When AI tools like conversational screen readers, adaptive dashboards, and real-time captioning are designed with lived experience at their core, they don’t just remove barriers; they expand the possibilities. They transform access into choice and the freedom to fully learn, lead and contribute.
Avoiding a “shinier version of the same old prejudices.”
Surashree Rahane was born with several physical disabilities, including clubfoot and polymelia, a condition in which affected individuals are born with extra limbs. She grew up in a family where disability was part of everyday life and never saw it as a disability, but as another way to navigate the world.
“My mentors always said: don’t just look for jobs, create them,” she says. “That’s how I learned that leadership in itself means inclusivity.”
Ms. Rahane is now the founder and CEO of Yearbook Canvas, a technology platform specializing in digital yearbooks for academic institutions. As she built her business, she saw how structural barriers such as inaccessible infrastructure, biased financing networks, and rigid education systems persist.
To address these challenges, she is currently working with the Newton School of Technology near New Delhi, focusing on inclusive academic design and AI-based learning tools that adapt to the pace of each student. “AI can democratize access to education,” she says, “but only if we teach it to understand diverse students. Otherwise, we risk creating a glossier version of the same old bias.”
© UN News/Shachi Chaturvedi
Assistive technologies empower people with disabilities.
‘The great equalizer’
From voice-to-speech aids for people with speech impairments to gesture-based wheelchair controls, technology is now breaking barriers that were once considered permanent.
Prateek Madhav, CEO of AssisTech Foundation (ATF), describes AI as “the great equalizer.” “While the world worries that AI will take away jobs,” he says, “AI is creating those jobs for people with disabilities.”
Ketan Kothari, a consultant at Xavier’s Resource Center for the Visually Challenged in Mumbai, shows how AI tools have made him completely independent at work. “Today I can format a document, access meetings with live captions, and even generate visual descriptions through apps,” he explains. “AI has turned imagination into function.”
Purple Fest consists mainly of Indian entrepreneurs and business leaders, but as Tshering Dema of the UN Development Coordination Office reflects: “This is not a one-country story – it is a global transition. Inclusion is not just about laws or infrastructure; it is about mindset and shared design. The future of work must be built not just for people, but with them.”
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