How Students in India Are Designing for Inclusivity and Accessibility

Our students started their Ciena Solutions Challenge journey by brainstorming topics related to the Sustainable Development Goals in order to come up with our big idea: reducing inequalities. From here, the group decided to work on making a difference in the lives of children with special needs. We reached out to the management team at ZEP Rehabilitation Centre, a school dedicated to students with special needs, located approximately 5 kilometers from our school, and they readily agreed to collaborate.

To understand the various challenges their ZEP Rehabilitation Centre peers face, our students conducted extensive interviews and surveys with stakeholders at ZEP Rehabilitation Centre, such as teachers, parents, doctors, and counselors. They learned that children with disabilities face stigma and are often rejected by society and parents. In addition, they discovered that there are few learning tools available in Marathi, the vernacular language. Parents of students with special needs are often worried about their future and ability to earn a livelihood. Further, society gives “lip sympathy,” but at the same time, keeps these students at arm’s length.

Considering our limited resources, we developed a focused action plan:

• • Host joint activities – Our school has a large infrastructure and playground with specialized teachers for various skills. We invited ZEP students to our school twice a week for joint games with other school children. This developed a sense of familiarity among students. Teachers from art, music, sport, and computer also joined in identifying and honing students’ skills.
  • Develop an app – Develop an app in Marathi, Hindi, and English to develop children’s motor sensory and cognitive domains and to cater to specific needs of different types and levels of disabilities.
  • Design a website – Design a website to connect parents with therapists via a direct hotline, FAQs, and a directory of doctors.

Our materialistic society has made us individualistic. The art of sharing and giving has been the ultimate aim of my life. Through their involvement in the Yugma project, our student team at City Pride School developed a stronger interest and commitment to working in partnership to improve the lives of students with disabilities.

As for me, I knew the dictionary meaning of the word “empathy,” but this journey has resulted in real soul searching. Technology has to be harnessed for the good of humankind and I hope that in the future, more people will continue to find ways to use it for positive social impact. Our history and mythology is full of stories about love and compassion and I feel that our small baby step has made our own project team’s lives more meaningful and fulfilling.

• Register for more info and resources to get involved.
• Learn more about City Pride School’s Yugma project in the Project Gallery on the Ciena Solutions Challenge website
• Explore the Ciena Solutions Challenge Resource Library for additional resources, including a sample Challenge Builder based on a real world example from Poonam Gupta.