In a small classroom at DPS International, Gurugram, while most Class XI students focus solely on board exam preparation, Yash Bhatnagar splits his time between chemistry equations and lines of code- building technology that changes lives.

Last week over 60 students from Classes VI to XII sat riveted as Yash shared his journey from creating his first website in Class IV to now developing Structag, an Al-powered tool making digital content accessible to visually impaired individuals worldwide.

With Structag, he is using Al to automate the process of making PDFs accessible to screen readers — a problem affecting millions that remains largely invisible to those it does not impact.

The path of persistent building

This is not Yash’s first venture into solving real problems. His earlier creation, LitGrades, emerged from a simple frus-tration. What started as an AI tool to generate flashcards evolved into a platform creating worksheets, notes, and entire study curriculums used by his classmates and teachers at DPS.

But Yash’s message to younger students was not about overnight success. It was about the unglamorous journey that precedes it.

“Poetree, my very first website in Class IV, did not get too many users,” he admitted. “But it taught me how websites work, how to get people onto a platform. We hosted a poetry competition with Amazon gift cards. Maybe 10 or 20 sub-missions. But it was very fun, and it gave me ideas.”

That pattern repeated with Silent Type, a tool recording classroom lectures and converting them into notes. More complex than LitGrades. More users. Still not viral. Still valuable.

“If I did not do Silent Type, if I didn't do LitGrades, Structag would not be possible,” Yash told the young audience. “That journey is really important.”

The AI advantage

“You do not have to write every single line of code yourself anymore,” he explained. "You do not have to design every-thing yourself. You just have to tell it what you want. It comes down to finding a problem, thinking around it, knowing what the end goal should be, and using AI to your advantage.”

His advice on learning to code in the AI era: “Learning how to only write code is not very useful now, because AI can completely replace that. But learning AI side-by-side with coding can be very powerful. You understand what is hap-pening behind the scenes, but you automate the hard work.”

Building for those who cannot see

What makes Yash’s current work particularly meaningful is its social impact. Structag addresses digital accessibility — a problem affecting millions that remains largely invisible to those it does not impact. “Companies currently do this work manually”, Yash explained. “It is expensive, time-consuming, and limited in reach. AI can scale that solution. This project has gotten kmore traction because it solves a real issue for a lot of people and has a good cause behind it.”

Reality check

Yash was not selling dreams. When a student asked about earnings, he replied candidly about the reality that most startups do not work out and advised against putting all bets on one venture. “Silent Type had some very small earnings, but nothing measurable,” he admitted. "The reality is most startups do not work out. If it does not work today, what do you do tomorrow?" When asked about balancing entrepreneurship with academics, his answer was refreshingly honest. “If I really want to redesign my website, I will give myself a week to do that,” he said. “But I also know I have an exam before that, so I plan accordingly. You do not want to compromise on either side.”

Source: https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/class-xi-boy-codes-hope-for-visually-impaired/