Exposure to harmful rays and the aging of the population have been making visual impairment a problem that is more and more widespread, with no lasting solution. According to the LancetGlobalHealth the number of blind people in the world is going up, by 2020 their number is expected to peak to 38.5 million, and by 2020 – to triple, reaching 115 million.

Bulgaria is no lucky exception. Forced to accept their fate, the blind in this country are frequently prisoners in their own homes because the urban environment is so unsuited to their needs. Those with a job are few and far between, the rest are, in practice, invisible. Yet, the hope that attitudes to people with disabilities in Bulgaria will change remains.

But there are young entrepreneurs who have taken up the mission of helping people with this kind of disability make their dreams come true. It is because they believed they could make their dreams come true that two young people with visual impairments approached Boyan Simeonov and Vassil Spassov. And they asked for one thing and one thing only – that they start to study music. Their sincerity and their pluck is what prompted Boyan to present them to his fellow musicians at the first rock school in this country, but also to sit down and seriously consider developing a special programme for the music education of people who are visually impaired. This is not a novel idea in the world, but in Bulgaria there is no adapted music education for the blind.

The structure is now ready, but what is its aim and how can it be attained? Boyan Simeonov:

“The programme we are developing will help them study music just like anybody else. To be able to develop it we turned to the models existing in other countries. Our task now is to do up a room where we can install the hardware and software needed, and to create a mentor programme that will make our tutors more effective in their work with these kids. There are different kinds of software that will enable the students to learn to read music. For the purpose a Braille music printer will be used and that will enable them to create and rehearse different pieces of music. It is not our aim to discover prodigies, but to make access to music education for the blind a tendency.”

To obtain the funding needed, Boyan and Vassil put their idea down on paper as a project called “Seeing through music” and applied for a programme that helps implement social projects. The final vote is in the period from 15 January to 3 February, 2019, after which it will be announced which three of the five projects have been approved. The two entrepreneurs want to complete their idea as soon as they can so that everyone will be given equal access to art.

Boyan says that giving visually impaired young people an opportunity to create something of their own in the sphere of music, with the help of their talent and the knowledge they have received from their mentors, will inspire them with the confidence that they are capable of achieving whatever they aim for.

“Music is one of a thousand taboo subjects that other people’s opinions have turned into an impossibility for people with disabilities,” Boyan Simeonov says and adds that he hopes the clichés that people with disabilities have no prospects will be dropped, and that they will be able to lead a life just like anybody else.

English: Milena Daynova