Universal Design and Accessibility
Smart Cities & Digital India

Shri. Deepinder Singh

Head Strategy and Planning, Digital India, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology. Government of India

Shri. Mukesh Kumar

Municipal Commissioner, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India

Dr. Ashis Jalote Parmar

Professor, Business Policy Area

Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIMA)

For over a decade, Ashis has worked both as a design educator and a corporate professional in the area of healthcare & IT new product development with some of the renowned research labs, corporate and institutes predominantly in European and south Asian countries. Ashis strongly advocates the role of Design thinking in educating engineering and management students towards building strategy, new product and service development. As an information architect her research includes decision support in medical Informatics, public health systems and e-learning. Ashis pursued her masters in industrial design from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay, India. She received the prestigious Marie Curie Fellowship from the European Union (FP6) to obtain PhD in industrial design engineering at the Technical University of Delft (TUD), The Netherlands. Her postdoctoral studies were conducted at TUD after receiving an applied research grant from Netherlands organization of Health research (ZONMW) to develop decision support device to reduce maternal mortality in rural India.

Shri Mukesh Jain

Joint Secretary,
Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities,
Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment,
Government of India

Being a senior civil servant, Shri Mukesh Jain has taken up some challenging public assignments during his career. His expertise lies in New Public Management, which has helped him reinvent government systems and procedures to a substantial extent. He is currently a Government Advisor for many government agencies. Some of his other expertise lies in areas like strategic management and creativity and innovation.Shri Mukesh Jain.jpg

After being educated from MIT and completing a Masters in Public Administration from John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, he came back to serve his country. He has played key roles in the government right from being the Superintendent of Police to Ministry of Commerce and Industry. With a wide range of experience he has currently taken up the role of Joint Secretary at the Department of Disability Affairs, Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Government of India.

Mr. Dipendra Manocha

Ashoka Fellow
Saksham Trust

Mr. Dipendra Manocha is working with the DAISY Consortium which is working in the area of providing publications in accessible formats to persons who cannot read normal print. He is the lead of training and technical support and coordinates DAISY Consortium’s projects in developing countries. (www.daisy.org) He is managing trustee of the Saksham Trust. (www.saksham.org). He is the president of the DAISY Forum of India which is a network of more than 130 organisations in India serving the persons with blindness and low vision (www.daisyindia.org). . He is president of the National Association for the Blind (Delhi State Branch) www.nabdelhi.in. He also worked as consultant to the Delhi University for establishing the resource centre for persons with disability. He worked as resource person in series of workshops on accessible built environment conducted by the Chief Commissioner Disabilities, Govt. of India. He is an Ashoka Fellow and has received National Award from the president of India in the year 2005 and 2007 for his work and leadership role.

Lawyer, Delhi High Court

Founder of Center for Accessibility in Built Environment (CABE)

Subhash is a lawyer engaged in advocacy for human rights & working for inclusion of persons with disabilities in mainstream especially through policy reforms, legal intervention for disability rights, training & development, facilitating inclusive education & employment, inclusive tourism, and promoting physical accessibility in public infrastructure & transportation systems since 1999. He is an Expert Member on Bureau of Indian Standards Committee on National Building Code for Accessibility in Built Environment. He was also on the Core Committee of Ministry of Urban Development, Govt of India for Harmonisation of Space Standards on Barrier free Environment for Elderly & Disabled Persons. He is a master trainer - Tilting at Windmills - a Disability Equity Module, UN Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), Disability Laws, Universal Design & Accessibility, Transportation Systems & Mobility solutions for the Elderly and Persons with Disabilities.

Ms. Shivani Gupta

Founder of AccessAbility

Author of “No Looking Back”

Shivani Gupta author of ‘No Looking Back – a true story’ is the founder of AccessAbility, and one of India’s best-known access consultants. With postgraduate degrees in inclusive environments (design and management) from the UK, and diplomas in architecture technology and hotel management, Shivani has spent most of her professional life in working towards improving accessibility of public spaces such as educational institutions, hotels and retail and other commercial spaces in India. She has undertaken research on issues related to accessibility in India and contributed to policies for disabled persons in the country.

Apart from her work at the country level, Shivani has worked on international projects as a consultant with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the International Disability Alliance (IDA), Disabled Peoples’ International (DPI) and the Christian Blind Mission (CBM).  She has also co-authored three publications pertaining to improving accessibility in physical environments for disabled people.

Ms. Anjlee Agarwal

Executive Director

Samarthyam, National Centre for Accessible Environments

Author of Accessibility Guidelines and Codes for Government of India

Anjlee Agarwal is a researcher, accessibility consultant and disability rights activist from India and well-known in Asia Pacific. She has been involved in numerous United Nations consultations on non-handicapping environment, accessible tourism and violence against women and girls with disabilities. She is regularly nominated by the Government of India as a subject expert to advise on program and policies relating to universal accessibility.

Accessibility Specialist with 20 years experience in incorporating Accessibility Planning into Organization's Strategic Process by applying Human Rights and Equity perspectives. In her current role as an Accessibility Consultant, Anjlee provides access assessment and audits for clients, undertake review of country codes/regulations on accessibility, promotes awareness on Universal Design to organizations in Asia Pacific Region, while assisting anyone in need of accessibility information ensuring compliance with the current accessibility standards. Anjlee is consultant with UNICEF, UNESCO, DFID, VSO, CBM, Handicap International, DRPI, and several government and non-government organisations.

Ms. Shilpi Kapoor

Founder

Barrier Break

She is the founder of BarrierBreak, with an industry experience of 18 years and a belief that technology can be a game changer for people with disabilities. BarrierBreak's focus has been to ensure that technology is accessible to people with disabilities whether it is the web, mobile, documents, media and products. She specializes in disability related laws and accessibility laws, standards and guidelines like Section 508, CVAA, Web Content Accessibility Guideline (WCAG) 2.0, Guideline for Indian Government Websites (GIGW), EPUB3, Daisy, etc. In addition, BarrierBreak also focuses on reaching assistive technology to people with disabilities through the healthcare and the education sectors. They work with a range of assistive technology products like low vision aids, assistive listening devices, alternate keyboards and mouse, eye tracking solutions, screen reader softwares, AAC devices and many more. She has been Instrumental in drafting the National Policy on Electronic Accessibility in association with National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People.

Ms. Nirmita Narasimhan

Program Manager

Center for Internet and Society (CIS)

Dr. Nirmita Narasimhan is a Policy Director with the Centre for Internet and Society. Her work spans a variety of domains in electronic accessibility. She works with disability organizations, governments and UN bodies in advocating for digital accessibility, promoting universal design and open source assistive technology along with other issues which are part of the policy space in ICT accessibility in India and globally.

Nirmita is recognised as an expert internationally and in India and has been working to improve accessibility and inclusion in all spheres of life, both at the policy level as well as on the ground. She has authored many reports on e-accessibility which are being used by policymakers worldwide. Nirmita has also presented papers on ICT Accessibility at international fora and participated in the early negotiations of the Marrakesh Treaty at WIPO.  She also serves as the Director, Global Reports, G3ict.

Ms. Meenu Bhambhani

Vice President, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

Mphasis

Dr. Meenu Bhambhani is the Associate Vice-President and Head – Global Corporate Social Responsibility at MphasiS, Bangalore. Her background in development/disability sector is multifaceted:  she is a person with disability herself, a professional in the area of disability and human development with fifteen years of experience, specialized in disability studies and social policy, a researcher on disability issues in India, and an ally of local and transnational disability rights movements.
In her current role at MphasiS, her key responsibility is to engage with development sector especially in the area of education, disability and livelihoods; to help the company become more inclusive and work towards removing barriers which may exist in persons with disabilities accessing equal opportunities. She has successfully helped the company hire and retain nearly 400 employees with disabilities, have helped create internal systems and policies for inclusion, retention and career growth of employees with disabilities. In the last four years, MphasiS has won numerous awards from government and non-government organizations which are a testimony to the success of this programme.

Prof. Rachna Khare

Architecture Department at School of Planning and Architecture

Rachna Khare is a Professor and Head of the Architecture Department at School of Planning and Architecture, Bhopal. Prior to this she was a Senior Research Fellow with Jamsetji Tata Universal Design Research Chair at National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad and taught at Birla Institute of Technology. Rachna is a recipient of the prestigious Fulbright Fellowship and was affiliated with Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, USA during her PhD. Her research interests in the field of 'Universal Design' and 'Designing for Special Needs' have earned her grants and awards nationally and internationally. Her research papers appeared in the publications like Taylor and Francis, Sage, HFES, EDRA, RESNA and Archnet MIT. She has organized many national and international workshops and competitions on 'Universal Design' and remained jury member of Berkeley Prize Essay Competition-2013, endorsed by UC Berkeley, USA. Rachna works closely with Government of India and United Nations; she represented and collaborated with UN/UNESCAP/UNESCO on several occasions. She is one of the authors of Universal Design India Principles developed at NID in 2011. She has received many awards for her work and recently recognized as 'Inspired Teacher' by Hon'ble President of India as well as stayed Scholar-in-Residence at Rashtrapati Bhavan. In her current position, Rachna also co-ordinates Centre for Human Centric Research (CHCR) at SPA Bhopal.

Shri. Ashank Desai

Founder & Former Chairman, Mastek Ltd.

Mr. Ashank Desai is the founder and former Chairman of Mastek Limited, a publicly-held IT solutions player with global operations. He also guides Mastek Foundation, whose mission is to enable "Informed Giving and Responsible Receiving". He is widely recognized as an industry veteran, and is one of the founder members & past Chairman of NASSCOM. He is also a former President of Asian Oceanian Computing Industry Organisation (ASOCIO). It is an organization founded for the development of IT in the Asia - Pacific region, which comprises of 20 IT Countries like Australia, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, India etc. In the last few year, he is actively involved in the field of education, and has been a member of the Governing Boards of IIM Ahmedabad, IIT Jodhpur, and the Goa Institute of Management. He also serves on the Advisory Boards of SJM School of Management, IIT Bombay & IIT Hyderabad. He is involved in Entrepreneurship Management in the country. He is the Vice-Chairman of Society for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (SINE), IIT. He is a charter member of The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE). He is involved in multiple social initiatives as well, and is Vice Chairman of the Governing Board of Bombay First, an NGO working on the mission to make Mumbai a world class city. He has been involved with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and Federation of Indian chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) Executive committees at National & Regional level. He has been conferred with the "Distinguished Alumnus" Award by IIT Bombay and "Fellow of the Society" honour by the Computer Society of India (CSI) in recognition of his services to the Indian IT Industry as an entrepreneur and for his contribution to the growth of education. He has also been presented with the Honourable Contributors Award by ASOCIO - the only Indian to receive this recognition twice. He was conferred with the much coveted Outstanding Entrepreneur Award at the Asia Pacific Entrepreneurship Awards (APEA) 2010 India. Asia Pacific Entrepreneurship Awards 2010 India is organized by Enterprise Asia - a non-governmental organization in pursuit of entrepreneurship development across the region. Mr. Desai studied at IIT Bombay and IIM Ahmedabad.