“Once blindness comes, it shatters your world and you don’t know what to do, where to go, especially after the doctor says there’s nothing they can do at this time,” says Aanchal Bhateja when asked how she coped. After becoming totally blind as a school student.
Anchal was born with low vision due to complications. While able to cope up to class 10 in a mainstream school, he lost his vision completely before his board exams.
After her diagnosis, Aanchal had to chart a path for herself—from taking her exams with the help of a writer to finding tools to help her complete her education.
At this point, she met another blind man in her hometown Bathinda, who used a computer with a screen reader. Aanchal learned a lot from him and thus began his journey with digital accessibility devices.
He completed his schooling by referring to the audiobooks of his course and used a scribe to appear for the exams.
Global Accessibility Day (GAAD) is celebrated on the third Thursday of May every year. The day seeks to bring the international community together to talk about and raise awareness about digital accessibility for people with disabilities.
The mission for digital accessibility is led by WebAIM (Web Accessibility in Mind).
Through GAAD, affected communities worldwide make the case for digital accessibility for people with various disabilities. There are nearly one billion people with disabilities (PwD) in the world, and creating accessible digital technology is important from a civil rights as well as a business perspective.
Life after diagnosis
“I had to figure it all out on my own. Most of the people, including my father, initially thought that I would not be able to continue my education. My father, though educated, did not know the way forward for me. I don’t blame them, any normal person would think about blindness. It’s a feeling,” she says.
Determined to continue her education, Aanchal appeared for the Common Law Entrance Test (CLAT) and became the first blind student to study at the National Law School of India University (NLSIU), Bengaluru.
With the admission season upon us, every recent school graduate and their parents are worried about the upcoming entrance exams.
Aanchal’s story reminds each of us how this too passes. Despite all odds, Aanchal completed law school in 2023 and is currently working as a lawyer at one of India’s top law firms.
However, her story does not end with clearing the CLAT exam. In fact, it was the beginning in many ways.
As a first-year student, Aanchal used to write her exams with the help of a scribe until her legal theory professor recommended that she type her answers.
Reluctant at first, Aanchal took her laptop into the exam hall and started typing her responses.
Surprisingly, she managed to complete this task within 3 hours. After this, there was no looking back. Anchal took all her exams on her laptop without the help of a scribe. “I was always offered half an hour extra but I never needed it; I was always one of the first students to finish writing,” Anchal said.
“Now that I work in telecom media and technology law, my friends joke that my whole life is in virtual space. I use apps for groceries, cabs, everything!” She shares.
New technological innovations and services, especially app-based delivery and services, have made independent living more accessible for many people with disabilities.
Lack of digital infrastructure is a major challenge
Lack of proper digital access and awareness is posing a challenge. According to the latest Web Accessibility Report by WEBAIM, more than 95% of the 1,000,000 most visited websites had accessibility issues on their home pages.
This means that many web spaces are not accessible even if people with disabilities have the appropriate equipment and training.
This has also affected their work. In his work as a lawyer, Aanchal has to access case decisions using online archives. However, websites that are accepted by courts do not have accessibility. As a result, Aanchal often has to rely on someone else to help him navigate through these websites.
Furthermore, Aanchal notes that even IT staff are not fully aware of how screen readers work and how they can be integrated with the software used in the workplace.
Achanal’s journey underscores the critical need for widespread outreach awareness.
The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 mandates all organizations and workplaces to provide reasonable accommodation and accessible infrastructure. This includes providing accessible materials and resources and conducting regular accessibility tests to identify and address infrastructure barriers and providing training and support to employees with disabilities, conducting sensitization programs for other employees and individuals in the workplace or organization.
Law is a competitive and demanding profession that requires a lot of reading and paperwork. The general understanding so far is that it is not suitable for blind people.
However, digital innovations have made it possible to include people with disabilities in a variety of occupations.
Inclusivity IRL
Asked about the disability inclusion journey in her organization, Seema (name changed), HR Manager, Delhi, says, “Inclusion of people with disabilities has helped the organization in many unexpected ways. Apart from creating a more equitable workforce, having PwDs in the workplace has also helped us improve our policies, processes and infrastructure. It has helped me rethink things from a new perspective.”
As more and more employers warm to the idea of employing lawyers with disabilities, the industry is also moving toward becoming a more inclusive place for everyone.
Echoing this sentiment, blind lawyer and accessibility professional Amar Jain says, “As lawyers with disabilities, we face huge hurdles. Data provided by clients is not accessible, physical case files do not have digital copies. However, the judicial system has taken some progressive steps. .”
“For example, the Delhi High Court recently issued an order to provide digital copies of case files to lawyers with disabilities. The scenario is changing, slowly but surely,” he added.
A little understanding can go a long way in such situations. Placed as a regional student in the chambers of Justice DY Chandrachud. She recalls how forthcoming they were about offering ‘reasonable accommodation’ to help her work better.
“We need to make case briefs with page number references. As a blind person, it is sometimes difficult to find the correct page number, so I use paragraph numbers instead and this request was covered and helped me do my job better,” she says.
Aanchal also recalls how she received a letter from Justice Chandrachud after completing her internship in his chambers.
“He told me that my research skills were remarkable and he faced no challenges in using the briefs I had prepared. He was also an understanding senior as he was open to me working in my own way and using slightly different formats to present my briefs,” He shared.
Aanchal’s story is not just one man’s triumph over disaster, it is a powerful call to build a truly inclusive society. By promoting accessibility awareness and implementing strong support systems, we can empower everyone, regardless of ability, to reach their full potential.
Aanchal trip is just one of many. People with various disabilities benefit from digital accessibility. It can be found in a number of different forms. From adaptive keyboards to speech to text software, technology has come a long way to find ways to accommodate human diversity, all the rest is a sincere effort on our part to integrate it into our lives.
Written by Vi-Shesh, Edited by Padmashri Pandey.