Blind for 53 years, since an accident when working at the Department of Works and Engineering at age 19, Abuwi Hisham Rasool never went through life feeling sorry for himself.

He owns his own small shop in Hamilton, has travelled regularly over the years and even went on a pilgrimmage to Mecca this year year. And if things need to be done around his apartment at the Muslim Community Centre, he does that too!

He takes the short walk down Cedar Avenue to Beacon House every day to make handiwork and then also spends time at his store a couple of blocks away in the other direction. Abuwi Gift Case has been located on Brunswick Street for 15 years and sells books, clothes and gifts.

"I used to do a lot of travelling by myself, when I was setting up the shop I used to be out of here every month," he recalled.

"I used to go to South Carolina by myself and used to go through either North Carolina or Atlanta. One year coming back I missed my flight in Atlanta and had to stay overnight. But it was the airline's fault, not mine.

"I met a fella who came down here on holiday who was legally blind but was licensed to fly a plane. But he had to have a sighted licensed person in the plane at all times. He had partial sight but was legally blind."

Rasool has been blind longer than Beacon House - or even the Bermuda Society for the Blind - has been in existence and has seen the changes over the years.

"In the beginning the Society wanted to make blind people independent, but in the later years they seem to want to make them dependent," 72-year-old Rasool believes.

"At one time they tried to find jobs for people and after that the interest in finding jobs was not there anymore.

"There are about nine people who come here regular, six women and three men, but at one time we had twice as many as that."

The 1948 accident left Rasool totally blind. He went away to the United States for rehabilitation about three years later and then onto the Royal School for the Blind in England in 1960 and came back in 1962, just prior to the opening of Beacon House. "When I went to the US it was difficult to get around with my disability, but I used to travel anywhere in New York by myself," Rasool says.

"When I went on to England it was the same there. I used to travel from London to Devon, which is about 250 miles.

"In the school, which was in Leatherhead, Surrey, I was one of two totally blind persons who got out on their own out of about 200 in the school. Some of them were there for rehabilitation and some because they had no other place to go."

That independence followed Rasool back home and he has been doing for himself ever since. But the obvious challenges still face the blind of Bermuda.

"The younger blind will get educated, but for the older people going blind, it is pretty difficult for them nowadays," he believes.

"When I was coming along they would send us away for training, we had about four or five who was sent away for training - two to school in Canada - because at that time Government was not compelled to educate anybody with a disability.

"We were the first organisation for people with a disability, but all the other places, like Summerhaven and Hope Homes, have a residential facility."

A Muslim for 30 years, Rasool travelled with 28 others from Bermuda to Mecca to join up with about two to three million other Muslims for the annual pilgrimmage.

"It was rough, one night we slept outside on the rocky ground," he says with no regrets.

Rasool's skilled hands can make a small basket in about an hour. Once he timed himself making a small stool...55 minutes was all it took!

He has made baskets for all the hotels in Bermuda and his first job was making baskets for the old Belmont Hotel. Baskets and other items made by the blind are in many of Bermuda's homes.

'I had an order to make 100 baskets and made them by myself," he explained. "I made baskets for Governors and made a dog basket that was so big, this fella got a full-size crib mattress to fit inside of it."

Two buggies he made for a pony were displayed for many years at the Carriage Museum in St. George's.

He has also spent time on Tall Ship travelling from Southampton to France and back.

"Every year they take people with a disability on the boats, they have an organisation that sends them over there," he explained. "I went a few years ago."

So is there anything he can't do?

"Yeah, can't see," he says with a sense of humour. Rasool, who pays close attention to detail, talks about growing up in Mullet Bay, St. George's at the house 'with all those bottles outside'. Not that he has ever seen them but he knows they are there...somewhere. Despite his independence he never refuses help when crossing the street, even though he knows his way around.

"I never refuse help," he answers quickly. "Especially from little children.

"Where I live there is a school and they have a contest for doing good deeds. They go running back to the teacher 'I'm did a good deed today'."

He added: "Where I live, anytime they wanted anything it was me they called. If a bulb or fuse blew out it was me, I was the caretaker.

"One time they had a banquet and I got an award. I thanked them for making me what I am, they have asked me to do everything I can think of.

"The only thing they haven't asked me to do is go outside and move that car...and that's because they know I don't have a licence!"