United Nations India co-organised an online COSP side event ‘Leveraging Innovation and Technology as an Enabler for Inclusion: Learnings from India’ along with Barrier Break, Social Alpha, UN Partnership on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, National Institute of Urban Affiars and the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (Government of India) on 15 June 2022.
Nidhi Goyal, Founder and Executive Director, was one of the speakers at this event and drew attention to how assistive technology can enhance social inclusion for people with disabilities. The need for coming together and finding options that will transform the lives of disabled people was highlighted. However, while it was acknowledged that technology can enhance the lives of disabled people, there was caution against seeing technology as a saviour to all.
“If we look at the data, gendered ownership of technology is much lower. How does technology becomes an enabler when it comes to women with disabilities? How does technology create barriers then for disabled women?”