Once shunned by the PU board officials for taking math, this visually impaired girl tops PG course at IIIT-B

When visually impaired Vidhya Y approached high school, she was told why she chose science as it would be too much for her to study. Today, she topped her class in MSc Digital Society from the International Institute of Information Technology, Bengaluru (IIIT-B).

She was among the nine others to be conferred a Masters of Science in Digital Society at the 17^th convocation of the Institute held in Bengaluru on Sunday. It was amidst loud cheers and claps that this achiever took the stage while she was conferred a Gold Medal (MSc Digital Society). She scored a total of 3.82 out of 4 CGPA in her post graduation.

When Vidhya Y reached high school, she was told that science would be too much for her to take and was forced to study economics instead. “I pursued my primary education from a blind school. When I reached class VIII, I wanted to change the school but a lot of them refused admission. Later, I studied at Attibele Public School. I was forced to study economics as I was told that I will not be able to do math and science,” she said.

We made no exceptions in terms of the assignments for her. We made sure reading material was made available in PDF form which is readable. She did not seek any special training. It was her hard work that helped

Janaki Srinivasan, Faculty, IIIT-B

Vidhya scored 95 per cent in her board exams putting all apprehensions about her inability to rest. Even as she was determined to study science, the hurdles in her way were aplenty. “To study science, there was no tactile diagram nor there was equipment in the labs that were disabled friendly. I had to take commerce. Every day it was a 58km travel to Christ University. I took commerce with a combination of math for the love of the subject,” she added.  

Aiming high: Vidhya is now planning to support the visually challenged

Unable to finish math paper on time, she said that the PU Board raised several questions. “Why do you take math? Take humanities like the other blind students did, they told me. We had to later approach the education minister through an acquaintance and seek permission for more time,” said Vidhya. After her PU, she pursued BCA from Christ University. “Juniors wrote my exams but it’s not easy to dictate programming. I had to convince them to let me write my exams on the system. Following this, she joined IIIT-B where she aced the entrance exam as well.

Hope she becomes a guiding force for other students. We encouraged her to study what she wanted

Yellareddy, Vidhya's Father

Not wanting to see any other child face the same ordeal that she did to study science and math, Vidhya is now starting an NGO to support the visually challenged.