Wednesday, March 13, 2024

Looking for Researchers

 

Dear Friends

As you are aware, this year’s Esha research project is trying to answer a very important question: How are inclusive workspaces different, in terms of employee experience?

 

The study is being guided by Dr. Amit Jain, FP from IIM Calcutta and faculty at SP Jain Institute of Management.

We will not be using a questionnaire-based approach. Instead, we will use two deep-knowledge techniques – Network Maps and Critical Incidents.

Network Maps help us understand the real social integration of people, and critical incidents technique helps us understand the dynamics of working together. This two pronged approach helps us get a holistic understanding of the inclusive workspace.

At this time, we are looking for researchers who will help us gather the information required for the research. Training will be given to all researchers.

What is expected

Researchers will be trained on creating network maps and conducting critical incident conversations.

They are expected to travel to the workplaces and gather information from both sighted and blind professionals, both in groups and individually.

This information then needs to be recorded as per the project standards and submitted.

When

Data gathering will be done from April to July.

Where

Delhi-NCR, Bengaluru, Ahmedabad, Chandigarh.

How much time is expected

About ten hours per week.

Who can Volunteer

Students above the age of sixteen can volunteer. All adults can volunteer.

People with interest in, and some knowledge of behavioural sciences, will find this easier. We are open to everyone who displays empathy, wants to learn these techniques, and can devote time. Quality of data and documentation is crucial, so an eye for detail will be very helpful. 

What do the researchers get?

In addition to a wonderful experience, all researchers can choose either a certificate of volunteering or a small honorarium, depending on their preference.

 

How do we sign up?

https://forms.gle/A3ofJV8SGCvHu8JA6

Fill up this form.

Training will start in early April 2024.

Friday, January 12, 2024

On Esha completing 19 years

 Why do you do Esha?

I don’t know. Why do we breathe? 

On 5th January, Esha (www.eshabraille.org) quietly completed 19 years and stepped into the 20th.

And that, led to a moment of introspection.

 

Of course, the first thing that comes to mind is how Esha has truly remained a volunteer-driven initiative. In this year, I hope that we are able to deepen ties with our existing volunteers. That has been a long-standing area of improvement.

The second is that the last few years of uncertainty might have been necessary, but they have put us back a little bit. So, we will have to work a little harder to make up for lost time.

The third is that now that there is clarity of purpose and a clear boundary around what we want to do, it should be a top priority to get things going. Being a primarily action-oriented person, this one comes easily to me.

AND, given that there is much to do, we will take a minute to list the work done so far, and then focus on the future.

We:

·       Were able to talk about Braille enabled visiting cards and create a service center in India. This service center, run by Venkatesh, services braille visiting cards all over the country.

·       Were able to create an online audio library in Indian languages which required no sign up and no subscription – in 2010.

·       Were able to create and help deliver a theater workshop that was conducted by a blind professional for sighted participants. It was a super hit!

·       Were able to create a structured student volunteering program, and then run it every year, from 2012 onwards. Later, such programs have become a lot more frequent.

·       Do some very interesting work in research in our sector.

It was good work, and we are grateful for being the medium through which it was done. 

 

So, if you are reading this post, do join us.

Esha currently has three clear verticals. You can help in any one.

A.    Knowledge Democracy – www.clabil.org /audio.php –

·       Content – Needed in Nepali.

·       Please help us take the library to more stakeholders.

·       We need help in publishing our content on archive.org – we started a channel but have not been able to upload enough content.

 

B.    Sensitisation – When I started the season of inclusion in December 2023, I thought it would be as simple as going to a public place and hosting a blind walk. It wasn’t. We realised that we now need organising support to conduct a Blind Walk. So, if you are looking for an employee or student volunteering opportunity for your own office/school/college, do consider a Blind Walk.

More details here: https://eshabraille.org/current-projects/ and here https://eshabraille.org/blind-walks/

 

C.   Research – Saving the best for the last. Data driven policy making needs data. One of the most important gaps we have is independent research. So, Esha’s third vertical is going to be research. So far, two out of our three research reports are in the public domain:

Career Choices:

https://eshabraille.org/3d-flip-book/career-choices-of-the-visually-disabled/

 

Attitudes towards specially-abled colleagues:

https://eshabraille.org/research-report-attitude-of-the-sighted-towards-specially-abled-colleagues/

 

This year, we are planning follow-up research – What is the workplace experience of both sighted and blind colleagues, in an inclusive workplace?

 

We are currently in the research design stage. Amit Jain, who is a Fellow from IIM Cal and now a professor at SPJIMR is mentoring the research. If you have inputs that can help, experiences to share, that will be very welcome.

Otherwise, you can do one of the following:

 

1.    Join the research. All responses are confidential and very important. Data gathering is likely to be from April – Aug 2024.

2.    Connect us to researchers. This is going to be a behavioral observation + conversation study and we are going to need good researchers.

 

Long ago, I used to send an annual update on Esha which was emailed to all Friends of Esha. That will, if all goes well, be resumed this year. Please do wish us luck as we start this journey, and, hop on!

 


Thursday, December 14, 2023

First Blind Walks

 And the first Blind Walks of the season will begin this weekend - Saturday in Delhi and Sunday 4 30 pm at the Leisure Valley park in Gurgaon. 


Be there! 


Meeting India's National and International Level para Judo Players

Junta Rehab Center for the Blind has been operational since 1996.  

It works in an important and overlooked area - rehabilitation of late blind individuals. 

Recently, the school has found amazing success in the world of para Judo. Players trained at their facility have won national and international medals. 

Today, we went to meet them and recorded some excellent videos with the players, their coach, and the Principal of the Institute. 

See them on our Youtube channel: 

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgkrKjjfJsEZ8bIRaH3YPtQ

The individual videos are: 

Narendra Sir: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNq0tz_pMxI

Pankaj Kumar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jV5flOBbUA

Jaisingh Sir: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UW87bDmjZWw

Deepak on how others can join Judo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGBrt5wwFoA

Ankit and Faiz talk about Judo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AR9L_qxKtpE

Jaidev on who all contributed to his journey: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdRURD2-fVs



Saturday, December 9, 2023

Online Audio Library updated today

Esha's online audio library - CLABIL, was updated today. 

This version has content from the Summer Project and a new partnership that we had with PWC this year. 


Esha Launches the Season of Inclusion

 Its the season of cheer. 

Let's also make it the Season of Inclusion 


Esha invites you to conduct a Blind Walk wherever you are! 

Help make this an inclusive world! 


More details here: 

https://eshabraille.org/current-projects/


The page and the program are running from Dec to Feb. 


Join us! 


Thursday, September 14, 2023

Attitudes of the Sighted Towards Specially Abled Colleagues

When we try to create an inclusive workplace, CEOs and HR Leaders have one doubt on top of their minds - 

"How will the rest of our colleagues respond to the initiative? Will they welcome the change? Will they think of it as tokenism? Will they make the changes needed to create true inclusion?" 

To help all stakeholders make unbiased decisions, Esha conducted a nationwide research to answer the question: 


What, really, is the attitude of the sighted towards their specially-abled colleagues? 


To ensure zero bias, the research questionnaire was circulated only through friends and family. To further enable honesty, it was made possible to answer completely anonymously. 


The research was a year in the making - we started in May 2022 and completed only by July 2023. The report writing took another month. 


There are many things that we learnt as part of this research, but for the decision-makers, stakeholders, and everyone involved in creating a more inclusive world, we have just two insights to share: 

1. Every interaction matters. Even people who have had a very brief encounter with a blind person earlier are more likely to believe that the blind can be financially independent. Not just that, they are also more likely to support the changes (longer transaction times, physical changes) if it means having specially abled colleagues. So, initiatives like Blind School visits, public space accessibility et al, are not just important for the blind. They are also important for the sighted. 

2. We usually assume that most colleagues would be hesitant to make the changes required. In fact, when thinking of our colleagues' attitudes towards changes, we "Start with No." 

The number of people who said they would be very glad to make the changes required is 93%!! 5% were neutral and had a wait-and-watch approach. That means that just 2% of corporate salaried professionals have a negative attitude towards changes required to make an inclusive office! Let that sink in - Only 2%! 

Our advice to all stakeholders in general and corporate employers in particular is simply this - Start with an assumption of Yes! The people are willing. 


The entire report can be read on the Esha website here: 

https://eshabraille.org/research-report-attitude-of-the-sighted-towards-specially-abled-colleagues/

Wednesday, September 13, 2023

Talk on Esha

Talking about Esha is our favourite thing to do. But listening to this chat made us realise that this conversation, these subjects - they are important.

Even if we live them every day, we need to talk about it.
Thank you, Sid Baliga, for taking the time to talk to us and helping us spread the word!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqBBP1gFMBA

This was such a pleasure, and reiterated, for us, and hopefully, for the listeners, why the work of Esha is small, but not insignificant.

Monday, July 31, 2023

Report on the Esha Summer Program 2023

The Esha Summer Project 2023 got off to a nice start with 55 registrations. Most of these registrations were through social media. 

As usual, the students were asked for their choice of project. 

Orientations were held for students who opted for project management, video making, and research. 

Eventually, three students were part of the research project. They did some analysis and helped us create tables and graphs that went into the report. 

Students dropped out at various points in the program. 

We observed the following: 

A. Students who opted for video making dropped out when they realised that they have to follow a process and create an educational video, not a social media video. They did try but were not able to make an explainer. 

B. Some students had travel that interfered with the summer program. 

C. All the students who opted for Project Management dropped out because of the quantum of work. One student was blacklisted. It is recommended that project management should not be given to students. This experiment has failed, yet again. 

D. Some students, who chose research, were not able to devote the time required to do the analysis. The learning for us is that high school students are not able to tabulate data or make basic graphs. That expectation should be corrected. Further, there is a real time crunch among high school students. 


About 25 students were selected for participation. 11 students completed the program, and only one of them got a Certificate of Commendation this year. 


Our objective at Esha every year is that the students should get sensitised to the needs of blindness. Am very happy to report that the only student who did Blind Walks this year, was very touched at the end of the program. The other students who participated in research or recording also wrote to us that they learnt something as part of the project. 


One difference this year was that English screenreaders are now relatively mature. So, we did not get English content recorded. Content was contributed and is being uploaded on the Esha website for free download. Like CLABIL this content is also academic or literary in nature. 


Lessons for the next year

1. We should be more friendly with the volunteers. 

2. We need to keep the parents more involved throughout the process. Sometimes, students forget to tell us about travel plans. parents do this better. 

3. Project management should not be given to students at any level - including college. 

4. We shoudl try to get more college students. 

5. This year, we could not convince children to do Blind Walks. Next time, we should try and get more blind walks done. 


Output 

Audio Files - 12 audio files in Hindi, Kannada, Tamil, and English (1 file on lakes of Bengaluru). 

Content - 12 question banks submitted in History, Physics, English, Chemistry, and Biology. 

Blind Walks - Two blind walks covering 12 people. 

Research - 3 students 


Partial work is not listed in this output. Work done but not found to be of suitable quality is also not listed.