In October 2020, a wheelchair user with muscular dystrophy reached his examination centre in Noida on time for the JNU Physics entrance test. The application form had already asked for disability details and accommodation requirements. Still, when he arrived, it became clear that nobody at the centre was prepared for a candidate with a disability.Officials hurriedly moved a computer to the ground floor so he could write the exam. However, the system was not connected to power backup. The electricity kept going off throughout the exam.Advertisement“The power cuts kept breaking my flow mid-question,” he recalled.Also Read | NEET paper leak raises larger questions, calls for honest reckoningThis was not NEET, but another examination conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA), the same body that conducts NEET.The NEET paper leak has dominated headlines for months. The debate has centred around fairness, rank inflation, merit, institutional accountability, and the pressure faced by students preparing for one of India’s most competitive examinations. However, persons with disabilities (PwDs) are largely absent from this conversation. What does it actually take for a disabled candidate to sit for an entrance exam in India?AdvertisementFor many PwDs, the stress begins long before they see the question paper.Once a centre is allotted, families often visit it themselves to check whether there is a ramp, whether the lift works, whether the washroom is accessible, or whether the building can be navigated at all. Candidates who require scribes spend weeks coordinating arrangements. Many still carry medical documents on exam day despite prior uploads and approvals because they never know whether they will once again be asked to “prove” their disability at the gate.By the time many PwD candidates sit down to write, they are already exhausted.Recently, social media user Kavya Mukhija shared her experience of appearing for the 2024 UGC-NET examination, including the distress she faced after it was cancelled, as a wheelchair user. Despite clearly mentioning her disability, access requirements, and residential address in the application form, she was allotted a centre across the city that was physically inaccessible.The roads leading to the centre were broken. The seating arrangements were inaccessible. The washroom could only be reached through steps. She also described the absence of wheelchair assistance on campus and insensitive behaviour from authorities present there.A woman with disability who had travelled from another state was forced to crawl into the classroom to take the examination, Kavya painfully stated.UGC-NET and NEET may be different examinations, but PwDs often encounter the same examination infrastructure and the same last-minute approach towards accessibility.Nearly a decade after the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016, guaranteed reasonable accommodation and inclusive education, candidates with disabilities across competitive examinations continue to describe the same barriers year after year. The Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities has also issued guidelines around scribes, compensatory time, assistive devices, and accessible infrastructure for examinations. NEET’s own information bulletin contains similar provisions. Yet, implementation remains deeply inconsistent.As the NEET controversy unfolded, public conversations centred around a plethora of viewpoints but for many PwDs, there was another layer to the crisis. When examinations are cancelled and rescheduled, the entire process begins again — checking whether the new centre is accessible, reorganising support systems, arranging travel, and preparing once more for uncertainty. This imposed an additional financial, physical, and emotional burden.After the UGC-NET cancellation, Mukhija wrote that the hardest part was not preparing again. It was going through the experience again.India is no longer short of conversations around accessibility. Just days ago, policymakers and industry leaders gathered in New Delhi during Global Accessibility Awareness Day events to speak about building a more inclusive India.The laws exist. The guidelines exist. The speeches and panel discussions exist too. What remains missing is real implementation.The NEET paper leak exposed one systemic failure. India’s inaccessible examination system is another. For many students with disabilities, competitive exams have never truly been equal spaces.NEET was meant to be one fair door into medicine for every student in the country. For many disabled students, that door has had stairs in front of it for a long time.The writer is an advocate at the Delhi High Court