STEM education: Think of disability as diversity, not deficit
By Shikha Sharma
| Posted on December 5, 2024
Vidhya Y learnt to count at the age of six by separating orange segments. It was with mustard seeds and rice that she learnt the multiplication tables.
“I possessed a natural inclination towards numbers, logic, pattern recognition and problem solving. I was good at them. I was not interested in social science,” recalls Vidhya (28), the first visually challenged child of Thirumagondanahalli village near Bengaluru.
As she grew older, she realised that India’s formal education system and its infrastructure had no place for her. “It was a norm that differently-abled children would leave science and mathematics and opt for social science or languages. Most blind schools did not offer science and mathematics as options. Science, the way it was taught in our schools, was fully visual in approach. So the only option for visually challenged children was to discontinue it,” she adds.
However, Vidhya was not ready to give up on her favorite subjects. Going against the popular opinion, and taking on a slew of administrative and bureaucratic hurdles, she decided to pursue mathematics for higher education.
In 2009, she became the first visually challenged student to pursue mathematics at the higher secondary level in Karnataka. She also went on to become the first visually challenged undergraduate student to major in computer science at Christ University.
Repeatedly challenged by the formal education system and its infrastructure, Vidhya made inclusive education her mission. She co-founded Vision Empower, a social enterprise incubated at the International Institute of Information Technology, Bengaluru, empowering visually challenged children to pursue an education in science and mathematics.
However, her efforts are just a drop in the ocean as education remains largely exclusionary for the differently-abled in India, with just 9% completing secondary education. In this, certain categories of children, like those with autism and cerebral palsy and girls with disabilities, stand disproportionately affected and are least likely to be enrolled in schools, with even fewer pursuing higher education in STEM subjects.
“Girls and women with disabilities particularly face unique challenges as a result of their multiple marginalised identities. “[They] are often discriminated against twice,” explain researchers Saikat Ghosh, Lahari Chakraborty and Kaushik Basu, in an article. “Among persons with disabilities, being women further limits school enrolment and educational attainment. The double discrimination puts them at a greater risk of emotional, physical and sexual abuse than almost any other,” they add.
According to the UN women strategy on the empowerment of women and girls with disabilities, girls with disabilities have the lowest education participation rates in the world, with nine out of 10 such children in developing countries being excluded from formal education. Multi-country estimates also show that girls with disabilities are more likely to be out of school than boys with disabilities and girls without disabilities.
As per the Office of Chief Commissioner for Persons With Disabilities in India, just 45% of the female disabled population is literate. The number of differently-abled girls/women studying STEM fields is so low in India as hardly any data tracking their participation or employment are present.
Roadblocks to inclusion
There are also concerns around their safety due to the heightened rates of bullying and harassment they experience both within and outside of school. Many girls are kept isolated at home, furthering the stereotype that a girl with a disability cannot become successful and educating her is not worthwhile.
Secondly, girls with disabilities may face physical barriers linked to accessibility and transportation availability to reach the school. Thirdly, education systems in countries like India do not adequately prepare teachers to respond to learner diversity because of the large amount of resources needed to provide personalised learning.
When it comes to learning subjects such as science, technology, engineering and mathematics, the discrimination compounds, resulting in lower school enrolment and higher dropout rates. A combination of factors — exclusion from science and mathematics in early education, inadequate support systems and teaching practices — ensure that differently-abled girls do not even think of pursuing STEM subjects beyond primary school.
The inherent complexities of these subjects, combined with reliance on visualisation and practical aspects, create further challenges. Some specific challenges faced only by differently-abled students include drawing and visualisation diagrams, revision, doing practicals, lack of laboratory facilities, lack of knowledge of English, doing activities that need locomotion or prolonged sitting, and responding verbally.
Vidhya of Empower Vision conducting an experiential camps called Anubhav for visually-challenged children in Karnataka
For example, the lack of scientific terms and vocabulary in the Indian Sign Language can make science education inaccessible for aurally challenged people and those with hearing loss. Similarly, unavailability of accessible braille books with tactile diagrams can make it particularly difficult for visually challenged to understand STEM concepts.
According to India Science Report-2005, students with disabilities were generally motivated to study science, but were unable to opt for science at higher levels due to difficulties.
Institutions also often lack inclusive policies and practices that address the specific needs of differently-abled girls such as reasonable accommodations, accessible teaching materials, assistive technologies and support services.
Lastly, the lack of comprehensive large-scale data on differently-abled girls in India contribute significantly to their exclusion from educational policy and practice. This data gap makes it difficult to understand their specific needs and challenges, leading to inadequate support systems and interventions. Without targeted data, it remains a challenge to develop effective programmes that can address intersectional barriers and ensure that they are included.
The way ahead
Policy documents that frame education in India present disability under various labels (autism, hearing, visual, locomotor, etc.), but ignore compounding factors such as gender, caste, religion or living in a rural setting, which all require a set of specific actions to ensure meaningful inclusion.
To this end, India needs a multi-faceted approach to increase the participation of differently-abled girls in STEM education. The first step obviously lies in addressing the scarcity of reliable and comprehensive data.
Educational planners require authentic data for effective policy-making and resource allocation. Comprehensive household surveys conducted by trained paramedical professionals are essential to identify and enrol such girls. Continuous follow-ups for medical and educational needs are critical to ensure retention in schools.
Importance of Inclusion
The concept of inclusive education, too, is vital for integrating differently-abled girls into STEM. Schools must be equipped with accessible infrastructure, appropriate teaching materials, and facilities such as inclusive water, hygiene and sanitation (WASH).
Inclusive education should go beyond mere physical access and ensure that the curriculum, teaching methods and assessments cater to the diverse needs of all students. This involves showing information in different formats, adjusting lighting and seating arrangements, and providing necessary assistive devices.
“Children with disabilities in the policy [National Education Policy 2020] are primarily viewed as recipients of welfare and care in the form of peer tutoring, open schooling, and one-on-one teaching. There is a need to go further, to recognise disability as an identity and as a form of diversity rather than solely a deficit. An example of this would have been to suggest the standardisation of Indian Sign Language as a valuable language system for all students, not just for students with hearing impairments. That is, the educational challenges of children with disabilities stem from a rigid curriculum, inaccessible schools and classrooms, absence of modified assessments, and deficit perspectives that place limits on what disabled children can achieve,” writes Tanushree Sarkar, a researcher working on inclusive education in India.
Identifying disabilities before the age of six and providing necessary support can significantly impact the educational journey of differently-abled girls, which makes early assessment and intervention the crucial aspects that should be looked into. Teacher training programmes should be enhanced to include sensitisation and awareness training regarding disabilities, along with pedagogical approaches towards various types of disabilities.
Mentorship programmes designed for girls who want to study STEM subjects can also play a significant role. Engaging differently-abled women and girls in policy design and national strategies around inclusion can also help empower them, reduce stigma and give them a voice at the policy-making table.
NEP 2020 aims at addressing some of these issues by promoting inclusive education, yet it lacks clear guidelines for curriculum and infrastructure. To that end, a coherent policy that differentiates between inclusion and integration is essential. NEP should view disability as a form of diversity rather than a deficit, ensuring that educational practices do not perpetuate ableism.
About the author
Shikha Sharma is an independent journalist and photographer based out of New Delhi. She reports on women’s issues, climate change and development. Last year, an article she wrote about the invisibility of migrant women in India, as part of a development journalism fellowship, won the Laadli Media Award for gender-sensitive reporting. She is passionate about storytelling and hopes to highlight stories of underrepresented communities through her work.
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