Red Ramp Project's second leg wants to make India access-friendly for the visually impaired

Extending the second leg of the much-appreciated CSR initiative Red Ramp Project, H&R Johnson has tried to address a major challenge faced by visually impaired people in India. In the first campaign that came about in 2015, the company had addressed the issue of the disabled not being able to go to public places, especially beaches.

The reason for choosing the visually impaired people this time has come out of a research that says that statistically, one out of every three blind individuals in the world is in India. Yet, little has been done to make the country more accessible to the visually impaired. H&R Johnson, an integrated lifestyle solution company, has made an effort to start a conversation about the same through the second phase of the Red Ramp Project.

H&R Johnson started manufacturing tactiles on realising that there is a clear purpose for these tiles as they can go a long way in giving back to the society. While globally, tactiles are used in walkways, footpaths and railway stations to help the visually challenged navigate easily and safely, India has yet to use them extensively in public spaces. And this is where magic happened. A cause found a product.

Conceptualised by Soho Square, the campaign features Adwait Marathe, a person who is blind since birth yet is an established actor, singer and a theatre personality in real life. He portrays how tactiles help him commute independently in his daily life. The campaign is about instilling self-confidence in the minds of the visually disabled to be able to move around independently with the support of better infrastructure across the country. This campaign will hopefully nudge every individual to contribute in some small capacity starting by looking at the public places around them with sensitised eyes.

Johnson Endura Tac Tiles is one innovation from H&R Johnson’s portfolio which are laid in public places to provide cues combined with information to assist visually challenged people to commute independently and to make India access friendly.

Ketan Trivedi, Senior General Manager Marketing, H&R Johnson (India), said, “H&R Johnson is known for bringing our innovations in products and we also strongly believe in being a socially responsible entity and contribute to the welfare of the society at large. The first step towards bringing any change is to create awareness. Over two per cent of our country’s population suffer from some form of disability. Of the 37 million blind people in the world over 12 million are from India. The Government of India’s Accessible India Campaign is a very noble campaign that aims on achieving universal accessibility for Persons with Disabilities (PwDs). The ‘Red Ramp Project’ is a small step from us for raising awareness for the need to make India access-friendly for our differently-abled brethren. We hope this ‘Red Ramp Project’ enables people and other organisations in India to sit up, take notice and contribute in their own ways towards making our country access friendly.”

Johnson Endura Tac Tiles has also been laid down in a number of places across the country. It has been used in majority railway stations in Mumbai such as Bandra and Mumbai Central railway stations, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Kochi Rail Metro projects to name a few in order to provide differently-abled people easy access across the cities.

Anuraag Khandelwal

Anuraag Khandelwal, ECD and Creative Head, Soho Square (Mumbai), said, “We always knew that the ‘Red Ramp Project’ couldn’t be a one-off initiative. We had to follow through. And that’s when tactiles came into the picture. After months of research and meetings with the visually-impaired, we realised that for some, even a 50-metre journey is akin to climbing a mountain. And that became the driving force behind the current TVC. It’s not the disability that stops them, but the lack of appropriate infrastructure that doesn’t allow them to live their daily lives independently."

To ensure involvement and garner support for this initiative, H&R Johnson has created a portal www.redrampproject.org to seek support to make public spaces access-friendly for the disabled. This portal will also act as a one-point contact for people to connect across social media platforms and increase conversation on the topic.

The TVC:

The Old TVC:

Credits:

Head of Office: Samrat Bedi

Creative Team: Anuraag Khandelwal, Executive Creative Director and Creative Head; Ankur Jain, Creative Director; Sanjay Ujawane, Creative Director and Tiyasha Ray, Creative Controller

Account Management Team: Mohit Ahuja, Senior Vice President; Arkin Diniz, Account Director and Nisha Dias, Account Supervisor

Production House: Escaping Elephant

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