New Fields Of Vision
ServiceSpace
--Megha Sahgal
2 minute read
Jan 4, 2014

 

Today my mom spent some time with Karthik Sawhney's visiting mother.  He's an extraordinary young man who has transformed a key "disability" into a very meaningful ability.  

Born blind, 18-year-old Karthik had always dreamed of studying science. Per the unknown author (on http://avantifellows.org/kartiks-journey-to-stanford/), "Kartik has excelled at calculus with the help of a program he coded that describes the contours of functions using a musical tone. He has mastered the complex geometries of organic chemistry through modifying the conventions used to portray the 3D relationships between atoms. And on top of that he’s a world-class singer, having graduated from Prayag Sangit Samiti. But just two years ago, Kartik’s prospects were quite a bit bleaker. Then, he was in the middle of petitioning a bemused and skeptical Chairman of Delhi’s Central Board of Secondary Education for the right to study science and math. Across nearly all of India, blind students are prohibited from taking the science and math track during high school. Adequate resources are nearly nonexistent and skilled mentors are hard to find. But the most important impediment for high-achieving blind students is the pervasive prejudice and lack of awareness that characterizes the vast majority of India’s educational system. In Kartik’s case, for instance, the special schools in Delhi that do cater to blind students called his dream “an impossible affair”. As Kartik put it to me, the consensus is that blind students should be taught basket weaving – not biomedical engineering.

Finally, after a dozen letters and months of persuasion, fervent appeals and petitions, the Board issued a circular that allowed Kartik, and all visually challenged students in Delhi, to opt for the sciences. But his success was fleeting. Kartik was soon told that the best engineering schools in India, the revered IITs, lacked the adequate resources for blind students and didn’t even consider them suitable candidates."

Despite the top IITs' rejection, Stanford accepted him as a Computer Science undergraduate!  He now studies there, happily, with accessible assistance, and continues with living his dream of creating more accessible programs for the visually challenged.  Following is more information and a YouTube video of how he overcame some of the recent challenges: http://www.indiatimes.com/news/india/denied-by-iit-jee-blind-topper-kartik-sawhney-opts-for-stanford-80508.html

 

Posted by Megha Sahgal on Jan 4, 2014


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