Try this. Cook an omelette using an egg in seven minutes. Easy, right? Now, cook an omelette in seven minutes, with your eyes closed. Stumped? Well, that’s what Payal Kapoor is trying to teach the visually impaired through her podcasts and YouTube tutorials. “Cooking without looking,” is what she works on. Kapoor, who is completely blind, has bagged the NCPEDP-Mphasis Universal Design Awards 2021 for creating an impact in accessibility and universal design. The award received last week in a virtual event honours individuals and organisations who work for persons with disabilities.
A resident of Ameerpet in Hyderabad, she went from a spunky chef about to finish her course and join a hotel to walking on the road with a white cane. “I had an undiagnosed case of viral meningitis and it has left me completely blind and partially deaf for the last 29 years. However, I am unstoppable and I learned to make the best of what I have. Today, I can cook a five-course meal and feed people. Now, I am trying to teach the same to the blind,” says the 52-year-old host of the YouTube channel, Rasoi ke Rahasya.
Kapoor is an accessibility activist who conducts workshops for the visually challenged. She says the pandemic and the lockdown rendered thousands of blind people without places to eat. “They were forced to learn cooking to feed themselves. That’s when I began my YouTube channel, in April 2020,” she says. Keeping in mind that blind people tune into her show, it has been designed like a podcast or an audio tutorial. Currently, she teaches basic cooking via the channel and hopes to add more.
So how does one help a blind person put the beaten egg on a hot pan and even flip it? Kapoor says that most of them use assistive technology such as talkback apps on their smartphones. Using a barcode-reading device that reads out the names of the ingredients on the shelf, they pick up what they want and cook. In some cases, the names of the ingredients are written in Braille language. The students are taught to place their hands above the wok/pan at a safe distance to feel the heat.
“I teach them to cook on slow or medium heat as it is safe. I also teach them to use mobile phone timers to understand the number of minutes they need to cook. Of course, they have to be alert with their other sense such as smell and touch to cook well,” she adds.
Kapoor has at least one workshop a week and is fully booked till December. Her mission right now is to help children understand and embrace disability. She wants to help corporate firms to meet ‘workplace readiness’ guidelines to enable specially-abled people to work.
Payal Kapoor is trying to teach the visually impaired through her podcasts and YouTube tutorials. “Cooking without looking,” is what she works on.