Building an inclusive society takes the cooperation of the whole nation and the hard work of like-minded individuals to transform communities that celebrate the abilities of persons with disabilities (PWDs).
Husband and wife team Prateek and Prarthana Kaul, started GiftAbled in 2013 with a beautiful vision of building towards an inclusive society by fostering a community that appreciates what persons with disability can do instead of feeling bad about what they can’t. Prarthana wants everyone to look beyond their disabilities and provide them with opportunities not out of pity but because they are able.
Focusing on the Gifts Rather than Special Needs
In a 2018 interview with The Logical Indian, Prarthana asked, “When we hear about a person with a disability, why do we tend to focus on his/her disability instead of considering them as a human being, to begin with?”
And it’s true.
We always act out of pity for their disabilities, choosing to fill the voids. We are always trying to provide the support that will somehow bridge the gaps. Most of us are unaware or have that stereotypical pattern and stigma about disability. We consider PWDs as a liability to society rather than an asset.
But it has changed a lot.
Prarthana decided to quit her corporate job at IBM 16 years ago to focus on social work. Before GiftAbled, she had actively participated in volunteering projects with various non-profit organizations. She accounts for lack of awareness as the culprit why only 1% of differently-abled Indians are meaningfully employed.
She recounted in the same interview: “I remember years ago, one day I was walking down the road when I saw a group of children pointing towards me and sharing a hearty laugh. Curious, I approached them and found out that they were not laughing at me, rather they were a bunch of hearing-impaired kids communicating in sign language. I realized how little we know about the world of these kids, and that’s when I decided to learn sign language.”
From there, she took a different perspective and encouraged everyone who would listen to do the same.
“While most are busy debating about the insensitivity of the terms we use to designate disabled persons, I felt we ought to do more work at the ground level.”
Prateek, in an exclusive interview with theOneHourProject, also saw how people often see a disability as an inability. “We started researching and understanding more about disability and realized a huge scope to fill the necessary gap and contribute in our own small way towards inclusion,” Prateek said.
“As our mission says: To innovate and accelerate inclusion to transform the lives of people. Our aim is to reach 1 million people with disabilities by 2025 all over India and also to ensure children with autism, ADHD, and cerebral palsy are integrated with mainstream schools smoothly by implementing teaching methodologies suitable for children with disabilities.”
But Prateek is aware they can’t do it alone. That’s why he encourages everyone who “can” to “volunteer to show how effective it is to use our shared humanity to influence societal improvement.”
Photo by John Cameron on Unsplash
