‘Inclusion is about mental access and emotional access to spaces’

Inclusion is not just physical access but also having mental access and emotional access to spaces, said S. Gokul, Mayiladuthurai Additional Collector (development) and DRDA Project Officer at a conference in Chennai on Saturday. 

He was speaking at the valedictory ceremony of the third edition of the International Conference on ‘Empowerment Beyond Barrier: Global Perspectives on Education, Development and Innovation’ jointly organised by the Patrician College of Arts and Science and Adelphi University, New York, U.S. 

Pointing out that inclusion means truly being part of whatever happens, he said, “Accessibility is a clinical sterile thing, but inclusivity is chaotic…” 

Stating that educating students about inclusion is important, Gokul added that education becoming comprehensively inclusive is not just ensuring that schools were accessible, but also educating other students. “Comprehensive education for inclusion has to begin from kindergarten classes. This responsibility should not lie on just the disabled community; it must be a public facing endeavour,” he said. 

The three-day conference saw the participation of Loyola College Assistant Professor Deepak Nathan, Chief Accessibility Adviser, Accessibility Research Centre at IIT-Madras Smitha Sadasivan, Founder Vidya Sagar Poonam Natarajan, and public policy consultant Andrew Sesuraj, among others. 

Br. Jerome Ellens, Community Leader, Patrician Community, said, “It is a call to the policymakers, healthcare workers, and society at large to work together to create a world where each individual enjoys equal opportunities.”