Hi, I’m Shanti Raghavan, Co-Founder and Chief Enabler of En-Able India.

En-Able India works to impact livelihoods across 19 different disability types.

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Um, I’m gonna answer this a little differently, right?

I’ll just tell you what we’ve seen with persons with disability.

We have seen across all disabilities, every type of disability, person’s working and supporting their family.

So for example, Dinesh, who’s in a wheelchair from Sonbhadra district, UP, what does he do with his money?

He has actually built a hand pump for his mother, so that she does not need to go and bring water.

He has actually made provisions for many people to come and stay in his house, relatives.

He has brought a motorbike which can be, uh, used by the people in the village.

This is what we’re seeing.

Then, I go to somebody else, let us, say, somebody who’s like Pradeep.

He is a person who is a foodie, a techie, oh by the way, he happens to be deaf-blind.

That means he can’t see, hear or speak.

He is the sole breadwinner for his family, and he supports his mother, father is no more.

And he also is the secretary for an association for deaf-blind.

That means he’s supporting…he’s a nation builder, he’s a change maker.

He is helping other people in the country.

From all our experiences, what we realize is the myth, for us we realize that if you have breath, if you, you know, you have breath inside you, you have value.

And so the misconception is, what will these people do?

What will these folks, these folks, you know, so the only misconception is that value.

Is there value in a person with disability?

That is like saying, is there value in me or you?

We know different people, you know, if you take Jeeja, whom you’re going to meet shortly, she is a mother, you know, a very, very humorous and naughty person and happens to be a person with cerebral palsy.

So when you know these three things, you don’t have a misconception about Jeeja.

But if you only know, oh she’s got…she talks like this, she walks like this, then suddenly you think she can’t do anything else.

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The same problem that the person without disability faces, a person with disability faces.

It’s that barrier, thinking that that one thing, that my disability does not define me, that becomes the main thing.

What we have seen is the lack of expectation from a person with disability is the biggest barrier.

And I’ll tell it to you in a different way, that when we do our training, we expect everything from a person with disability, okay?

So when they come, they actually have to do community service in society. Okay?

So, suddenly, they have to go and be a volunteer and do something and help people.

So there are people who have helped in so many ways.

If I tell you the most amazing examples, forgetting that okay, clothes, clothes collection, helped in a cancer hospital, have put up street lights.

So there were some folks who said, ‘wait a minute, here, there are no street lights, so they, and I’m thinking, ‘wait a minute, we said community service, this became too much’.

They actually went to the BBMP office, they went multiple times with their disability, walking with their cane, doing all sorts of things and put up street lights.

So, when, I’m telling you the opposite, right?

Where the the barrier is when you don’t have expectations, but when the expectation is there you go and put streetlights up.

What is happening?

You know, and that’s the beauty about once you break that barrier.

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The first thing is, I just have to see you.

What do you bring to the table?

What are your strengths?

What do you like?

What are the foundations you have already?

For example, if you have a great support system, that’s a great foundation.

What are the solutions you already use as a person with disability?

So once we know, so, we follow appreciative inquiry, that whatever you focus on, grows.

So when I focus on your strength, your ability, your uh likes, your personality, you know and then build on top of that.

Then the matching for whatever you want to do or what you like to do will be easy.

And obviously we want to make sure that you get, as a person with disability, the choices.

‘Hey you’re in a village? Um, you know you have land? Most people have done self-employment, that could be something you choose or you have more ambitions and maybe, you know, oh you want a government job? Okay, that may suit you but this private companies are also available.’

So you kind of give that range of choices, we call it ‘Margadarshi’.

And we’re giving enough data to the person with disability so that they are in command and in control that, ‘yeah, this is what I would like, because I know my circumstance better.’

So though we obviously enable the choices and give more, like, you know this maybe more suitable etc but we want to enable the person with disability to choose.

So that’s how we approach, you know, when a candidate approaches us, that’s what we do.

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There are many organizations including En-Able India.

There are two/three types of trainings that happen, if you go to especially grass root organizations which especially work with the disability part, like a special educator, uh you know, there, more of the life skills, sometimes the person has come without the full rehabilitation done, right?

So that is one part, the second part is employability, that is the crucial thing.
How do you actually uh work with targets, perform, learn everyday on a job?

Your job is already changed, how do you work on the new thing, you now, and advocate for yourself, like how do you actually ensure you get the solutions, work effectively?

So that is employability and then there’s the actual job.

How do you actually have the skills, uh, to do the job?

I’m going to give you an example, because, you know, skills, there’s a very big word out there.

Let’s understand, how in hospitality, you have to clean the glass, okay?

Because your fingerprints can’t be on the glass.

So the the role is, you have to take a damask cloth, which is this big, there’s a certain size, you put it around the stem of the glass and your fingers will not touch the glass, you will use this cloth and wipe it.

So skills, you know, the word is not understood, you know, if I take something like ‘full-stack developer’, you know, it’s a very different role.

You need to know programming, you know how well you need to know it.

So I’m just giving you this contrast but I hope that makes sense.

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See, at En-Able India and many other organizations, we have a standard process.

You know, we will collaborate with the company, do a forecast of the jobs that are available because we can’t suddenly just give a candidate, right?

And we actually break down the jobs to see what are the tasks the person will do? What are the barriers and therefore the solutions.

So one of the main things that companies don’t know is that every, any job, can be done by a person with disability, with the right workplace solution, where you are able to see past that difference of disability. So you know, how we do it, it’s very simple, we tell the company, you, if you, you know, you may not be ready, you just have our employees, your employees meet persons with disability, just face-to-face.

And you, therefore, don’t meet disabled persons, you meet Anita, you know, Shanta, you know, Mukul, you’re you’re meeting an actual human being, you’re having a conversation and suddenly all those barriers disappear.

So, a lot of times it is the risk, you know, feeling that ‘how will my employees react?’ uh, ‘will this person be able to deliver value, you know?’ and uh even if that is the case, if the, you know, if the company doesn’t become more and more includable, they will have a challenge, you know?

So that is where working on the competency of the company, here you’re telling, ‘candidate become employable’, you need the company also to be equally “includable”.

We have seen studies and we did this with persons with autism, same person working in one particular with one manager did horribly, same person, similar job, another manager, awesome, doing fantastic.

So, after the person joins, there are different set of challenges.

‘How do I tell the person and give them performance feedback?’

Yeah you give the performance feedback, you know, so when you don’t give the feedback that, ‘Hey I think you need to improve in this’, how does the person improve?

Simple thing would be, create, you know, uh prepare employees.

Second is, any job can be done, so just, it’s about breaking that job, finding the barrier and the solutions.

And the third is, uh, ensuring that the person can improve.

And others also, right?

The people, the Buddy who’s with the person, they also need to know how to include that person. So, I think I’m just…

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Work Simulations during Employability Training at En-able India helped me perform at work.

Constant feedback and practice made me better, stronger, faster!

Today, I have built a house for my family of 14.

I am the sole breadwinner.

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I am a team leader at Vindhya Info Media.

I manage a team of 30.

I have no hands.

I am the product of many includable people.

They encouraged me to find solutions for daily activities.

My teacher made me learn to write with my legs.

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My name is Deepa.

I work as a diversity lead for Asia Pacific Japan at a large MNC IT Company.

I cannot move any part of my body except one finger.

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So I’m thinking of Pratap, person with cerebral palsy, hands are jerking, a jerky, and you know, uh, speech impairment etc, great in finance, M.Com, you know, comes from a family, only mother is there, tailor, you know, not an easy situation.

But for him to actually work on the computer, big problem, because he’s going to be slow.

Now his brain is great, we want him to work well, so all we did was, we had an onscreen keyboard, that means, the, you know, in the actual keyboard, your hands are not typing and a joystick.

So, with the joystick, when he’s moving it, he’s able to move it with the onscreen keyboard.

But to move between different screens, he had a food pedal because his foot was very good.

So with the foot pedal, he does Alt Tab, as you know, in the computer we change the screen.

So, foot pedal, onscreen keyboard, joystick and he was good to go.

It took us a while to get there and that's how he was able to work very effectively.
Today, in fact, he doesn't even need these solutions because his body has now got adapted because he has worked for so many years.
Now he has ch…grown in his career, he has gone to another two companies after that.
You know, so now he doesn't require that solution.
Uh, other solutions are when you can't move any part of your body.
Uh, we have used speech recognition in different formats.
So, just don't think it's a software.
It's also how you configure the speech recognition software.
So, how does one person, okay you are speaking to the computer but you want your mouse to move to a particular location then we’ll use something called Mouse grid.
So, mouse grid what does it do?
It allow…you know it divides the screen, so the screen number here is 5 so you will say go to 5.
So therefore, the mouse is moving there.
Its…does exactly what your hand does, but your mouth is telling what to do.
So, you get efficient in doing this then you get placed.
So, we don't place people till you get efficient in the solution.
Uh, one of the ways we made persons who are blind work effectively in the job at State Bank of India is, in a rural area, we still use passbooks by the way.
Okay, so here the passbook and the blind person has to see the account number.
So, we recommended to State Bank of India that if you could put a barcode, the blind person or non-blind person can just read the account number and it goes into the computer.
On the computer the blind person is listening to uh, the account number through the screen reader software.
Just with that, we could open up 30,000 jobs at State Bank of India and the blind person can do the job on their own, just because of something like this.
Workplace solutions do not need to be about technology.
Can I give you some very simple examples?
Ah, so, I, you know, we place people in factories where the, you know, you're, you're making the foam that will sit in your BMW car, okay?
So, they are doing some operations with that and they need to remove something from a sticker but I have only one hand.
Oh, how do you do it?
Very simple.
Take a double-sided tape, that's what we did, we have kept it under the sticker.
So, one side of the double-sided sticker sits on the table, the other side is sticking to the sticker.
That behaves like your one hand.
Now with my one hand I am just removing the sticker.
So, this is giving the same behavior of the other hand.
Where is the technology?
How do we place deaf in companies, uh you know, like Shell?
Uh doing a role facing a customer.
They just have, they have to ask questions to the customer, so, they have a wipeable communication board.
It says ‘petrol’, ‘diesel’, “what do you want”?
So the person just ticks.
“I want petrol”, “I want so much”. ‘cash’, ‘credit card’.
They just tick and the job is done.
So many many times the solutions are just uh you know these simple things or process changes, do it in a different way.
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I am Haseena.
I am an acid attack survivor.
I now work at the Department of Defence.
I am independent in my daily activities.
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Persons with intellectual disability are gainfully employed in various sectors like retail, electronics, automobile among others.