Access to Education - How I wish I was made more welcome
Mahesh
23 May 2001
Life is full of events and experiences for some the change comes by so abruptly and sudden that can either leave trapped for life or open up new chapters in the art of living.
I was having an uneventful life during my degree course at college “ a life of an average student who had not made a mark as a genius or made it to the collage cultural team. Things were going on predictable lines with no particular aim.
It was during the middle of second year that a simple viral fever took a totally unpredictable turn in my life. The fever developed into tingling sensation in my limbs and within 24 hours I lost all motor control of my body below my neck. There was nothing that could prevent the degeneration “ which was diagnosed as Gullien Barrie syndrome. After a critical phase of few weeks I managed to survive “ all my muscles including my breathing had become very weak. The hospital was my home for the next 6 months. Friends in college and my lifestyle slowly faded away. It was a new me with a blank future. I had to be physically lifted everywhere and pushed in a wheelchair.
I am lucky that over a period of 2 years I could regain some of my strength and could amble with the help of a walking frame. I went to college again keeping few steps at a time with the help of my father, my batch had passed out of college, I could recognize few of my juniors but they looked back at me as if I was a total stranger. I met few of my lecturers who sympathized. They were all totally silent with no words to speak to me. I just could look at my classroom in the second floor, which meant that I needed to climb over 40 steps. All of which made me feel that I was totally in a wrong place and that the college was not meant for me anymore. I resigned to my fate. Did not have the courage to ask the college to take me back, took the Transfer Certificate and returned home with tears and a mountain of sorrow.
Long months of loneliness and frustrations made me more and more determined to achieve something in life. I was lucky that I got an opportunity to spend few months visiting an integrated school for both disabled and non-disabled children. This was an awakening experience that made me feel that I was not the only one but in fact there were many more children with severe disabilities who were managing so well, studying and enjoying their childhood.
This completely transformed my outlook and attitude. I began to see life differently and developed an eagerness to live and experience life to the fullest.
Now, 13 years after my disability, I have gained the confidence to live independently, learnt computer skills in my spare time, worked away from home. Taken extra initiatives at work, which has helped me to grow in the organisation and be fairly successful and at the same time have an active social life. Basically I have not let anything/ anyone to bog me down.
But strangely the disability that prevents my professional growth now, is that I lack a formal degree. How I wish I was made more welcome at college. All I needed was a little initiative from my lecturers to come back and complete my studies.
There is a great need for people especially in the field of education to think that education is equally important for people with disabilities too. Disabilities can be overcome by sensitive teachers and multi-sensory learning materials. Labeling the needs of all people with disabilities as special only leads to isolation. Without education the age-old belief that people with disabilities cannot live an independent life gets reinforced and they continue to live a life of social isolation. People with disabilities have the right to free education until the age of 18 as per the Persons with Disabilities Act passed in 1996 in India. This act also envisages ˜Equal opportunities, protection of rights and non-discrimination of people with disabilities. All these are only on paper, but there is a big challenge for schools and educational institutions to be aware and sensitive to the needs of people with disabilities and encourage them to live a fulfilled life.