By George Abraham

In recent years, technology has considerably transformed the entertainment industry, redefining the ways of content consumption. In addition to the traditional sources of entertainment like radio, television and cinema, we now have a host of digital services available to us.

With growing internet penetration and the digital push by the government, content creators have access to a wider audience than ever before. This also includes persons with disabilities, and visually impaired people like myself.

By Shruti Pushkarna

It’s been a month since the Indian government announced the official lockdown to prevent the spread of Covid-19. People’s daily conversations now include casual mentions of a pre- and a post-corona world. We are slowly becoming accustomed to a ‘new normal’. It seems that nature has hit the ‘pause’ button on all our plans.

I’m reminded of my grandfather’s favourite phrase, “Man proposes, God disposes”. Never have those words rung so loud in my ears.

By Shruti Pushkarna

In my last column when I raised a question on whether the media really cares about the disabled population, I didn’t know two weeks later, we would face a more pertinent issue of whether the country is bothered about anyone with a disability in this time of crisis.

By Shruti Pushkarna

Last week, two headlines on the digital platforms of leading dailies caught my attention. One read, “Two blind HSC students find writers at the 11th hour”. And the second stated, “HSC exams: Finding writers a real test for some”.

Both these news stories highlight one of the most commonly faced problems by any blind student in India. Given their vision impairment, these students are dependent on ‘scribes’ to write their exams.

By George Abraham

By Shruti Pushkarna

At the risk of sounding self-aggrandising, I’d say I’m a fairly empathetic person. Even when I wasn’t working in the disability domain, I was reasonably conscious of the different needs of people. Not like I changed anything around me or was overly vociferous on such subjects, but at least I was ‘aware’.

And that’s what I want to talk about. Awareness.

By Shruti Pushkarna

It’s 2020. As we cheer for new beginnings, it’s also time to reminisce on the years gone by.

The last decade witnessed some significant changes in how we look at ‘disability’. When I was still in my twenties (now don’t try to guess my age!), there was hardly any mention of terms like ‘access’ or ‘inclusion’. In fact, the most commonly used term for disabled people was ‘handicapped’.