Die Geschichte des Yehuda Perci

Yehuda Perci was serving in the IDF Givati Brigade during Operation Pillar of Defense when he was wounded by a missile and lost his sight in both eyes. Despite his injury, Yehuda loves YouTube, is passionate about real estate and entrepreneurship and manages to live his life as an ordinary person.

Yehuda, who lives in Ramla, is capable of carrying out what seems to be trivial to ordinary people, like house cleaning and making coffee, but as far as mobility is concerned – he is not capable of walking on his own.

“Public awareness and technology help manage my life significantly,” Yehuda explained. “For example, there is an app that works with sensors placed on walls. The app sends a welcome alert when you enter places. There are even sensors at Beit Halochem in Tel Aviv.”

“The app becomes a compass and gives you directions and alerts about obstacles. The problem is that in order to make every place accessible, every business owner has to buy these sensors. So let’s start by having businesses that are aware of this app and its ability to make the business environment accessible, thus helping blind people significantly,” he added.

International Day of Disabled Persons (IDPD), which was celebrated yesterday, was designed to promote awareness and understanding regarding the rights of the disabled and their needs. It is marked annually across the world and at the Zahal (IDF) Disabled Veterans Organization (ZDVO), IDPD is marked daily.

ZDVO rehabilitates and sustains the lives of more than 50,000 people who have paid the highest price while defending the State of Israel through their military service. Unfortunately, several hundred new members join the ranks of the organization annually.

The “Beit Halochem” centers, established and operated by ZDVO, are unique rehabilitation, sports, cultural and recreation facilities, serving disabled veterans and their families as well as severely wounded victims of terror attacks.

“Ordinary people see only the rational way to do things,” Yehuda added. “Since they haven’t experienced any disability, they just do not know how many other ways are out there to do the exact same things. There is one shopping mall in Tel Aviv with such sensors. It reads the stores to the blind people ahead, and if every mall in the world would have such sensors, it would greatly improve accessibility to blind people.”

Technology has improved our lives tremendously. It may be absurd to say, but being blind today is not an extraordinary limitation. As Walt Disney once said: “If you can dream it, you can do it.”

We can celebrate International Day of Persons with Disabilities at ZDVO thanks to our amazing supporters and donors.

SOURCE:JOL