May 13, 2019
Our guest columnist this week is Sharada Devi V from
Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, who is studying for her doctorate in English. Her
area of research is Disability Studies. This is an account of her memorable
experience at a conference in Bengaluru.
I have presented about 11 papers at different national and international
seminars and conferences. Among them, five were presented after I started
doing a Ph.D. The latest was at the International Conference on
Reflections and Refractions on (Dis)ability: Interdisciplinary
Perspectives organized by the Department of Humanities,
Kristu Jayanti Autonomous College, Bengaluru in February this year.
What prompted me to write specially about this conference is the fact that it
was conducted at a venue which is wheelchair-friendly. That is one of the
main reasons why I took the effort to go to Bengaluru to participate in it.
Also, my dear teacher Krishna Prabha ma’am is the Head of
the Department of English there and my friend Sucheta works
there as well. The support given by both of them was beyond words. Apart from
these, Bengaluru is an accessible place to some extent with accessibility in
buildings, transportation and all.
The two days at the conference offered me a great sense of visibility which I
have never experienced in any of the earlier seminars and conferences. I
noticed with immense pleasure that apart from the venue, some other areas
within the sprawling campus were also wheelchair-friendly. Please note that
all this is in a college with no physically challenged student until now.
Since the venue was wheelchair-friendly with ramp and lifts, I could attend
all the sessions which I liked. Here in Kerala, this is not possible since
most of the important sessions are held on upper floors where there are no
lifts. This means I can only listen to the sessions where my paper
presentations get scheduled. Apart from seminars and conferences, lectures
and important talks are also on upper floors. I feel myself being totally
invisible to everyone as I cannot make my presence felt there. The saddest
part is that just because of this accessibility problem, I am missing out
on a number of Ph.D open defences at the University of
Kerala, which is a terrible loss for me as a research scholar. I
am constantly thinking about how to solve this issue.
At Kristu Jayanti College, I found myself being warmly welcomed by the
vibrant student volunteers. A bunch of them escorted me to the venue. Unlike
most other events, punctuality was evident. At the scheduled time, the chief
guests arrived and guest speakers were asked to limit their speech to the
scheduled time. All the sessions were informative, especially the plenary
session on Disability in the Media by Thomas Abraham from
the University of Hong Kong.
Many seminars and conferences on disability studies are conducted in various
parts of Kerala but all of them turn into a gathering of able-bodied people
talking many things about persons with disabilities, without doing anything
practically for them. The venues are inaccessible. I am thankful to the
Kristu Jayanti College for enabling me to attend the conference. I was even
happier when I heard that the college management after the conference, has
decided to make other areas inside the campus accessible.
Kristu Jayanti College is a model for all educational institutions in Kerala.
All educational institutions should be equipped with necessary accessible
facilities for all differently-abled students. They should not wait for a
differently-abled student for creating accessibility. Inclusive education
should not remain only in words.
Source: https://newzhook.com/story/22199
