Introduction

Visions of Power and Possibility: Building Our Future Together

Visions of Power and Possibility: Building Our Future Together

In a global context where women with disabilities continue to be sidelined, this half-day convening aimed to reclaim women with disabilities’ rightful space as leaders, thinkers, and movement builders.

On October 11, 2025 at Taj Vivanta Goa from 2 pm to 6 pm, we brought together 40+ women with disabilities for a powerful dialogue — “Visions of Power and Possibility: Building Our Future Together.” The room witnessed participation from women across disabilities - blindness and low vision, deaf and hard of hearing, little people, persons with locomotor, speech, or intellectual disabilities, and those cured or affected by leprosy – who had gathered to reimagine their collective future. The session was facilitated by Rising Flame team leadership in over 4 languages to ensure full participation and access.

Smt. Ipsita Mitra posing with a Rising Flame tote bag and momento. She is standing in between Srinidhi Raghavan and Nidhi Goyal.

Using an iceberg, participants explored deep issues that shape their everyday realities — from violence, education, accessibility, employment, and health — and envisioned actionable solutions for change. They highlighted the ways in which women with disabilities face isolation, exploitation, and lack of access to justice. Social stigma, poverty, and gender norms often silence them. Participants called for stronger implementation of laws, sensitisation of the judiciary, and platforms where women can safely express and organise.

They spoke about how girls with disabilities are often denied basic schooling, particularly in rural areas. Families and communities still question the need for their education. Participants envisioned a future where basic and higher education, including STEM, is truly accessible, with schools taking responsibility for safe transport and inclusive learning.

Close-up of one of the participants sitting around a table. There is a Rising Flame standee against a wall behind her. Next to her is someone on a wheelchair turned away from the camera.

Wide shot of one of the round tables. One of the speakers is a little person who is standing and speaking into a mic while the others listen.

The group addressed how accessibility remains inconsistent from transport to public spaces. The women emphasised that inclusion cannot rely on charity: it must be enforced through mandatory norms, uniform laws, and awareness-driven implementation.

While looking at employment, they spoke to the limited opportunities, inaccessible training, and unsupportive families which hold women with disabilities back. Participants imagined a future where they are encouraged, supported and included, fostering independence and dignity.

In the conversation around healthcare, women with disabilities pointed out how those living with stigmatised conditions face discrimination in healthcare and within families. The group called for health equity, reproductive and maternal health access, and an end to exclusionary practices.

Each of the women left with personal commitments: raising awareness, advocating for education, building employment pathways, advancing health equity & entrepreneurship for women with disabilities.

Group photo of all participants of the event, the Rising Flame team, and ISL interpreters.

Publication

An orange pathway moving from one part of the page at the bottom left to the top right. Along this path, there are many illustrations from bottom to top: an illustration of a woman with crutches standing below stairs where three people are seated and standing. Next is an illustration of a woman with an X on her mouth and hands saying shhhh with eyes watching her. Then are three women with disabilities standing behind a translucent wall where one of them is standing with a walker, another with a sunflower badge and third is a burns survivor. Next is an illustration of a woman holding a crutch and speaking into a microphone. A woman taking care of a pregnant woman seated on a stool. A woman entering a metro with her wheelchair. A woman wearing a hearing aid conducting a training on rights, safety and inclusion for a group of police officers. In the middle is the text in maroon : ‘Visions of Power and Possibility: Building our future together’. At the bottom right is the Rising Flame logo.

Visions of Power and Possibility is a collective manifesto that charts a transformative five-year roadmap for women with disabilities. Emerging from a national dialogue of 40 women with disabilities leaders at International Purple Fest, the document assesses current systemic gaps across 5 thematic areas accessibility and inclusion; education; employment and livelihoods; and health including mental health, maternal health and reproductive justice, and violence and access to justice. It centers the political priorities and leadership of women with disabilities as a community who are often sidelined in both disability and women’s rights spaces. It is a document that moves our voices from the margins to the centre, laying out today’s challenges while imagining a more inclusive future.

Read in word and pdf.