Lives Of The Disabled In An Era Of Cyber Education

Sarita, Sreekumar

The sudden lockdown of the nation, announced on March 22, has caused immense distress among the entire population of India. For those living with some forms of disabilities, it has turned out to be the worst nightmare.

On a very short notice, orders were issued to shutdown the country, without any information about what its duration would be. This made the public, especially the most vulnerable, extremely anxious. While most people were hastily gathering essential items for the lockdown, people with disabilities were abandoned, helpless and in despair. Amid them, the worst hit were the disabled student community that stays in other cities to pursue academics. Many universities hurriedly circulated the information of shutting down hostels and associated facilities, without thinking for a moment about the mountainous challenges disabled students will have to encounter. Educational institutions themselves, which promote the idea of ‘inclusive education’, pushed their students into absolute vulnerability by forcing them to travel across India during a pandemic.

It has been around 60 days since and our lives have been enclosed within the four walls of our respective homes. Gradually, all of us have figured out certain mechanisms to adjust our lives to the pandemic. However, the challenges faced by people with disabilities do not seem to wither away easily. Another predicament was the unavailability and inaccessibility of information regarding preventative and protective measures from COVID-19, despite the fact that the Government of India, on 27 March, issued disability-inclusive guidelines with information available to individuals with visual impairments and hearing impairments. It contains details regarding services and precautions in simple, local languages, that would be made available in accessible formats such as in Braille, audible tapes, video graphic material with subtitles and sign languages.

However, many areas were overlooked by the authorities, as pointed out by Vickram Crishna, Honorary Secretary, Tech NGO, who argues in his interview that all the information was still not available, and that “television announcements are not subsequently made available in plain text by most of the channels, and online papers are in PDF form due to which not all texts are readable, along with advertisements and notices which are inaccessible for a blind or deaf-blind person. Notably, screen readers used by a handful of literate deaf blinds can only read plain text and not pictorial texts which become a huge hurdle”. Recently, a report was released on the condition the disabled in India during COVID-19 by the National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People (NCPEDP), which shows that over 73% of persons with disabilities surveyed face severe challenges because of the lockdown. Around 1,067 people with disability were surveyed and some of the key issues raised by the people include limited access to doorstep delivery of essentials, government helplines and financial assistance from the government, as per the report.

Gaps in Educational Policies Amid the Pandemic

Along with these hurdles, another herculean task for people with disability is to continue their education during the pandemic. The National Policy of Education, formulated in 1986 and modified in 1992, lays emphasis on providing equal educational opportunities to those sections of society who were denied it. Along with NPE, there are many other constitutional provisions such as the Right to Education Act, which try to further bridge this gap. Moreover, in recent years, the government has taken certain measures and formulated policies that recognise the rights of the students with disabilities and ensure the implementation of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act (RPWD) Act 2016. While RTE provides the right to free and compulsory education for every child between the age group of 6 to 14, and RPWD mandates non-discrimination, accessible and inclusive education for people with disabilities. These two laws are equally crucial and mandatory, which provides and safeguards legal protection to disabled students.

According to the 2011 census, the disabled child population is 1.7% of the total child population in India. Further, it also reveals that only 61% of CWDs (Children with Disabilities), aged between 5 and 19, attended an educational institution. The figure of enrolment in higher education is around 85,877 PWD (Person with Disability), as per the AISHE report 2018-2019. Thus, only a small proportion of disabled students are able to avail their right to education.

The sudden lockdown has further complicated their situation, as it has forced the nationwide closure of all educational institutions, thus affecting millions. However, the sad reality is that most policymakers follow the top-down approach, due to which many of the policies face a downfall as soon as it confronts ground realities. An example is the latest idea of online learning platforms, which is highly appreciated by many educational institutions. They advocate fully depending on technology for learning across schools and universities across India. Recently, apps like Zoom, Google Meets and Skype have been used to conduct online classes along with webinars and conferences, without considering the challenges faced by many students. The conduct of important examinations online is being widely debated across India. The National Repository of Open Educational Resources (NROER), Digital Infrastructure for Knowledge Sharing (DIKSHA), e-Pathshala and SWAYAM platforms (including DTH channels) are indulged in facilitating online education. However, none of these online platforms is adequate enough to overcome the barriers faced by the students with disabilities on online learning platforms. There is no doubt that this group of students with disabilities have had to face many hurdles in their daily lives, compared to other students. This pandemic has increased these challenges manifold and the tragedy is that this group is still overlooked when new educational measures and policies are formulated amid the pandemic. 

A study conducted by the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) has revealed that many Indian government websites and apps, and privately owned apps are completely or partially inaccessible to persons with disabilities, resulting in their exclusion. With the rate of app usage growing over 40% yearly, Indians with disabilities are at a risk of being excluded from society, as necessities like education, finances, keeping in touch with others or government representatives have become impossible.

When one’s disability meets other disadvantaged social identities, in terms of gender, caste, and class, it further elevates their vulnerability. Only a small, privileged proportion of students with disabilities have been able to cope with the challenges put forth by the lockdown with relative ease. The majority of the population, however, is not able to access quality education due to their poor socio-economic backgrounds. The lack of internet access, along with no assistance in online education, has further created a digital divide among students with disabilities.

Moreover, the Draft of National Policy on Education 2019 lay emphasis on the active involvement of the private sector in education. While not only will this lead to commercialisation of education, it will also adversely affect children from marginalised sectors, who are disabled students and hence, may deprive them of their fundamental right to education. The data given by MHRD itself provides a glimpse of this. According to it, the maximum students who are out of school belong to the ‘students with disabilities’ group. In 2014, this figure comprised around 28.07% of students. Education is deliberately kept in the concurrent list, so that both the state and centre can simultaneously bear equal responsibilities of its progress. But the current draft of NEP stands in contradiction with this too. The Centre has snatched this role from the state by creating a centralised structure of authority and giving overarching powers to the PM-led Rashtriya Shiksha Aayog (RSA).

Muralidharan, the General Secretary of NPRD, mentions that though the draft lays emphasis on inclusive education, it fails to acknowledge “access” in terms of digital educational platforms for the differently-abled student. The unavailability of the draft in an accessible form has itself deprived these students. The document is available as a PDF in Hindi and English, but there are no text, Braille or audio versions. Thus, this policy draft still understands “access”  in purely traditional terms of availability. Moreover, the draft, though elaborates about school education, fails to address the issues of disabled students pursuing higher education, which, for obvious reasons, remain inaccessible to this section. 

Though the National Policy on Universal Electronic Accessibility (2013), mentioned that electronics and ICTs (Information Communication Technology) curricula should include accessibility standards and guidelines, along with universal design concepts. This policy recognises the immediate need to eliminate discrimination on the basis of disabilities as well as to facilitate equal access to electronics and ICTs. And the RPWD act mandates ICT accessibility for both the public and private sector.

This pandemic had not only increased their challenges due to the strict norm of social distancing but had also exposed the vulnerability of disabled students. In order to have a better analysis of the situation, we have to understand that there are significant diversities in the types and degrees of disability. As per 2011 census, there were seven types of disabilities which had now increased to twenty-one as per the RPWD act of 2016. This fact elucidates that there are diversities in their learning needs which is directly proportional to the type and levels their disabilities. Thus inadequate assistive technology in online education is affecting these disabled students differently on the basis of their degrees of disability.

For instance, for visually impaired and hearing-impaired students, this sudden shift to online education poses a bigger number of problems. Though students with visual impairments depend on technology to read and write, which has its own set of problems even otherwise, the lockdown has led to a sharp decline in available resources for such students. Some of the significant challenges are that many of the options that are available on the screen are not labelled with text, as they are only graphic, due to which a screen reader cannot parse it. Furthermore, the books themselves are in the form of PDF or JPEG images, which cannot be read using a screen-reader. Moreover, for many students, the reading mode available for books is also inaccessible. 

A research scholar at New Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University, who is partially visually impaired said to us, “it cannot be denied that all students cannot afford a screen reader of good quality. Those with Apple iPhones can have it; it all depends on our economic capacities”. She added, “most visually challenged students need to touch and respond to their surroundings. But now, there is the risk of getting infected and we are more vulnerable to it”.

Therefore, this conflicts yet another protocol to be followed during the pandemic, which informs that people should minimise their contact with surfaces, avoid touching their faces, and the frequent use of sanitisers. We must note that this hampers the day to day lives of such students and prove to be very problematic in their learning.

Before the outbreak, most of these students used to access university libraries, where they have access to computers, along with other facilities, such as help from each other. Due to the lockdown, however, such social circles have also been affected, which has an impact on their learning too. They are now left on their own, struggling with mobile applications and online learning platforms.

Even if online examinations begin at the University of Delhi, it will be difficult for them to arrange assistance because of the lockdown, social distancing etc. Along with these, students who communicate through sign language are also affected, as their needs differ from other disabled students. They are unable to communicate and understand the concepts without the use of sign language on the online learning platform. Moreover, the allotted deadlines, along with the burden of assignments, online classes and examinations during this pandemic only elevate the trouble. Additionally, disability and access to assistive technology are often heavily gendered, with girls and women often having lesser access to them. Thus, the already entrenched inequalities will further create a digital divide, where ICT is not accessible to persons with disabilities, and in turn, leading to a more uneven distribution of benefits.

Now the question arises: Are higher authorities deeply indulged in forming new policies and taking relevant measures, so that educational institutions can become fully functional to educate online? Hadn’t the authorities anticipated the challenges that students with disabilities would have to encounter? Are the RTE and RPWD Act taken into consideration in such situations, in order to provide sufficient inclusive measures for including these vulnerable groups?

During this lockdown, students with disabilities are in immediate need of technical help-desks, which can provide assistance to both students and faculty to access online sessions, courses, exams and such. Along with this, university and school administrations need to ensure proper teaching assistance and counselling for the students with disabilities. It is an urgent requirement of the times that higher authorities, along with educational institutions, pay heed to certain crucial factors like availability, accessibility, adaptability, affordability, and quality in assistive technologies. And that they ensure that students with disabilities also get to pursue their academics hassle-free.

References

1. Without the Right Tools, Students With Disabilities Struggle in Online Classes: Activists
2. ICT access still a hurdle for people with disabilities
3. Pandemic and a lockdown: Persons with disabilities grapple with more challenges
4. Excluding the excluded: India’s response to the education of children with disabilities during Covid-19
5. Lockdown and Persons with Disabilities: Survey recommends enforcing disability inclusive guidelines across India
6. New Education Policy 2019 Draft Unacceptable: It Perpetuates Inequality & Discrimination
7. Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation, National statistical office (2018). Key Indicators of Household Social Consumption on Education in India report, based on the 2017-18  National Sample Survey.
8. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (2019). State of the Education Report for India 2019: Children with Disabilities. Published by UNESCO New Delhi Cluster Office.
9. Ministry of Human Resource Development. Department of Higher Education. (2019). All India Survey on Higher Education 2018-19.

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Sarita is a PhD candidate at the Delhi School of Economics.

Sreekumar is a PhD candidate at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi.

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