In India, I had the dream of studying computers in Japan. As Japan has advanced technologies, I wanted to study hard and bring it back to India in order to establish a company where people with disabilities could work.

The first three months was the period of Japanese language training and I studied it with Braille. It was the first experience in my life to study with Braille. In India I did not go to a school for the blind, so I did not have much knowledge of Braille and was very worried about using it or taking the Japanese language proficiency exam, which I had to take in Braille. But with the help of Kenzhe and the teachers, I managed to pass the fourth-grade Japanese language proficiency exam with the score of 345 out of 400. I was very happy.

 

My individual training started in January. The first destination was a work-center in Hamamatsu named “WITH”. There were many people with different disabilities working together, including people with severe disabilities. When I saw this center, my idea about the company I had wanted to establish in India changed. I thought it is would be much better to create a company that did not just computing, but had many simple tools so that people with various disabilities could also work.

I then went to Social Welfare Juridical Person Light Friend Association in Fujisawa. I visited ‘Life Shonan’ and ‘Taiyo No Ie’. At ‘Life Shonan’, people with intellectual disabilities were engaged in a variety of work, including bakery and all sorts of work in a restaurant. When I saw this I thought anything was possible for people with disabilities. At ‘Taiyo No Ie’, people with severe intellectual disabilities were working, using simple, easy-to-handle tools. The members of staff were supporting them, offering a variety of help and ideas.

I then went to Nippon Lighthouse Welfare Center for The Blind. I visited and studied at Guide Dog Training Center. I thought guide dogs were very important for the blind. I also went to a rehabilitation center where I learned how people, who were not disabled when they were born, but later became disabled, could leave home and learn to manage day to day living.

I also learned about independent living of people with disabilities. Before visiting Human Care Association, I thought of independent living as doing everything by oneself. But after I spent some time at the association, I came to understand that independent living was not about doing everything by oneself but about making a choice of one’s own. This way of thinking changed my entire view about living independently.

In May, I went to many places with Kenzhe for training. One of the things we learned was universal design; at our destinations, people were making all kinds of things, not just for people with disabilities but for everyone else too, that could be used easily—including bottles of shampoo or conditioner, whose shapes were modified slightly so that they were easier to use. I learned that by having a bit of creativity and ideas, accessibility to tools could be greatly improved.

Lastly, I went to Ishikawa Laboratory, Faculty of International Relations at University of Shizuoka. I visited a company Extra where they taught me a variety of things including PDA and web accessibility. Professor Jun Ishikawa also taught me personal computing. I made friends with students and members of staff. It was a wonderful experience.

I had great fun going to Hiroshima with the people from Mainstream Association during the Golden Week. We sat and talked until late at night. It felt like we were a family. It was a wonderful experience.

Also when I was at University of Shizuoka, I went strawberry-picking with the students and members of staff. We picked so many strawberries so that was our lunch. It was incredibly tasty. We also went up a staircase of 1,159 steps, talking and chatting, up a mountain. It was a lot of fun.

The hard part was the food. I am a vegetarian and cannot eat eggs, meat or fish, so there was little I could eat.

I have new dreams.

In India, people with disabilities living in countryside cannot leave their home or study. It is also very hard for them to earn a living, so I would like to offer them support.

In India there is very little accessibility (barrier-free), making the life of people with disabilities incredibly hard. I would like to improve the barrier-free level and social welfare in India.

People with disabilities in India cannot engage in jobs even if they are educated. I would like to establish a company where, people with different disabilities could work together, using a variety of tools.

After I go back to India, I would like to go back to my old job while starting to support the education of people with disabilities in India, living in countryside. I would like to utilize what I learned in Japan and work hard till my dreams come true.

I would also like to say words of thanks, to the members of staff and teachers at the Duskin AINOWA Foundation and Japanese Society for Rehabilitation of Persons with Disabilities, and everyone who welcomed me kindly at the various training locations. Thank you so much.