To Inclusion & Beyond

"I would like to share a small incident about recently concluded India Inclusion Summit 2017 (IIS). I got a call from one of the volunteers from IIS a few weeks back, this volunteer had sent a mail, and was helping me to get insights about IIS. She explained about IIS, the importance of attending this event, and how to create a campaign of Inclusiveness etc. The day before, this volunteer called me up and had asked me about my confirmation. Next day the moment I reached the venue, she called me and asked me to come near reception to get myself registered. There I met my volunteer, Sarmista, who is a person with vision impairment. It took me a while but since I have volunteered with so many VIs, I felt so happy to see my volunteer there offering all sort of help and making me comfortable. I must admit that this is the first time, I have seen a visually impaired person volunteering for a TAB (so-called normal people, temporary-abled body). All these days we have been volunteering for different kinds of people with disability but this incident has etched into my memory. Yes, this is the change we need, this is the real inclusion. People like Sarmista have started volunteering for us (TAB), indeed a great step.Thanks to IIS once again. My learning still continues.." - Nataraj, a visitor at India Inclusion Summit 2017.

Though I didn't get a chance to meet Nataraj during the event, I think he correctly captured the essence of the recently concluded India Inclusion Summit (IIS) in Bengaluru. This was the 6th edition of this one-of-a-kind Summit in the space of raising awareness in the field of disability inclusion. Awareness that is mostly missing in our society. Awareness to not concentrate on the disabilities but on the abilities of a person. Awareness that everyone can lead a normal life if certain facilities and accessibility points are built-in to our systems, Awareness that inclusion starts right from childhood and that segregation of schools is not the most brilliant idea. Awareness that a blind person can work as recruiter, a deaf person can work as mechanical engineer, a person with cerebral palsy can work in the field of IT, and an autistic person can be brilliant in a Finance role (all real-life examples) and many more examples like these. Awareness that is so absent from our current society.

To build this awareness this event had to turn into a movement. A movement where each one of us owns our responsibility of making our space (no matter how small or big) an inclusive space. A space where there is no exclusion. A space where a visually-impaired can assist a sighted-person. :)