Rising Flame’s Founder and Executive Director Nidhi Goyal was invited to speak at TEDxSAJS Vasundhara Youth on 24th May, 2025.
In her powerful TEDx talk, with 450 people in attendance, Nidhi Goyal spoke about “The Power of Choice” – a deeply personal and inspiring reflection on navigating life, disability, and leadership on her own terms. Through stories of her own adolescence and other anecdotes, Nidhi shares how a simple act – being handed the house keys by her father – became a turning point in reclaiming agency. It was a moment that symbolised not just trust, but the beginning of a life built on decisions made with dignity and intention.
Nidhi described how she and her family made a collective choice after her diagnosis at 15: not to give in to despair but to pursue a life of fulfillment and ambition. From rejecting stereotypes – including the assumption that blindness limits one’s aspirations – to pursuing a visual field like mass media, Nidhi emphasised that choice is not a luxury, but a right.
Through anecdotes about building her career, founding Rising Flame, and advocating globally for the rights of women and youth with disabilities, Nidhi challenged deeply entrenched narratives of pity, control, and infantilisation that surround disability. Her message was clear: people with disabilities, like everyone else, deserve the autonomy to decide — what to study, whom to love, where to work, and how to live.
“The Power of Choice” is a call to action — to question power structures, foster enabling environments, and return decision-making power to those from whom it has been unjustly withheld or taken away.
You can watch Nidhi’s TED Talk now on YouTube.