Purple Think Tank

Neha Trivedi, has worked in the space of disability inclusion and accessibility for over 16 years. In September 2022, she started her new venture Spandan –an inclusion and accessibility consultancy service. Through Spandan Ms. Trivedi works at building customized solutions for higher education institutes and corporates to enable them to make their systems, products, and services inclusive for persons with disabilities. Spandan’s key area of interest is to bridge the gap between education and employment for persons with disabilities to ensure sustainability in inclusion.

During her earlier engagement at the Xavier’s Resource Centre for the Visually Challenged (XRCVC), St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai, she has been at the forefront of some of the key inclusive legislative changes in the country making STEM education accessible for the blind, steering the deployment of over 15000+ accessible ATMs, steering inclusive banking rules, the amendment to the Copyright Act of India (2012), and many more.

he has authored publications and research papers on accessible geometry kits for the visually impaired, inclusive education and inclusive publishing. Ms. Trivedi has been the co-author of Guidelines for Making E-Content Accessible for children with disabilities, Ministry of Education (2021) as also the access audit tool developed for the Ministry of Social

Mr Bharat Vaya, has worked as a lecturer in Mahavir B.Ed College at Dhrangadra for 10 years. Since last 10 years he has the principal at the Sankul School and Resource Center for the blind, Baroda. He has trained more than 250 students and 96 teachers (who are working in government school) in technology. Since last 6 years he is coordinating inclusive education in his institution with 6 mainstream schools. Right now 40 students are studying in inclusive education in 6 different schools.

Ketan Kothari is a disability professional working in the field for the past 30 years. He has worked at a variety of places in leading roles: heading three departments at the National Association for the Blind, India; working as programme officer and then advocacy manager at Sightsavers India, and presently with Xavier’s Centre for Visually Challenged (XRCVC), St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai.

His passions include inclusive education and accessibility for the disabled. He was involved in the advocacy for financial access as also advocacy for the amendment to the Copyright Act of India, 1957; both of which have yielded success.

Padma Shastry started as a civil engineer, took some time off to be a stay-at-home mother, and then followed her daughters into the classroom as a volunteer. This eventually led to a Master's in Special Education from Santa Clara University, California, and a career as an Education Specialist. She was head of the special education department at Buchser Middle School in Santa Clara, California (a government school), before deciding to return to work in India seven years ago. She has worked with students with different kinds of mild to moderate disabilities such as LD, autism, Down syndrome, seizure disorder, vision impairments and orthopedic disabilities, among others.

All her students were included in the mainstream classroom. In India, she has started Samam Vidya which conducts teacher education workshops and courses. Her areas of interest include Learning Disabilities, integration into mainstream education, creation of inclusive classrooms, and teacher education. Reading and puzzles fill up whatever spare time she manages to eke out of a full day.

Ruturaj Lende, currently working in the field of experience design and stakeholder management with an MNC, has an academic background in Economics and Commerce. His education was a mix of both usual schools as well as special schools where he maintained good academic scores as well as dabbled in fields like Pottery, Music, inclusive technology, and accessibility. In free time, he enjoys reading, music and chatting with friends and family.

Saji K Mathew is currently a Professor at the Department of Management Studies, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, India. As a Fulbright Scholar, he did his post-doctoral research on offshore IT outsourcing at the Goizueta Business School of Emory University, Atlanta (USA). His current research focuses on behavioral cyber security, information privacy, misinformation and digital nudging. He has published articles in leading IS journals while also making editorial contributions to some of them. He is a founding member of the Association for Information Systems India Chapter (INAIS) and presently serves as its Vice President. He also serves as the Advisor for Inclusive Education at IIT Madras, endeavoring to make IIT Madras as a welcoming institution for students with disabilities.