Can you move beyond your disability and actually turn it into your ability?

Well, Shivani Gupta has truly done it. In 1992, she met with a car accident, which made her land on a wheel chair. This incident didn’t deter her from moving ahead in life. In fact, she tenaciously worked for the next fourteen years and made India’s mindset change towards the disabled.

She applied to the British University of Reading for a course in Inclusive Environments. The course was a part time one, for which student visas are not issued, but when the university saw Shivani Gupta’s resume, they changed their course to a full time one.

Presently, she is in India and has worked in collaboration with the Chief Commissioner of Disabilities. Not only this, she has also represented India in UN workshops and conferences overseas.

After completing a degree in Architecture and Inclusive Environments, she is now occupied in doing an access audit, in seeing just how customer friendly the hospitality sector is towards the disabled.

She says,

‘All of us must understand that an inclusive accessible environment is not only for disabled people. It is for each one of us. It is for pregnant women, people with temporary disabilities, children, and elderly’.

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