secure\/blindabilities\/_c19_ep19SriLanka.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/traffic.libsyn.com\/secure\/blindabilities\/_c19_ep19SriLanka.mp3\">https:\/\/traffic.libsyn.com\/secure\/blindabilities\/_c19_ep19SriLanka.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/div>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Show Summary:<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Welcome back to&nbsp;Episode 19 in&nbsp;our ongoing series.&nbsp;Thus far we have spanned the globe &nbsp;with &nbsp;blind citizens Around the world, from Australia and Malaysia, to the United Kingdom, Trinidad and Tobago, and much more<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Our guest today is Manique Gunaratne, who &nbsp;comes to us from Sri Lanka. &nbsp;Manique\u2019s story speaks of the situation that she and other disabled citizens &nbsp; &nbsp;of Sri Lanka&nbsp;experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic this year. This in itself is not unusual. All of our guests have described their experiences in this way. What makes this report different is the contrast of the successful&nbsp;handling of the Corona virus by&nbsp;the nation of Sri Lanka, at least in the traditional statistical measures we are accustomed to seeing, as it is juxtaposed with her story of difficult conditions and sacrifices made by disabled persons in her country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sri&nbsp;Lanka is &nbsp;and island nation of about 21 million, in southern Asia, bordered by India and the Maldives. &nbsp;After enduring a brutal &nbsp;civil war and a devastating tsunami which killed more than 35000,&nbsp;Sri Lanka has worked to regain its reputation as a premiere &nbsp;travel and vacation &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>destination, known for its picturesque&nbsp;beaches, waterfalls and laid back lifestyle. It was once again poised as a world class tourist destination in early 2020 when the Corona virus stopped it in its tracks, just as it did every other country&nbsp;around the globe.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Fortunately, their prompt &nbsp;efforts to stop the virus\u2019 progress had immediate success, at least statistically as we have learned about &nbsp;fighting the&nbsp;virus. &nbsp;The challenge we have here, as listeners, is to weigh that&nbsp;success against the sacrifices and adverse impact on the disabled community that were necessary to achieve it.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While the government closed all schools early on, and students were relegated to home virtual learning, many of the online learning &nbsp;resources were inaccessible for disabled individuals, particularly the visually impaired.&nbsp;Disabled individuals who are already restricted have found a quarantine &nbsp;even more restrictive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Manique also lays out several problems caused by the exposure of families being together constantly, such as friction over financial problems &nbsp;and even gender and family violence. &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Listen as Manique shares her views and recommendations for how Sri Lanka can improve the conditions of disabled citizens in future emergent situations in this, the 19th episode in our COVID-19 series.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Special thanks go out to Chee Chau, for his beautiful song and titled Wayfarer.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Be sure to tune in to more&nbsp;&nbsp;informative episodes to hear how your BVI counterparts around the world are coping with and adapting to COVID-19.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Contact Your State Services<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>If you reside in Minnesota, and you would like to know more about Transition Services from State Services contact Transition Coordinator Sheila Koenig by&nbsp;<a href=\"mailto:Sheila.Koenig@state.mn.us\">email<\/a>&nbsp;or contact her via phone at 651-539-2361.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Contact:<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><br>You can follow us on Twitter&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.twitter.com\/blindabilities\">@BlindAbilities<\/a><br>On the web at&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/blindabilities.com\/\">www.BlindAbilities.com<\/a><br>Send us an&nbsp;<a href=\"mailto:info@BlindAbilities.com\">email<\/a><br>Get the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/itunes.apple.com\/us\/app\/blind-abilities\/id1085849859?l=es&amp;mt=8\">Free Blind Abilities App&nbsp;on the App Store<\/a>and&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/play.google.com\/store\/apps\/details?id=com.blindabilities.android.blind&amp;hl=en_US\">Google Play Store<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Check out the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/groups\/607027582712671\/\">Blind Abilities Community<\/a>on Facebook, the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/BlindAbilities\/\">Blind Abilities Page<\/a>, and the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/groups\/jobinsightsgroup\">Career Resources for the Blind and Visually Impaired<\/a>&nbsp;group<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<!--powerpress_player--><div class=\"powerpress_player\" id=\"powerpress_player_1741\"><audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-6273-3\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/traffic.libsyn.com\/secure\/blindabilities\/_c19_ep19SriLanka.mp3?_=3\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/traffic.libsyn.com\/secure\/blindabilities\/_c19_ep19SriLanka.mp3\">https:\/\/traffic.libsyn.com\/secure\/blindabilities\/_c19_ep19SriLanka.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/div><p>https:\/\/traffic.libsyn.com\/secure\/blindabilities\/_c19_ep19SriLanka.mp3 Show Summary: Welcome back to&nbsp;Episode 19 in&nbsp;our ongoing series.&nbsp;Thus far we have spanned the globe &nbsp;with &nbsp;blind citizens Around the world, from Australia and Malaysia, to the United Kingdom, Trinidad and Tobago, and much more Our guest today is Manique Gunaratne, who &nbsp;comes to us from Sri Lanka. &nbsp;Manique\u2019s story speaks of the situation [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[17,528],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bapresents","category-covid-19-series"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blindabilities.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Blind-Abilities-Logo.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6rcRg-1Db","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6235,"url":"https:\/\/blindabilities.com\/?p=6235","url_meta":{"origin":6273,"position":0},"title":"Around The World with COVID-19 from a Blindness Perspective &#8211; Episode 18: Paul Mugambi &#8211; The State of Affairs for Disabled Persons in the Pandemic Era in Kenya","author":"Blind Abilities Team","date":"September 20, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Show Summary: In this 18th episode in our series, Around the World with COVID-19 from a Blindness Perspective, we hear from Paul Mugambi in Kenya, Africa. Thus far we have spanned the globe \u00a0with \u00a0blind citizens Around the world, from Australia and Malaysia, to the united kingdom, Trinidad and Tobago,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;BlindAbilities Presents&quot;","block_context":{"text":"BlindAbilities Presents","link":"https:\/\/blindabilities.com\/?cat=17"},"img":{"alt_text":"BlindAbilities Logo A black square with white initials, B A.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blindabilities.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Blind-Abilities-Logo.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blindabilities.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Blind-Abilities-Logo.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blindabilities.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Blind-Abilities-Logo.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blindabilities.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Blind-Abilities-Logo.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blindabilities.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Blind-Abilities-Logo.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blindabilities.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Blind-Abilities-Logo.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5964,"url":"https:\/\/blindabilities.com\/?p=5964","url_meta":{"origin":6273,"position":1},"title":"Around the World with COVID-19 from a Blindness Perspective. A New Series. Episode 1 \u2013 When it Began Down Under.","author":"Blind Abilities Team","date":"June 16, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Full Transcript Show Summary: Every day we are inundated with reports about COVID-19: statistics, new cases, and worse. Every day we hear of how the coronavirus has impacted people all over the world, but have we heard specific reports of its effect on blind and visually impaired individuals?\u00a0 In this\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;BlindAbilities Presents&quot;","block_context":{"text":"BlindAbilities Presents","link":"https:\/\/blindabilities.com\/?cat=17"},"img":{"alt_text":"BlindAbilities Logo A black square with white initials, B A.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blindabilities.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Blind-Abilities-Logo.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blindabilities.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Blind-Abilities-Logo.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blindabilities.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Blind-Abilities-Logo.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blindabilities.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Blind-Abilities-Logo.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blindabilities.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Blind-Abilities-Logo.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blindabilities.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Blind-Abilities-Logo.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5974,"url":"https:\/\/blindabilities.com\/?p=5974","url_meta":{"origin":6273,"position":2},"title":"Around The World with COVID-19 from a Blindness Perspective: Episode 2 &#8211; Chee Chau from Malaysia &#8211;  Helping Others.","author":"Blind Abilities Team","date":"June 18, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Full Transcript Show Summary: Every day we are inundated with reports about COVID-19: statistics, new cases, and worse. Every day we hear of how the coronavirus has impacted people all over the world, but have we heard specific reports of its effect on blind and visually impaired individuals?\u00a0 In this\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;BlindAbilities Presents&quot;","block_context":{"text":"BlindAbilities Presents","link":"https:\/\/blindabilities.com\/?cat=17"},"img":{"alt_text":"BlindAbilities Logo A black square with white initials, B A.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blindabilities.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Blind-Abilities-Logo.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blindabilities.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Blind-Abilities-Logo.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blindabilities.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Blind-Abilities-Logo.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blindabilities.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Blind-Abilities-Logo.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blindabilities.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Blind-Abilities-Logo.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blindabilities.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Blind-Abilities-Logo.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5983,"url":"https:\/\/blindabilities.com\/?p=5983","url_meta":{"origin":6273,"position":3},"title":"Around The World with COVID-19 from a Blindness Perspective: Episode 5 &#8211; Nick D\u2019Ambrosio from Montreal \u2013 Together We Will Make It.","author":"Blind Abilities Team","date":"June 23, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Full Transcript Show Summary: Every day we are inundated with reports about COVID-19: statistics, new cases, and worse. Every day we hear of how the coronavirus has impacted people, but have we heard specific reports of its effect on blind and visually impaired individuals?\u00a0 In this series from Blind Abilities,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;BlindAbilities Presents&quot;","block_context":{"text":"BlindAbilities Presents","link":"https:\/\/blindabilities.com\/?cat=17"},"img":{"alt_text":"BlindAbilities Logo A black square with white initials, B A.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blindabilities.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Blind-Abilities-Logo.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blindabilities.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Blind-Abilities-Logo.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blindabilities.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Blind-Abilities-Logo.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blindabilities.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Blind-Abilities-Logo.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blindabilities.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Blind-Abilities-Logo.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blindabilities.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Blind-Abilities-Logo.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5985,"url":"https:\/\/blindabilities.com\/?p=5985","url_meta":{"origin":6273,"position":4},"title":"Around the World with COVID-19 from a Blindness Perspective &#8211; Episode 6: Brooklyn Rodden Kelly, from Sacramento, CA\u2013 Doing My Thing \u2013 Safe and Aware.","author":"Blind Abilities Team","date":"June 29, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Full Transcript Show Summary: Every day we are inundated with reports about COVID-19: statistics, new cases, and worse. Every day we hear of how the coronavirus has impacted people all over the world, but have we heard specific reports of its effect on blind and visually impaired individuals?\u00a0In this sixth\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;BlindAbilities Presents&quot;","block_context":{"text":"BlindAbilities Presents","link":"https:\/\/blindabilities.com\/?cat=17"},"img":{"alt_text":"BlindAbilities Logo A black square with white initials, B A.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blindabilities.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Blind-Abilities-Logo.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blindabilities.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Blind-Abilities-Logo.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blindabilities.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Blind-Abilities-Logo.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blindabilities.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Blind-Abilities-Logo.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blindabilities.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Blind-Abilities-Logo.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blindabilities.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Blind-Abilities-Logo.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5981,"url":"https:\/\/blindabilities.com\/?p=5981","url_meta":{"origin":6273,"position":5},"title":"Around The World with COVID-19 from a Blindness Perspective: Episode 4 &#8211; Marlon Parieaho from Trinidad and Tobago &#8211; &#8211; A Time to Learn.","author":"Blind Abilities Team","date":"June 22, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Full Transcript Show Summary: Every day we are inundated with reports about COVID-19: statistics, new cases, and worse. Every day we hear of how the coronavirus has impacted people all over the world, but have we heard specific reports of its effect on blind and visually impaired individuals?\u00a0 In this\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;BlindAbilities Presents&quot;","block_context":{"text":"BlindAbilities Presents","link":"https:\/\/blindabilities.com\/?cat=17"},"img":{"alt_text":"BlindAbilities Logo A black square with white initials, B A.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blindabilities.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Blind-Abilities-Logo.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blindabilities.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Blind-Abilities-Logo.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blindabilities.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Blind-Abilities-Logo.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blindabilities.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Blind-Abilities-Logo.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blindabilities.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Blind-Abilities-Logo.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blindabilities.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Blind-Abilities-Logo.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blindabilities.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blindabilities.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blindabilities.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blindabilities.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blindabilities.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6273"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blindabilities.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6273\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6276,"href":"https:\/\/blindabilities.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6273\/revisions\/6276"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blindabilities.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blindabilities.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blindabilities.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blindabilities.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}