Losing Sight Without Losing Vision | Naqi Haider Rizvi | TEDxUCL

Naqi believes that people have dreams and ambitions in life but they often give up on them because of obstacles that appear to be insur-mountable. Naqi has also faced several challenges throughout his life with regards to his education, independent mobility and other everyday activities that most sighted people take for granted. He, however, has been very successful in overcoming those hurdles and would like to inspire the audience with his story so that others can also go out and achieve their dreams. He believes that if he can, others can too. In his dictionary, the word “impossible” doesn’t exist. Naqi Rizvi was born to an Indian mother and Pakistani father on January 21, 1991. He is the first of 2 children and suffers from an incurable disease known as Congenital Glaucoma - because of this he turned completely blind aged 7. He looks at life very positively and believes that even though he has lost his sight, he hasn’t lost his vision. He also believes that he is not disabled but differently abled. Naqi performed very well at school and university despite the challenges and graduated at the top of his batch in Industrial Engineering. He is currently pursuing a master’s degree in Systems Engineering at UCL. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx