Challenging the challenges - Higher education for disabled students

According to a recent survey conducted by National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People (NCPEDP), only 0.56 % of disabled students go for higher education. Though this figure looks really small, but it’s certainly better than the 0% in 1995, when the Disability Act got established.

It’s been 20 years but there is lots more which still needs to be done. As per the Disability Act, 3% of the seats for higher education should be reserved for Disabled people, but the above mentioned dismal figures of 0.56% clearly show the lack of adherence by Universities and Institutes.

Let’s try to analyze, as to why these top institutes are not adhering to the guidelines given in the Disability Act:

Infrastructure:

Disabled students need special elements in infrastructure. Stairs, 'Inaccessible' washrooms, Heavy doors, inconvenient transportation etc are a few examples of incompatible infrastructure. Most of the educational institutes are apprehensive in investing so much for only 3% seats.

Special Attention Needed:

These students need Individual care and attention without which they might not able to survive in our current education system. Depending upon the disability, selection of teachers should be practiced. A child who is visually disabled needs a teacher experience in Braille. However, the ratio of students with disability to students with no disabilities lopsided in favor of the latter. So it’s easier for schools or institutes to hire teachers for mainstream students. Teachers in special B.Ed seems an unnecessary expense to them. So disabled students have been told to get admissions in schools only for them, which limits their educational capabilities.

Attitude:

Attitude of other students toward disabled students is of major concern as well.  Reinforcement of a negative attitude into them is also because of religious and community beliefs. Higher the disability, Higher the fear of contagion. It's often believed that disability is a consequence of misdeeds in the last birth or present birth, and any attempt to help disabled people means 'Disservice to God'. This attitude needs to be curbed as soon as possible for the welfare of disabled students. Also, recruiters are apprehensive about disabled people's performance and consider them as a liability to the company.The situation is really gloomy, but still there are several colleges who are taking significant steps to create a helpful environment towards disabled people. Some of the examples are:

St. Xavier College:

Through Xavier resource center for visually challenged (XRCVC), efforts towards the betterment of visually challenged people are taking place.  Digital readers have been distributed to help them study. With Wikisticks they are trying to learn about how to make graphs and Velcro boards provide an embossed version of those graphs. They are also helping students participate in extracurricular activities.

IIT Bombay, Powai:

Special ramps, lifts and washrooms have been created for disabled students. They have special competitions like coding which requires minimum physical involvement and helps physically handicapped students, to participate.

Tata Institute of social sciences

They have recently acquired some amazing softwares like JAWS pro talking software, Kurzweil 1000, Magic Magnification software pro, Optical braille recognition and talking type teacher pro. They are also organizing different workshops to sensitize teachers and students towards disabled students.

But despite these efforts, there is lot more that needs to be done as we have a huge population of people with disability. To get all of them into the 'mainstream', we have to take giant steps. The Government can do their bit by making new laws or amending existing ones, but we need to change our attitude towards the specially abled people of our country. We need to consider them in our assets rather than our liabilities.

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