Karthik Sawhney hit the headlines in 2013 for gaining admission to Stanford University. His case was special because he had achieved that in spite of being visually challenged. In a country where such students are actively discouraged from taking up science streams on the premise that they cannot cope with the lab modules, Karthik not only took up the challenge but also scored 98.5 per cent in his higher secondary exams and subsequently won a place in Stanford University and is now working for his B.S. (Computer Science) degree.
Though it has been a struggle for Karthik, the fact remains that he was able to break the barriers and study the subject of his choice.
For many students with disabilities, the situation is still bleak and unrelenting. Even if we consider only visual and hearing impairment and disabilities involving the lower limbs, each of these involves different kinds of challenges and demands specific attention.
Enabling measuresAccessibility is one thing to which some attention has been given — people talk about having ramps and disabled-friendly toilets. Yet, this too remains a distant hope, implemented only by a few institutions. But this is just one aspect. For instance, for people on wheelchairs, moving from one place to another is a problem. A typical problem due to this is faced by medical students with disability.
Asks Dr. Satendra Singh, who is with the University College of Medical Sciences and Guru Tegh Bahadur Hospital, Delhi, “In the third year, the students attend clinical wards from 9.00 a.m. to 12.00 pm. There are lectures from 12.00 pm onwards. How will a physically-challenged person be able to move so quickly from one place to another? Some leeway should be given to such people.”
An activist who works on disability issues, Dr. Singh sent a petition to the Medical Council of India (MCI) on making medical colleges disabled-friendly. The MCI forwarded the same as a circular to all medical colleges numbering over 380. Only 32 responded. Of these, from Tamil Nadu, only Christian Medical College had responded, and this college is known to have a disabled-friendly campus.
Dreams and visionAkilan, visually-challenged and studying in Class X in Nethrodaya Higher Secondary School for the blind, says, “I wish to study English. I love to learn English daily and dream of conversing in English. I wish to do a PhD one day.” He has an inspiring role model in the founder of the school, Gopi, who is himself visually challenged.
Gautham, a Class XII student of the same school, has low vision. He studies history, geography, economics and political science. “I wish to become a lawyer one day. I have had a liking for the profession right from my childhood.” he says. Gautham had first joined a general school, because there are very few higher secondary schools for the blind, and could not continue because of the bullying and ragging he experienced there. This school has brought him relief.
But what about visually-challenged students who dream of studying science? There are not many who get a break like Karthik Sawhney, because many colleges observe a rule that visually challenged students are not allowed into science group as they cannot participate in experiments. Even if that were true, why can’t these colleges have a stream with subjects such as maths, economics, computer science, etc. which do not require experiments that a visually-challenged person may not be able to handle?
Hearing mattersHearing impairment is perhaps the least-addressed difficulty as it is not immediately apparent to the people around what the problem is. Strangely enough, a measure that is in place to help the hearing-impaired may itself turn counter-productive. These students are exempted from learning English in school, but when they come to college — and there are very few colleges equipped with teachers who are qualified to teach the physically challenged — they find that every lesson is in English and this adds to their difficulty in learning.
“From school itself, learning English and the sign language is essential,” says P. Rajasekharan, co-founder of V-Shesh, an organisation that helps the hearing-impaired gain lifeskills, interview skills, basic knowledge of computers and also prepares their students for data entry jobs.
Kalasalingam University in Madurai offers a special 6-year BTech for students with speech and hearing impairment. Sri Sabari Jyoti and Jayashree have studied this course and earned a B.Tech. in computer science and engineering.
The first two years of this integrated programme train the students for the Senior Secondary Examination conducted by the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS). Following this, the students can specialise in computer science and engineering, mechanical engineering or civil engineering and information technology. Importantly, they are also trained in sign language for the first few years.
Gautham is another person with hearing impairment, who joined a mainstream school in Thanjavur for higher secondary course. He found it difficult to understand what was going on in the class, with no teachers trained in teaching people with special requirements. The exemption from studying English also did not help.
“Somehow, I passed the exam,” he says. He joined St Louis College for the Deaf in Adyar, where they taught him the sign language, which made life easier. He now has an MCA degree and is looking forward to getting a job in the corporate sector. He also would like to study further and do a PhD in mathematics.
Truly, integrating the physically-challenged into the community requires a lot more than is being done at present. After all, they have a right to dream, too.
