June 11, 2019
A senior executive with Cdac Mumbai, Sai Bhagat’s is the kind of
story that has learnings for all of us. Find out why in his own words in My
Take this week.
I was an average student in school, with all the usual dreams typical to most
middle-class Indians. As I had blue eyes, I would get a lot of comments,
positive and negative. I started facing severe problems with my vision in
Class 10. By this time, I was using magnifiers to read and after consulting a
few doctors, I found I had glaucoma in both eyes. I was told my
sight would deteriorate eventually.
After cracking the Class 12 exam, I joined the National Association
for the Blind (NAB) for a course in telephone operating. During this
time, I lost vision in my left eye after the doctor botched up my surgery. I
was devastated coping with my first experience of blindness.
With the support of family and friends, I continued with the daily routine.
Of course, people looked at me with sympathy and some even said, “Don’t
worry about life. Just sit at home, your brothers will take care of you”.
Some even suggested I open a telephone booth for survival. This was really
demoralising. I was not interested in this traditional option for disabled
people so I decided to groom myself and start life with a different energy.
Initially it was difficult to ask for help while travelling in public
transport or crossing the road but I started doing that. During this time
many institutes in Mumbai were offering computer courses for blind people. I
joined one that offered basic computer training and gained some confidence.
Unfortunately, my right eye vision was getting worse and the transition from
partial to total blindness was quite hard.
I found new hope when GTL Institute announced a diploma in
computer programming for blind people. I cracked the entrance
test and signed up for a two-year programme. This time I was completely
focused on my training. I struggled a lot as screen readers were not fully
compatible with the development environment. I developed great interest in
computer programming and would spend more than eight hours in the NAB cyber
café as buying a computer was not possible. Reading e-books, referring to
online articles and solving problem statements using programming language was
my only agenda. I completed this diploma with an outstanding
grade and decided to try for a career in computers and IT services.
Based on my diploma I gave a couple of interviews but was rejected because of
my limited academic qualifications. At the time, my close friend
Prashant Naik was thinking of pursuing a bachelor’s degree
in Computer Application. I decided to pursue the same. My
elder brother filled up the admission form for me and paid my fees for the
first year. Lectures and practicals started and I got busy in studies. By
this time, my vision was hazy, and I started carrying a white cane though I
used it ineffectively. My diploma background helped me understand programming
concepts and helped me answer most of the questions.
Meanwhile, my friend Sanjeev got placed at
Siemens as trainee programmer and this gave me some hope
regarding job prospects. After my first semester, I also applied there and
got as job as trainee programmer. This was the happiest day for me and for my
parents. After struggling for over five years, I finally had a positive
result. The initial months were hard as convincing seniors and colleagues
about your skills and competencies is a tough task. Understanding new
technologies and using inaccessible software was one of my biggest struggles
but with the support of seniors and my exploration skills I managed well.
Handling your job and studies is exhausting but after my BCA, I enrolled for
a Master’s in Computer Application and got a first class. With diverse
technologies and projects on the work front, I developed myself as an
experienced IT professional. In the span of nine years I was given two awards
– Best Employee and Best Implementer.
With support and motivation from my buddy Prashant, I started doing voluntary
work for the blind community in the form of technical trainings,
awareness and sensitisation workshops. I was also involved in
few advance trainings for corporate employees with visual disabilities. A
couple of years ago I started my own blog and I post articles related to
assistive technologies, accessible software, new offerings and generic topics
related to disabilities. In 2014, I started with a community service called
www.talkingatmindia.org with Prashant so visually impaired
people could search for the nearest talking ATM. This is a
first of its kind service which provides a centralised search of
such ATMs installed by nationalised and private banks.
Last year after a rigorous selection process I participated in an
international study program at Seoul, South Korea. It was a
two-week event when I got to make a presentation on the topic of education
for people with disabilities at the National Assembly there.
After nine years in my job I decided to switch but faced the same
discrimination in spite of my experience and a respected degree. It was
really disheartening but I decided not to give up. In 2016 the
Ministry of Electronics, Centre for Development of Advance Computing
(C-DAC) released a notification regarding a special recruitment
drive for persons with disabilities. I applied and cracked the aptitude exam
and got placed as a Senior Technical Officer. Getting
permanent employment in such a reputed company at this designation was a
dream come true. My parents and everyone around are very happy.
Along with my regular tasks , I took up the unique initiative of digital
accessibility. This is an important and untouched area where government
agencies are lacking experience so I decided to use my technical skills to
make the Digital India story inclusive and accessible.
Last year I co-authored a research paper with my senior Dr. Padmaja
Joshi and this has been selected for the 12th International
Conference of Theory and Practice for Electronic Governance. Earlier
this year, I traveled to Australia to present this paper and received an
amazing response from the organisers and audience. This was one of the
memorable tours in my life as I did many solo adventures and experienced a
highly developed country with superb infrastructure which is
disabled-friendly.
Source: https://newzhook.com/story/22506
