Disciplines of study should reform from within to include students with disabilities, says IIT professor - The HinduPublished - August 27, 2026 10:58 pm IST - ChennaiWhile prominent methods like ramps, wheelchairs, and gadgets do ensure accessibility to educational institutions for people with disabilities, “the other side of the coin” – bringing in reforms within the different disciplines of study to accommodate disabled students – is what remains by and large untapped, according to Hemachandran Karah, Associate Professor, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT-Madras.It is this other side of the coin that prompted Dr. Hemachandran and his two colleagues, Saji K. Mathew of Department of Management Studies and Nilesh J. Vasa of Department of Engineering Design, start ‘The Accessibility Research Centre’ on campus.The ARC, as it is commonly called, was inaugurated about a year ago and was born out of the innate need to help and assist the 200-odd students with different disabilities on campus. “The disciplines should be able to reform themselves from within,” he says, as he shares his ideas about the road ahead.Though a student of English Literature, he did his PhD on Disability Studies after his guide at Cambridge University impressed upon him that his own visual impairment would provide him with insight and deep understanding of people with disabilities.“Every discipline has some challenge or barrier artificially raised because the disciplines are not aware of disabilities,” he points out. “If I am a blind student and want to pursue astronomy or ancient history, the universities will say that I cannot explore archaeological sites or I cannot see light and my perception will be skewed. Obviously, it is an attitudinal barrier built into disciplinary systems themselves,” he maintains.One way of breaking such barriers was to seek out disabled people who have influenced changes in the field. All disciplines are made up of common components, such as the supervision system, teaching, field work, workshops, canon formation, syllabus formation, fine tuning of curriculum and the likes.“Just like what the gender folks did some time ago, why not fine tune disciplines from the inside so that they can become disabled friendly? That was the thought process, and we call it D and D, Disability and Disciplines,” Dr. Hemachandran explains.Side by side, the ARC has developed five courses that are accessible to people with disabilities, including Accessible Foundational STEM Education, Accessible Computer Science for the Hearing Impaired at the undergrad level, Introduction to Disability Studies, and Literary and Cultural Disability Studies, the last one he claims was never attempted by any other institution in India.At the moment, the Centre is engaged in developing a course on Accessible Journalism for the Vision Impaired in partnership with the Chennai Institute of Journalism, attempting to incorporate aspects of theatre to develop modules to teach the students how to cover disasters and elections. Among other courses in the pipeline are Audio Description and Media Advocacy.Dr. Hemachandran envisions the ARC to expand and include professors of various disciplines like Chemistry, Physics, Philosophy, or even Folklore. The Centre allies with the civil society as part of its monthly series Accessibility Without Boundaries (AWB) to provide a platform to individuals and groups that have been working to change things on the ground.“We give them the IIT platform and make them perform, lecture, converse, and transform a thought once a month,” he says. Making technical education barrier-free and promoting conversations between Humanities and Sciences as equals are where the actual transformation lies, he adds.Published - August 27, 2026 10:58 pm ISTSign in to unlock member-only benefits!Access 10 free stories every monthSave stories to read laterAccess to comment on every storySign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single clickGet notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products${ ind + 1 } ${ device }Last active - ${ la }