I am Rakesh Paladugula, born in a remote place Pangidi in Andhra Pradesh in a middle class family. I have an elder brother Srinivas. Ours is a We two our two family.

My mother used to tell me that even when I was 2 and a half, I was unable to keep my neck straight and for that I was taken to hospital often. Once when I was taken to an eye specialist in our place , he told that I have an eye problem and urged my parents not to expect higher studies from me. He prescribed spectacles to me. My parents however did not make me wear them as I was very young.

Later when I was taken to another doctor when I was 3 and a half , the same result came and he too advised on wearing spectacles. This time my parents had no other choice and I started wearing glasses.

Even though I was visually impaired I never faced any big problem in my childhood because I never used to open my book to read.
The first time I was upset because of my illness was in my seventh class, when I was failed in English exam. I knew most of my answers, but as the question paper was very long to read and answer, due to my illness I could not read the question paper quickly as others did. I was not upset when I failed, but when my father came with the progress card to meet my principal, I was really hurt. Leave others, it was my father who had not understood me.

As time progressed, my visual disability caused many misunderstandings- as I was active in answering in the classes, but fared poorly in the written exams.

When I was in class ninth I found that there was a difference in vision with my two eyes. Later when I went to my doctor I told him about this observation of mine. He took me to a dark room examined me for a long time and took me out. We were back home. I had my dinner and slept. My mother and father thought that I was sleeping and started talking about the conversation with doctor. The doctor had told that the problem was with the optic nerve and could not be cured. But we did not get a clear idea of the problem and were confused about what to do . I was taken to Shankar Netralaya for a second opinion.Here the doctor had no other choice, she had to tell me everything because my father did know either English or Tamil. The day was Jan 27 2004, the day I came to know that I was the patient of RP.

When I was in graduation my vision deteriorated further and I was unable to read or write. I got the help of a scribe and completed my exams, but was completely frustrated, not knowing what to do in the future. But I was always sure that I would do something different.

My favourite goddess Durga was with me. I found a way in the form of Enable India. I was in a remote place and Enable India in Bangalore. Any way I registered for the next batch CCCt(Career centric computer training) for disabled. The NGO works for disabled people. By god’s grace I was selected for a 3 weeks’ workshop. I did well there and fortunately I was even selected for a Teacher training course and trained further.

At last I was recruited in a reputed software company “Iridium interactive” at Hyderabad, where I now work as a web accessibility test engineer.

Our company does a lot many things for disabled and as part of their initiatives, I have got an opportunity to conduct Sunday classes for visually impaired with the support of my colleagues.

Thanks to my C.E.O Sriram Bharatam and Director Bharathi for giving me this wonderful opportunity and to work in this organization.

I hope to continue my services to my Iridium for a long time.

Yours ever
Rakesh Paladugula

On the eve of International day for persons with disabilities

Remember Amitabh Bachchan pushing Rani Mukherjee to speed up her typing skills to pass her examinations in Black?

Visually challenged software engineers are part of the workforce at Sriram’s firm — iridium Interactive, which works towards making web pages accessible. Accessibility is more than making a website compatible to users grappling with bandwidth restrictions. It’s about making the pages friendly to the blind.

We spot Rakesh Paladugula, one of the visually challenged software engineers in the firm, trying to book railway tickets online.

Aided with screen reader software that reads out the contents of web pages, Rakesh usually works at a pace that makes his other colleagues to work harder. “I was diagnosed with Retina Pigmentosa as a child and lost my eyesight during my graduation,” he recalls.

Trained by Enable India, a Bangalore-based NGO, Rakesh fine-tuned his skill sets. At iridium, he conducts training sessions during the weekends. The firm has more professionals like him taking on varied tasks — from conducting training sessions to interacting with the US clientele.

“We hire trained challenged people as a HR strategy. They work twice as much as the regular employees do. They are eager to acquire new skill sets. This motivates the regular staff,” says Sriram. Each visually challenged person, when recruited, is trained for an hour or two to find their way in the office. Then, they are on their own. “We have inclusion programmes that help normal people learn to deal with their challenged counterparts. The moment you see a blind person, you tend to be too helpful. But trained people need no help. It’s amazing how they find their way across floors easily,” says Sriram.

Apart from the screen reader software, Sriram shows us how the websites can be reader-friendly to those with partial blindness. Two icons placed on the right upper corner can help increase and decrease the font size. Navigating through the webpage and working on a computer is simple thanks to the existing keyboard shortcuts.