Page 70 - Peter Farrelly Issue

tion to these legal tools, training underscores effective methods of advocacy and activism.
used in classes one through 12 have now been converted to accessible formats. Bangla-language e-reading soft- ware has also been developed, as has the country’s first accessible dictionary—critical infrastructure for Bangladeshis who don’t speak English and are visually impaired. For this work, Vashkar has received no short- age of accolades and media attention, racking up approximately one national or international award per year between 2014 and 2021. “Search my name in Bangla or in English on any search engine, and you will find hundreds, maybe thousands of articles,” he said. “Even, I’m the first person with a disability to serve in an advisory capacity to the Bangladeshi Prime Minis- ter’s Office. This makes a big difference. Having access to policymakers enables us to do a great deal more.”
“Today,” said Vashkar, “no student should go through what I went through at the university. This is very important to me.”
Vashkar’s difficulties didn’t end with graduation. “I fin- ished my MA in general history,” he said, “and then, for some time, I was unemployed.” Few Bangladeshis with disabilities have access to education, fewer still enter the workforce—“Most,” Vashkar noted, “end up beg- ging on the street”—and even those who do find jobs tend to get relegated to specific roles and sectors. Those with visual impairments, for example, usually become instructors in schools for the blind, or else work with international NGOs. This dynamic breeds a vicious cycle of ignorance and exclusion. Most domestic employers have no experience hiring or supervising per- sons with disabilities, and hence no reason to question the stereotype that persons with disabilities cannot work. Even as Bangladesh makes massive strides toward legal protection and digital inclusion for persons with disabilities, the job market remains supersaturated with disabling attitudes.
In recent years, Vashkar has continued his efforts to build out Bangladesh’s digital infrastructure and make more resources available for persons with disabilities. “We must have accessible platforms for knowledge exchange so we can learn from one another,” he said. To this end, he’s currently developing e-commerce plat- forms, enabling thousands of entrepreneurs with disabil- ities to connect with each other and build partnerships across national borders.
Eventually, Vashkar realized that simply having a degree wouldn’t land him a job. For that, he would need technological skills. He began researching opportunities and, in 2002, secured a place in the Duskin Leadership Training Program, a Japan-based initiative that serves young persons with disabilities in Asia and the Pacific who aspire to leadership roles. “That was a turning point in my life,” said Vashkar. “I came to understand my pur- pose: in a nutshell, to make services inclusive and accessible for persons with disabilities.”
Since the advent of COVID-19, Vashkar has helped make health-related information and services accessible for persons with disabilities in the form of a national helpline. “It’s been very difficult for us,” he reflected. “Many students with disabilities only can access tech- nology at the university, and now we’re confined to our homes. People used to happily help us cross the road, but these days, nobody approaches anybody. Persons with disabilities sometimes don’t know where to go in case of illness, or which medical professionals will treat us well. Now, though,” he added, “we are feeling more confident as more people are vaccinated.”
After finishing the program in 2003, he began volun- teering with Young People in Social Action (YPSA), an organization based in Chittagong, developing computer- ized Braille production and enabling more efficient printing and distribution of Braille materials. In 2005, he was introduced to the Digital Accessible Information System (DAISY) Consortium and became an interna- tional trainer, teaching others how to the use digital assistive technologies. He brought DAISY to Bangladesh and, with support from the national Service Innovation Fund of a2i, per the Prime Minister’s Office, began converting textbooks to multimedia digital talk- ing books. From this format, they can be converted to accessible e-books or digital Braille books, which in turn can be printed and distributed with relative ease.
Vashkar still works with YPSA in an advisory capacity, a responsibility he balances with many other roles and affiliations, as well as family life. He’s happily married with “two lovely daughters,” who are six and 14, and the Bhattacharjee family lives in Chittagong District, in the bustling coastal city of the same name. Vashkar con- tinues to conduct accessibility audits and publish reports, research and articles on national and interna- tional platforms, and he’s passing on his passion for dis- ability advocacy to his daughters. “She loves to help my colleagues with disabilities however she can,” he said proudly of his elder daughter. “At school, she’s befriended all the children with disabilities. We cele- brate her birthdays with people from the disabled com- munity. The children see that I’m blind, that I do all these things, that it’s normal. This is how we build a better future in which persons with disabilities enjoy the same rights as every other human being.” Itto Outini
“When my elder daughter was in grade one,” he said, “she would come to me asking for help with her read- ing. She was getting only printed books from the school, so of course I couldn’t help her. Now, we have books that we can read together.”
Because of this initiative, all Bangladeshi textbooks
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