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Disability, the sages say, is not inability, and that is the clear message Mr James Etsie, a visually-impaired at Agona Swedru in the Central Region, seems to be sending.

Mr Etsie, who has been visually impaired since 1997, has proven that with the requisite skills, people with various forms of disabilities begging along the streets could set up their own businesses.

Today, Etsie, also known as ‘Teasu’, to wit ‘step on it’, has become widely known in the Swedru area and beyond as a result of his dexterity in the repairs of faulty vehicular brakes and clutches despite his impairment.

He has become so popular that the junction leading to his workshop has been named Teasu Junction, which is located opposite the Agona Swedru Motor Traffic and Traffic Department (MTTD).

Eye complications

Mr Estie, who is in his 50s, is also the father of seven boys. He started having eye problems in 1995 and after visiting a number of hospitals, the problem with his eyes was later detected to be glaucoma, a complicated eye disease which causes damage to the optic nerve leading to progressive, irreversible vision loss.

Etsie was born to Opanyin Yaw Kakra and Esi Mansah, both deceased. He attended the Bediako Local Authority School in the Brong Ahafo Region.

Learning a trade

After school, he assisted his parents on the farm for about three years, after which he was attached to an uncle (Kwesi Afenyi of blessed memory), a mechanic, to learn the trade at New Edubiase in the Ashanti Region in 1979.

“Because my parents did not have money, I could not continue my education to the secondary school level, so they asked me to join my uncle to learn his trade,” he told The Mirror, adding that after three years of training he passed out and later moved down south to Swedru with another colleague to set up their own mechanic shop.

He later broke away from his friend and set up his own shop in 1983. Shortly after that in 1987, he said, he started having problems with his eyes.

“Later when I realised I had began to have some blurred vision, I went to different hospitals to seek medical assistance but they all could not help. After 10 years, in 1997, the situation had worsened making me totally blind,” he narrated.