Prashant Ranjan Verma was 19-year-old when he started losing his vision due to a fungal infection caused by wearing contact lenses. He was preparing to become a chartered accountant when he was declared 90% visually-impaired.

Shattered and depressed, he did nothing for the next six years. More than a decade later, Verma had received an award by the government for changing the lives of other visually-impaired persons. He improved accessibility for those, who cannot see, by promoting the use of ICT in their daily life.

Verma made sure that such technologies helped others like him to study, make a career and prosper. No wonder the Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People (NCPEDP) selected him as the recipient of the first Universal Design Award to be given on the eve of Independence Day every year.

Thirty-six-year-old Verma trains visually-impaired students, tests all kinds of assistive software and devices like the talking computers, conducts workshops for web developers for creating disabledfriendly websites and also works on making libraries accessible by converting print into Braille format or digital content. I thought it was the end of the world for me when I started losing my sight. My family could not accept it. They tried all kinds of treatment but nothing worked. I had to discontinue my studies and remained confined to the house. Despite living in the capital, I had no access to any assistive technology. Even the doctors didn't tell me about it, said Verma even as he chatted with his students at Delhi Universitys Equal Opportunity Cell (EOC) where he works as a guest faculty and course coordinator.

Verma said his perspective changed when he came across a variety of technologies at the National Association for Blind (NAB). I received training there and was later employed as a trainer. I then came to DU and helped set up the EOC. In the last few years, I have conducted training sessions in Europe, South Africa, Japan, Thailand, and the Indian subcontinent. Our country is nowhere in the picture if you talk about creating and using assistive technology, he said. I think only 5% differentlyabled in our country are educated and very few of them use assistive technologies. People in the rural areas are still shocked to know that even a visually-impaired person can read a book using special software. But such software is available only in Hindi and English. What about regional languages he asked.

Verma has also launched the first assistive technology helpline in the country which is manned by the visually-impaired at NAB. He also prepared cheque printing templates which the visually-impaired can use to type all the details onto a cheque to enable bank transactions. In addition to this, Verma has even contributed to making the railway reservation process disabled-friendly. No wonder he received the national award for Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities by President Pratibha Patil in 2007.

In 2005, Verma married Veena who completed an MBA despite being visually-impaired and who now works as an human resource executive. I want to keep working with the differently-abled which is why I have not taken up a fulltime job.

Instead I prefer working at a variety of places. Technology helped me become somebody from nobody. I want people to know that nothing can stop them, he said.