The journey of a non-disabled woman empowering people with disabilities across the globe
Ankita Gulati is the Founder and CEO of TouchVision (Anaavaran Technologies Private Limited). TouchVision is an IIT Delhi incubated Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) recognized social enterprise aiming at social inclusion for 1 billion people with disabilities globally.
Starting her career as a software developer, she felt a need for a larger purpose in life. In her own words, “I want to serve people through my work, not through charity”. Her Master’s thesis eventually led to the birth of TouchVision, an inclusive design firm incubated at IIT Delhi where a portable scanner for the visually impaired was designed at just Rs. 1,800 (international variant costs 3 lacs). Persons with visual disabilities ranging from a 10-year-old school student to an IAS officer are accessing notices, books or any long document to study and work in an independent and dignified manner.
Realising that students with visual impairments struggle to study maths and science after class 8th, as diagrams aren’t accessible, she started working on interactive tactile graphics in 2015. This has opened doors to the sciences for many blind students. Since diagrams are excluded from the curriculum, children with visual impairment are not encouraged to study Science, Maths and Geography in schools. This hinders inclusion in the education ecosystem and eventually limits employment opportunities. Her work over the last 5 years has been recognised at multiple national and international platforms. TouchVision has received support from the Department of Science and Technology, MHRD and Ministry of Electronics and IT and working with global accessibility leaders for the dissemination of affordable products to empower people with different abilities.
Ankita’s vision is to contribute to the community holistically. A sustainable change can only be brought by changing attitudes among the community and in the overall ecosystem consisting of all the stakeholders, viz. Government bodies, NGOs, policy makers and society in general. She regularly advocates for solutions and policies to empower people with disabilities in national and international discussion forums and workshops. She has been serving as the youngest subject matter expert with Rehabilitation Council of India from November 2016 and has developed their entire module on assistive technologies for visually impaired. The module is being used as teaching material by B.Ed. (Special Education) students across India and is hosted on Government’s National MOOC platform Swayam.
Being a non-disabled individual and having no direct exposure with people with disabilities before 2015, she is often questioned about what got her interested in working towards the empowerment of people with disabilities. Her answer to this and what she calls as her biggest
learning over the last few years is the ability to empathise. Underserved sections of the society are often viewed from the lens of sympathy but inclusion can only be achieved when the needs and problems of the marginalized sections are met; show empathy and not sympathy. People with disabilities are people first, they are a part of society and require different rehabilitation measures to realise their true capabilities.
Ankita’s vision is to empower people with special abilities to learn and thrive in an inclusive world. TouchVision is holistically contributing to the community through research and technology-driven human-centric solutions to accelerate inclusion in education and employment ecosystem. TouchVision’s core strength lies in innovative and user-centric products. The products and services are designed for the global audience as they work in regional languages and come at an affordable price, making them accessible for people from all sections of society. Ankita has recently been honoured with the National Award for the Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities 2019 by the Honorable Vice President of India.
