Have you ever got scared imagining the struggles faced by People with Disability in their daily

life and got scared out of it? This is a common reflection which keeps us frightened of ever
being disabled or having someone disabled who is close to your heart. Over the decades,
disability is viewed as a disease and has become a synonym to failure. It is assumed that
disabled people are weak and cannot do anything without being dependent on others. With
such thoughts prevailing in the society, they are also deprived of their basic rights and social
recognition.
Sometimes we also become sympathetic towards disabled people thinking about the struggle
they are going through in their day to day life. This reminds me of the disability paradox that
our assumptions about disabled people are wrong and fortunately, at times they even have a
better quality of life than most of us. Even the physicians and doctors directly declare that
disability are non-curable and nothing can be done. Even though there is no cure, it never means
that the potential of the disabled person cannot be grown. They can live an active, engaged and
quality life if the focus is on developing their potential meeting their special needs rather than
ignoring them as worthless.

This bring me to the story of Ms. Vidhya Rubini who has Cerebral Palsy and is currently
working as a Public Relation Officer (PRO) at Holy Cross Service Society, Trichy. She is a
resident of Trichy and is suffering from cerebral palsy since childhood. Her parents came across
a lot of difficulties in raising her up parallel with the normal children because of prevalent
social unacceptance. The medical expense was another big challenge to meet. The hardships
faced by Vidhya and her parents made them stronger and encouraged them to fight back and
fulfill all the requirements to make Vidhya self-dependent. She also learned the lesson of
struggle to find her distinct position in the society. So, she continued her studies and completed
the graduation.
Being educated was also not enough for Vidhya to get a respectable job as most people were
unable to identify her abilities. Due to difficulties in ensuring reservations for Persons with
Disabilities in government jobs, she could not secure one for herself. Vidhyas parents
approached multiple companies and government organizations for her employment after she
completed her B.Com.
Even after so much of struggles, their life was still going nowhere. They had almost lost their
faith and patience. But, as the saying goes that even God helps those who help themselves,
their struggles and fight finally led them to Holy Cross Service Society, Trichy. The Holy Cross
Service Society saw her abilities, recognized her talent and offered her the job of Office
Assistant at HCSS. By virtue of hard work, she was promoted and now is holding the position
of Public Relations Officer (PRO). She is now successfully working in this position for the past
eight years. It is remarkable that she is currently taking care of 50+ odd disabled people in the
organization and has changed the lives of many making them self-dependent.

At last I would like to quote the words of Warwick Davis The world worries about disability
more than disabled people do.