They overcome their limitations to help others

 “I may not be able to fly an aircraft, but I can certainly find my way home,” says Pratik Rajiv Jindal, who has not let his visual impairment deter him from dreaming big.

He is one of the recipients of this year’s Helen Keller awards for disability which would be presented on December 3 to mark World Disability Day.

The 29-year-old from Bengaluru suffers from Retinitis Pigmentosa, a genetic disorder where one loses vision over a period of time. It was at the age of 20 when Jindal was staring at a loss of vision.

“I was in my third year engineering and was advised to stop reading. Losing vision was a challenge for me as I was actively involved in sports and would play cricket,” he said. However, Jindal did not let visual impairment affect him.

He went on to pursue his MBA after having completed engineering in one go.
Today, he is employed as a business consultant at a leading IT firm. He also counsels visually impaired students who find it tough to make career decisions. Incidentally, Jindal’s brother was also chosen for the Helen Keller award in 2013.

Cego Thekkel and Deepa Narasimhan are two others from Bengaluru who will receive the award this year.

Cegeo is part of the core team of peers that enables a perfect showcase of productivity in training and live work at the AMBA Core Centre. Someone with an IQ of less than 65, he joined the team to be heading it a few years later.

Today, he trains visiting Special Educators from AMBA Certified Partner Centres across India.

He takes sessions on ‘Making Lesson Plans using Google’ and also trains on how to use email and Skype to communicate daily with AMBA trackers at the AMBA Core Centre.

Deepa has profound disabilities, but for her, finding help for others is important too as she played a key role in setting up the India Chapter of Disability Empowerment Resource Group (DERG) within Dell EMC India COE.

A committed advocate of mainstreaming disability in the workplace, Deepa is the Lead for Diversity and Inclusion at Dell EMC India COE.

National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People (NCPEDP) gives Helen Keller awards to encourage employment of disabled people, increase public awareness on the issue of disability, empower disabled people with knowledge, information and opportunities and ensure easy, convenient access to all public places.