Mathematics and Student with disability

“Do not worry about your difficulties in mathematics, I assure you that mine are greater.” Albert Einstein said once and I may be quoting him out of context, however, relatively speaking it is just what is tailor mode for my experience or rather to be more precise the lack of it – with math.

Like all students I have had a love and hate relationship with mathematics, and I am sure if I asked this august audience if math was their dreaded subject many would raise their hands and the remaining would passively acknowledge.   Like I said earlier my difficulties in mathematics are greater than yours.  My difficulties not only concern my abilities of tackling a problem, they are based on some disabling assumption that a person with disability is not capable of taking up mathematics as a subject in school.  The education system does not care about our mathematical difficulties. It integrates arbitrarily.

No I am making generalised statements which can never be completely true. The truth is education system does care. It believes that a person with disability should be given a handicap to bring them at par with other students so that can compete competently at the school leaving examination. This handicap is an exemption from appearing for the advanced mathematics paper, which so-called normal children are made to appear as a compulsory subject.   A handicap may theoretically make contestants equal, however, but the handicapper is not considered a winner even if he manages to win it, not in the true sense.  The handicap would always be a grim reminder of the validity  or to be precise the invalidity of the contest.

There are many incidents that raise the validity of equality gained through exemptions, and I often lose sleep over it (this sometimes makes me wonder if my insomnia is a result of not being able of count sheep properly??).

Since I have passed the 10th exam, I curse the day I received my mark sheet, a mark sheet with marks that would make many ecstatic with pride for achieving it. Things look up bright, admission to the best college / university.  A degree in Engineering or maybe an MBA. Success is intoxicating and one flies to seventh heaven.  Not for long.. The law of gravity takes over soon, what goes up must come crashing down, the higher one flies, the faster and bigger is the crash.

Fellow students, friends remind me of the handicap: advantage given to equalize chances in the examination —  a red asterix - next to mathematics  - which  tells the reader on the next page about the exemption and concession that this examinee received.  And not to forget relatives and family friends who would tell my mother : This boy has a great future ahead of him and then casually point their finger to the asterix , Oh what’s this, Lets see, Ah you were exempted from mathematics? Then going blah blah about their son being very good at it and their saga of getting admission to a prestigious college etc… Oh stop it I don’t want anymore hear any more of your son.

However much I hated them their words were prophetic after the euphoria of having done well, especially in other subjects, died its natural death. I applied for various courses and was rejected as the criterion for admission was - you guessed it math.  Reluctantly I was forced  to major in a subject which was not my first choice and also not popular at all with employers.

A vocational course was needed to be learnt to earn later.  Learning Computers meant a start of a great rewarding career.  A career that promised fast life, fast cars and fast girls, but in order to achieve them one needed to be fast with algorithms which invariably needed mathematics.  Bingo.. back to square 1 after going round an entire circle.  To make things worse and discouraging if somewhere down the line I could ask the computer if the Riemann hypothesis is correct and it said, `Yes, would say it true, but I wouldn't be able to understand the proof.

It is not the acquisition of knowledge, but the act of learning; it is not having things decided for you but HAVING THE ABILITY to make a choice. The choice to fail is better than having none. 

Access Is Everything

By Terri O'Hare

A few years ago, a French energy company developed a TV spot that made the rounds of disabled advocates’ blogs as a quicktime movie. It shows a city scene packed with people. One man stands out: he walks slowly, carefully observing those around him. As the camera pulls back, we see he’s surrounded by pedestrians using wheelchairs, some walking with canes and guide dogs, some using sign language to converse with friends. He’s apparently the only non-disabled person in the city. The spot imaginatively conveyed the “otherness” people with disabilities experience as they negotiate most American cities, large or small. What’s making the rounds these days in disability advocates’ blogs, and also in noted urban listservs, is a debate over universal design”—which “celebrates human differences across the spectrum of age, gender, race, culture, and ability,” according to one popular definition, formulated by Elaine Ostroff of the Boston-based nonprofit, Adaptive Environments. Sustainability and green design are, hands down, two of the hottest trends in urban design. As an element of longterm sustainability, universal design—in other words, creating buildings that are accessible to everyone—is also gaining traction and attention.

The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 requires designers to create, among other things, wheelchair-accessible entrances to public buildings. Recent debates have grown to include the design of consumer products and, increasingly, private homes. The problem is, even some New Urbanists, known for inclusive, community-making approaches to city planning and architecture, disagree about how to incorporate universal design principles into their projects. For example, earlier this year on the University of Georgia’s Pro-Urb listserv (dedicated to “the practice of New Urbanism”), one California architect wrote, “I hate the notion of killing off buildings that work well for a lot of people just because they don’t work well for everyone… If access is a civil right, then all buildings that deny the delivery of that right should be adapted or demolished. Pick the wrong legal framework for a regulation, and there will be lots of unintended consequences.” Andres Duany, a Yale-educated architect who co-founded the Congress for the New Urbanism, chimed in in support: “We will become a nation exclusively of elevator apartment buildings and the single-level ranch house. Townhouses will be impossible, as will small buildings in general (the elevator must be amortized over many apartments). Tight frontage urbanism of the kind that creates Georgetown, Charleston, New Orleans, Manhattan, San Francisco (and all the rest of the best) will be eliminated.” A Georgia Tech professor fired back: “At some point when enlightenment strikes radical concepts like New Urbanism,and universal design is the rule rather than the exception, the ADA guidelines will no longer be needed.”

Whatever the outcome of such debates, the importance of inclusive design is dawning on cities. In 2001, UPS teamed up with the National Organization on Disability to offer a $25,000 prize to the most “disability-friendly” city in the country. Sixty-five cities applied, and the first winner was Venice, Florida, which has a 100-percentaccessible bus system for riders, and also scored points for printing its local election ballots in large print and Braille. Irvine, California, Pasadena, West Hollywood, Phoenix, Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Austin have all won in the years since, and now the prizes have grown to $35,000, since Wal-Mart also stepped in as a sponsor. Last year’s runner-up, Chicago, got extra kudos for being “one of the few cities in the nation to offer free telephone consultation and plan review to architects” and others, on how to incorporate the ADA and other accessibility principles. In 2005, Chicago’s Millennium Park received the Paralyzed Veterans of America award for its barrier-free design. Now, the AARP and National Association of Homebuilders have started a “Livable Communities” award, for designs that make life easier for the elderly.

The city of Santa Fe, New Mexico, struggled to incorporate the ADA into its already strict architecture codes more than fifteen years ago, but now the city and state are making progress. “We’re seeing creative results from improved awareness and raining,” says Hope Reed, an architectural compliance specialist for the state of New Mexico. “When we started here in the early 1990s with the Draft ADA, there was a lot of arguing in meetings and shouting, even. Building code administrators, architects, people with disabilities, and home builders, would get together to review the ADA for inclusion in our New Mexico Building Code 1991 (NMBC), and it would get very heated. Now the meetings are more cooperative… there have been improvements to understanding and interpreting the law.” For Michael Graves, an architect and designer whose firm has designed more than 300 buildings— from the Humana Building in Louisville, Kentucky, to the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport in The Hague—the debate over designing for disabilities recently shifted from theory to reality. He became partially paralyzed in 2003 from a virus that destroyed nerves in his spinal cord. Graves now uses a power wheelchair to move through his daily routine. His 100-employee firm, with offices in New York and New Jersey, has formed a new branch, Solutions, to focus on product design for adaptive equipment. Graves now has a slightly different perspective on the debate between New Urbanists and disability advocates: “The responsibility cannot just be on the architecture. The onus is also on our side to design equipment that can better access buildings,” he says. “Before my injury, my approach to the ADA was like others in the profession: do as much as the law required. When I taught at Princeton, I used to ask students to consider what Michelangelo would create if the ADA had been around then. St. Peter’s is glorious, and steps belong in the front, as long as I can enter the building somewhere.”

New American City

Posted by Nilesh Singit

Universal Design

“Human dignity is indivisible. Young and old, weak and strong, the human family is held together by its common dignity and the inviolability that stems from it.”

Nigel M. de S. Cameron, Ph.D.
CBC Executive Chairman

Historically, disabled people have been a invisible lot, dependency forced upon them socially (many a times ostracised for various religions reasons), economically and psychologically, with no say of their own, labelled, and taken care of often with the best intentions yet always were tucked away in the backroom of the house.

However, the early years of the 20th-century, the post world war developments saw a sudden growth in the population of injured and disabled war veterans. There were wars fought previously but there were mere skirmishes of bickering countries but this magnitude was unprecedented. Society could not suddenly abandon so many patriots just because they had lost a limb or two. Therefore rehabilitation was the buzzword.

The early fifties saw the struggles of African Americans, the feminist movement. This sowed the first inklings of a disability rights movement as persons with disability for the first time realised that they like Afro-Americans and women had confronted numerous stereotypes, exclusion in public affairs, and were denied the right to live. This movement set deep roots in the eighties and nineties. The first taste of victories for people with disabilities was the Salamanca report and the subsequent passing of disability acts in various countries. India in 1995 passed the Persons with disability Act, a landmark act in the history of our republic. This Act as law is comprehensive and addresses various issues, but ironically lacks teeth for its prompt implementation.

With this brief introduction of the disability movement I move on to Access and Technology. Both these words are very commonly used, yet their true sense is lost to the user. A glance at a dictionary would reveal that access means “the ability, right to approach, enter, speak with, or use ”. This precisely is or rather the lack of it is a one word history of disability or for that matter the history of every marginalized group be it the Afro-Americans or the Dalits nearer home: the present is the quest of achieving these very ideals for a better and inclusive future. Technology means much more than a gizmo or a sophisticated thingummy, it is “use of technical means and their inter-relation with life, society and environment”. With most marginalized groups technology does (may) not play an important role; but to a person it is of utmost importance. If Change in Attitude, getting reservations, enacting special laws are the latter part of the definition of access, then technology is the ability. It is what gives disability an ability.

An individual may use assistive technology to travel about, communicate with others, engage in recreational and social activities, learn, work, control the immediate environment, and increase his or her independence in daily living skills.

Devices to control the environment are important to people whose ability to move about and to turn electrical appliances on or off is limited. Switches that respond to slight pressure, motorized lifts can aid in getting in or out of bed or a bathtub, automated doors means easy passage within and outside of buildings and rails and grab bars can make movement easier.

Technology is the key to levelling of ability and ‘handicap’ of individuals with disabilities. It gives person with disability a human face, dignity.

This is an ideal situation, the marriage of technology with disability, but the reality is different. Last millennium has seen many technological advances, from the nuclear explosion to the man on the moon, however, disability was never on the list, a decent all-terrain wheelchair is still to be invented J.

Technology is as old as man and the earliest evidence of its use is in the Rig=Veda which recounts the story of Queen Vishpla, a princess warrior who lost a limb in battle and was fitted with an iron leg and who returned victorious.

There are many such examples but most of them are part of folk tales and myths. Here I would like to mention a dubious example. In early 19^th century England there was a burst in the scientific interest, especially when “Darwin whose notion of evolutionary advantage of the fittest laid the foundation of eugenics. Darwin’s ideas served to place persons with disability along the wayside as evolutionary defectives to be surpassed by natural selection. So, eugenics became obsessed with the elimination of “defectives”, a category which included the feeble minded, the deaf, the cripple and so on.”[1] The ideas of eugenics were later put to use by Hitler in his quest of eliminating Jews and also many person with disability’s were exterminated.

Technology is not cheap. Wheelchairs, scooters, and hand controls on automobiles enhance mobility. Adapted car seats and wheelchair restraints augment transportation safety. At work sites, special computers, ramps, and telephone headsets mean fewer barriers.

However, such use of technology is isolated, innovations are being done but on a small scale and directly benefiting a very small no. and esp. those who can afford. Let’s take the instance of modified vehicles for people with disability. A quick search on yahoo.com or google.com will reveal many websites on adapted automobiles, but unfortunately most of this data is relevant to the western countries. There is dearth of information and reports on the success of the cars. The Indian govt. permits the import of these cars at a concessional rates, but their spare parts are difficult to get. Maruti udyog limited manufactured cars with specific modifications but discontinued it due to lack of demand.[2] In such a scenario only daring entrepreneurs and those who can afford such cars would go for it. In Bombay there is one such daring entrepreneur, Mr. Ferdinand Rodrigues, has successfully modified around forty cars from Mars, Van Maruti Esteem, Mercedes, Cielo, Santro and Honda City.[3] Mr. F. R. has to his credit modified the Mehendra Voyager for the use of Professor Stephen Hawking during his recent visit to Mumbai.

The problem of accessibility does not end with modification, it is just the tip of the iceberg. Disability is diverse and no amount of ingenuity in design can include all disabilities. Even the cars modified by mr. F. R. had to be specially customised for each clients which is one of the reasons MUL had to stop manufacturing. A feature of accessibility for one particular disability can be a curse for another. The low level pavement curb which a person on wheelchair can easily negotiate is a problem to the visually impaired.

There is, after all, only one environment, which all individuals should be able to share equally and independently. In order to achieve equality of access, this environment either has to be designed from the outset for maximum flexibility to meet varying needs.

The concept of universal design envisions that all buildings, environments and products in such a way, that they could - to the greatest extent possible- be used by everybody – be it children or old people, people of different sizes and abilities, disabled and non-disabled persons.

Architecture and accessibility. Accessibility in buildings in most cases is confined to having ramps, a grab bar and maybe an accessible toilet catering to the needs of people with mobility impairments, especially those who used wheelchairs at the expense sometimes of other kinds of accessibility, such as alternative formats such as the installation of Braille boards, audio signals visual signals for the hearing impaired.

However architecture is much more than designing and building. These easy parts have been (are being) taken care of. It is time to confront issues of a wider platform. It is time to make sidewalks, parking area, public transportation more accessible. The cities[4] like Bombay which were built long ago and which evolve everyday are centers that are architecturally inaccessible should be made accessible as and when possible to include roads, curb cuts, bus stop, transport, parks, entertainment centres etc. accessible as integrated quality. If the efforts of the likes of Mr. Rodrigues are to be fruitful then the parking lot should be as accessible as the car, which the person with disability drives!

Having achieved the ideals of universal design will the needs of person with disabilty be fulfilled? What about employability??

Holistic Access: an holistic approach to access that is the need of the hour, meeting the needs of person with disability in isolated instances is of no use. Disability is a social construct as disability is the sum total of negative attitudes, its discriminating and indifferent policies. Society and state should take the responsibility of providing a means to its citizens a fulfilling life.

Author

Nilesh Singit

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[1] Constructing Normalcy, Lennard Davis

[2] According to a MUL press release it has resumed manufacturing modified cars with its Zen AX models

[3] http://www.handicappedpeople.com/ is Ferdinand Rodrigues website

[4] http://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/our_services/access/designing_accessible_city.htm is an effort to make city of London more accessible

Open Letter to Shahrukh Khan and Farah Khan

Shahrukh Khan / Gauri Khan
Mannat
B Jairam Marg,
Bandra Bandstand
Mumbai-50

28th November, 2007

We demand an unconditional apology from Shahrukh khan for ridiculing the disabled and deletion of the offensive item number in OSO

The hype surrounding Om Shanti Om [OSO] made me curious enough to see the film. On the surface, it seems to be a harmless burlesque attempt in creating the seventies magic of Bollywood movies that has been the staple diet of all moviegoers especially my generation.

OSO reminds me of Kushwant Singh’s series of articles under the banner “Malice towards one and All'. Though these articles had its share of gratuitous pictures and gossips about Bollywood and political scandals of its time, in some ways, they will be remembered as the personification of freedom of speech, a rare commodity during the emergency. In OSO, however, this refinement and subtlety is missing. It lacks sensitivity and is more about taking pot shots at all and sundry. At the risk of offending the sensibilities (even if we don’t have it, I am sure they have) of the producer and the director, the attempts at taking pot shots in OSO seem to have gone out of control due to the distasteful arrogance, excessive self-conceit and 'below the belt' wicked sense of humour of the producer and director.

I would like to bring to your notice one such episode demeaning a certain section of society in the movie. No this is not about Mr. Manoj Kumar. Mr. Manoj Kumar has the means to get himself heard and seek justice. I am referring to the 70 million disabled people in India who do not have the wherewithal to fight for justice.

There is a scene just before the song Dard-e-Disco where the hero, who is deaf, blind, mute, on a wheelchair and has no arms and none of his body parts seem to be “working”, will do an item disco number. He has been portrayed as an object of ridicule. The hero, Shahrukh khan, comes up with a quick ruse of a disabled person in a dream sequence with a bunch of nubile chicks. In the item number, Shahrukh Khan flaunts his newly acquired six packs with abandon in contrast to the decrepit and deformed body of the hero. Obviously the intention is to tickle the senses of the front row ticket holders with crass humor and roll in the cash in the process. Bravo, Mr Shahrukh Khan.

We would not have expected someone with your standing and repute to have portrayed disabled person in such a manner. - “Haath pav nahi jisco / kaise karega woh disco” – Is this a responsible statement? Isn’t he aware that Bollywood films go a long way in moulding opinions and psyche of the general Indian population and that his stature ensures a lasting impression of his dialogues on the Indian polity.

Films like Koshish, Sparsh, Iqbal, Black, Main Aisa Kyon Houn, Khamoshi, etc may have been commercial failures. What the film producers and director's of OSO fail to realise is that the aforesaid films created awareness that disabled individuals are sensitive and the society should strive to accept the disabled as normal and equal. Black was a boon to the deaf-blind of India, Michelle was Hellen-Keller reborn.

The disabled have human rights established in law. However, there is a difference in theory and practice. Their rights are violated in every step and one of the biggest violators is Bollywood, where characters with deformities and disabilities are cast as either crooks or clowns. The underlining message - whatever the disability, people with disabilities are unfit to be included in society.

Films are not only entertainers but also a medium to awaken social consciousness and I regret to say that OSO fails this test miserably.

A message to the OSO team: We are no longer as un-empowered as we were before. Stop humiliating us and treating us with ridicule. We demand you publicly apologise to the entire disabled community and unconditionally delete this objectionable scene before 3rd December the International Day of Disability.

We demand equality in every way, disability cannot be the subject matter of ridicule and mindless comic relief.

Yours truly,


Nilesh Singit
On behalf of
Disability Groups

CC:
Faraha Khan
Mannat
B Jairam Marg,
Bandra Bandstand,

World Disability Day 03/12/2006

Now a days one finds there is a trend in having these one day stands depicting god knows what?? There is of course rose day, valentine's day, friendship day, Mother's Day, Father's Day, Boss Day and these regularly make their appearances on advertisement hoardings, shops and malls that are inundated with all kinds of gifts articles for sale.

Aren't we having an overdose of these?? My question is with so much of hype and frivolity associated with such 'days', do they not dilute the significance of other important days like World Disability Day, World Aids Day, World Women's day? I mean that the important ones are just gradually losing their importance.

So what are we here for? Disability I feel has become an issue only for NGOs and disabled activists. These people throughout the year conducting seminars, speeches, accepting and formulating resolutions. I feel we should use the World Disability Day to bring to the public domain the findings, the remedies. This is our platform which could be used to sensitise the society at large to the needs of disabled people. This I feel is the key to any successful campaign. Whether this campaign achieves its decidedly ambitious goals remains to be seen. But hopes are high as we pitch in to make this World Disability Day a memorable one.