Visually-impaired Indian student joins Stanford

A visually challenged student, who was nearly deprived of the chance to pursue his passion for science in India, is now set to go to the University of Stanford for undergraduate studies in computers. Bhavya Dore reports.

A visually challenged student, who was nearly deprived of the chance to pursue his passion for science in India, is now set to go to the University of Stanford for undergraduate studies in computers.

A-file-photo-of-Kartik-Sawhney-18-a-student-of-Delhi-Public-School

Kartik Sawhney, 18, a student of Delhi Public School, RK Puram, loved science, but CBSE rules before 2010 forbade visually-challenged students from pursuing the subject in Class 12.

While he managed to get the board to change its rule, he encountered his next hurdle while applying for the entrance exam to the Indian Institutes of Tech-nology, which, too, was not blind-friendly. For three years, he struggled to find a way to write the test, and moved court this year.

Sawhney, in the meanwhile, applied to universities abroad and was accepted by Stanford in March. “The journey was discouraging at times,” said Saw-hney. “But it’s satisfying to have gotten into Stanford, which has a support system for visually-challenged students. The IITs don’t have such a facility.” Stanford has assigned people to assist Sawhney when he joins.

“People believe the blind can’t do maths and science,” said Neha Trivedi, project consultant, Xavier’s Resource Centre for the Visually Challenged, which helped Sawhney with the battle. “Sawh-ney’s story might change this.”