Show notes:

Are there people who inspire you, make you want to be better and do better?

I have been fortunate to meet with amazing and inspirational people from all walks of life through my podcast The Elephant in the Room. Individuals who refuse to be defined by their circumstances or the challenges they encounter in life.

Akashdeep Bansal, CEO of SaralX, and my guest for the 134th episode of the podcast is one such person. Diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa at a young age, Akash's path took an unexpected turn when a conversation with his master's supervisor prompted him to consider the challenges faced by visually impaired individuals in pursuing STEM education. This pivotal moment not only reshaped his academic trajectory but also inspired the creation of SaralX, a startup focused on enhancing digital accessibility for people with disabilities.

In this episode we spoke about 👇🏾👇🏾👇🏾

👉🏾 How this led to the setting up of a collaborative network aimed at breaking barriers and fostering inclusion

👉🏾 Discovering purpose and becoming an entrepreneur advocating for inclusivity in the digital realm

👉🏾 Misconceptions that digital accessibility is solely for people with visual impairments, emphasizing that it encompasses a diverse array of disabilities, including motor impairments, cognitive challenges, auditory limitations……

👉🏾 The need to shift from a complaint-driven approach to accessibility towards one that inherently integrates inclusive practices into the foundational design of products and services.

👉🏾 Societal awareness and acceptance in facilitating a truly inclusive environment for all individuals, regardless of their abilities.

We also spoke about stigma, role models and what motivates him. Akash believes that it is not just one person who inspired his journey, it is the collective influence of those he has engaged with on his journey. His commitment to creating awareness and fostering inclusivity with SaralX is rooted in the notion that true empowerment stems from dismantling societal barriers rather than imposing limitations on those who are excluded.

Thank you @Prateek Madhav, Assistech Foundation for the introduction 🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾

To learn more about Akash’s inspirational journey head to the podcast 👇🏾👇🏾👇🏾

Episode Transcript

Sudha: Good morning, Akash. Wonderful to have you as a guest on The Elephant in The Room Podcast today.

Akash: Good morning, Sudha. It's my pleasure to be here.

Sudha: Brilliant. So let's get started with a quick introduction to who you are and what you do. I heard a little bit from Prateek of AssisTech Foundation. Let's hear from you.

Akash: What I can say about myself is, right now I'm doing this startup called SaralX, where we are basically helping in making the digital world inclusive for person with disabilities. Prior to this, I've done my master and PhD from IIT Delhi And I'm born and brought up in a small town which is called Gango, which comes under the district xxxx.

So that a small brief about me.

Sudha: Oh, wow. From UP straight to Bangalore. That's good.

Akash: Yeah,

Sudha: It requires a fair amount of bravery to become an entrepreneur. Did you have an aha moment and what propelled you to get into this journey?

Akash: Okay. So I can tell you like how I ended up in entrepreneurship.

There was no plan, when I was in childhood there was no plan that I will be doing any sort of entrepreneurship. If you met me 10 years back and asked me what I want to be in the future, my answer at that time should have been, I want to be in the teaching profession. I want to be a professor. So I did my BTech in electronics and communication. Then I got admission at IIT Delhi for Mtech. So when I was pursuing my master's at IIT Delhi, the same question was asked by my Master's supervisor. He asked me what do you want to be in the future?

So I told him like, I want to be the professor.

He then said, okay, that's fair enough, I can give you another problem statement. As you're doing your master's thesis, you can continue the work in the similar domain and you can pursue the PhD. I'll be happy to take you as a PhD student.

So one background is that I got diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa in 2003 when I was just 10-year-old. Due to which, I was losing my eyesight gradually. And when my Master’s supervisor asked me, tell me one thing, what will happen if during your PhD you are not able to read anything on the printed documents or anything on the computer screen?

How will you continue your research work? And at the time I was dealing with equations, which used to be three to four lines, even when you are typing on a A4 size sheet.

My Masters was related to electromagnetics EM wave, if you've heard about.

He asked me how will you manage you're dealing with such a complex equation right now. how will you continue working on your research during your PhD itself, if you lose your eyesight? And that was a trigger point for me.

I was not having any answer at that time. I said, give some time. Let me think about it. And then after a couple of days, I revisited him. I asked him sir can I do PhD with a topic that, how a blind person can do electrical engineering?

So then he said, yeah, that sounds a good topic, but I am not from this domain, so let us talk to someone who works in this domain.

So then we met another supervisor.

He immediately accepted me as a PhD student. He said, if you want to work on this problem, how equations can be read out for a person with blindness, I will be happy to take you as a PhD student. So that's how I entered the PhD.

I started networking with multiple persons with disabilities, multiple NGOs to understand what kind of challenges they're facing, what kind of practices they're adopting right now.

To pursue the different STEM content, like equations, tables. Yeah. What kind of practices are there and what kind of challenges are there? So, at the time we formed an informal group of different persons with disabilities who were doing engineering from ITTs, or even the foreign universities.

We started catching up on monthly basis. Basically we used to help out each other and I used to join that call to understand, these are the alternatives everyone is adopting. And this is the gap, which is there.

So, during the conversations which we used to have on monthly basis a discussion came up, the point was, we eight or nine people are able to help each other We somehow was able to break the barriers and able to come to the engineering domain.

But we know the ground reality. Even if you go to a lot of NGOs the blind person is always guided that you shouldn't pursue STEM education. Because that is not something which is accessible to you. You should one of the arts subjects. So then we thought, okay, let's join hands and maybe enter into some sort of an organisation where we can collectively work towards and utilize our own technical abilities and do something for the entire xxxxxxx

So that was a moment when we switched into an entrepreneurship mode, four of us we started first company, we ran it for around three years. We learned a lot of things, we did a couple of things for the community. And then during this time itself, there was a time when my eyesight reached to that level that now I can't read anything on the computer screen.

I needed to rely on the assistive technologies. I was the one who used to manage everything online in my family. Like if my father wants anything, I was the go-to person. But in 2021 when I lost my eye sight to the level that now I can't read anything on the computer screen, I felt like I lost my freedom.

Now I need to even rely on someone else to get the things done. So that was the trigger point. And then I said, okay I need to solve this problem. Anyway during the PhD I learned about all different kind of digital accessibility, like let's solve this problem at a larger scale. And that's led to the development of this service

Sudha: Wow, that's quite a story, quite an experience for anyone. So you've said about, why you started SaralX and it is about accessibility, for people with disabilities visual impairment probably, or anything that they have.

So what is your ambition for SaralX and how did you get to the name SaralX?

Akash: Before answe...

134: A conversation with Akashdeep Bansal CEO SaralX on redefining accessibility in society