About Us
Accessibility allows us to tap into everybody’s potential… Debra Ruh
Vardaan4u creates an environment to accept differences and enable systemic change for persons with disabilities by crafting an inclusive society.
Vardaan4u was founded to establish, promote, set-up, run, maintain, assist, support, and aid in setting up and maintaining and running schools and other institutions, orphanages, widow homes, lunatic asylums, poor houses, or other establishments for relief and help to the poor, old and infirm people and destitute for the welfare of society and well-being of the community who need help and support in their living. To set up or helping by endowment orphanages or poor houses for the benefits of orphans and poor persons and awarding of scholarships and cash payments to poor persons and widows desirous of receiving a primary, secondary and higher education.
The Problem
- PwDs and their families are looking for help in:
- A stable financial setup for themselves where the PwD can be treated, educated and helped out in picking a career path to stand on their feet independently in every sense
- To consult for various issues, personal and professional so that a confident human being emerges out of the problems faced
- As a part of the inclusive society, organizations can approach us to get their organizations become inclusive… be it education institution, start-ups, corporate body, MSME, family-owned business, etc.
- Businesses become aware of the penalties levied by the Government for not having an accessible organization by Jan. 2023
- As an innovative industry, organizations can provide solutions to become inclusive. We can look at collaboration for these solutions.
- 15% of the world population, including geriatrics, is disabled in some way or the other and as people grow old, the percentage of disability increases. We need to service these potential paying customers with what we can offer as the business potential is huge: A billion people worldwide at last count and growing.
- An integrated solution for PwDs or geriatrics is not available. We have silos of healthcare, employment agencies, aids and appliances, professional counselling, education, accessibility, inclusivity, etc. through different NGOs.
- As we move towards diversity, we look at gender – women, men, transgenders, LQBTQI – eventually at all the vulnerable sections of society.
Vardaan Initiatives
We help the diverse marginalized population of Persons with disabilities, Women, and School/College Dropouts to have a dignified life by giving them an accessible environment to stand on their feet through inclusion at all levels
Vardaan4u works towards accessibility and inclusion to add productive people to the economy of the country through community empowerment with a cross-section of Persons with disabilities, Women, and Dropouts as a part of the mainstream workforce.
Work in the Disability Arena
Schools/Colleges/Universities to be made accessible physically and digitally as well as make the curriculum accessible, made inroads by sending suggestions to the Government of India on the new education policy in 2019-20.
Nissan Renault for an accessible car, connecting with other automotive makers as well.
Hospitals and Nursing schools and staff for accessibility and services to PwDs
Eateries, Hotels, tours to be made accessible
Financial Industry – Setting up a note for GoI on the same
Govt. of India considering inclusion of PwDs in the MSME sector based on a note that was drafted and sent in 2019 on request from the Government.
Coordinate with a number of NGOs working in the disability sector across the country within and outside the boundaries of the organizations we serve.
Our Plans
A. Short term – next 12 months
We will have Awareness of Accessibility & Inclusion and a drive for Accessible India (Sugamya Bharat) campaign Nationwid
eBooklet / Brochure downloadable from the website
Webinars and Seminars
Vocational Training for dropouts and PwDs
and a few (estimated 20) Accessibility Audits of physical spaces as well as digital ones are to be undertaken as also review of digital content at Vardaan4u for small set ups. A lot of our time and effort will go into spreading awareness, connecting with organizations and to set up collaborations. As collaborations grow, tweaks in the plans will also occur.
B. Accessibility and inclusion (next 3 years, medium term)
Accessibility Audits of (estimated 9000 in a span of 36 months) physical spaces as well as digital ones are to be undertaken as well as review of digital content will be undertaken at Vardaan4u for organizations and institutions.
- eBooklet / Brochure downloadable from the website
- Webinars and Seminars for awareness of audit process
- Built environment audits
- Digital environment audits
- Digital Content reviews
- Follow up with organizations to make them accessible
There needs to be policy for accessibility and inclusion across the board for all establishments, public or private, and for all homes to be defined. Beginning with Accessibility and inclusion, the next step we will be looking at is Diversity in the long term.
C. Diversity and Inclusion (next 5 years)
Accessibility Audits of (estimated 30000 in a span of 60 months). Not just disability, we will look at the entire diversity spectrum: Disability / Women / Gender / LGBTQI, as such the Vulnerable sections of society.
D. Physical Centers
We intend to expand our scope to physical centres, the Sone Ki Chidiya Ko Jagao centers, as well within the coming 6 months’ time for the care of persons with disabilities and elderly and the next set of users, CHILDREN. These centres will have residential facility, day care as well as a fully equipped healthcare centre to treat them – doctors, therapists and vocational centers if space allows. Technology based communication hub to contend for emergencies and a digital library for research work to progress in the sector esp. for wearable and non-wearable devices will be a part of the centres. These centres will be built to be accessible from day one. There will be a central innovation and R&D centre set up to give a boost to research in the disability sector.
As said earlier, there is no integrated effort to see the big picture and address the required needs. One needs to look at the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) too for compliance to the accessibility and inclusion norms.
We look to employ and train the marginalized population for audits, inclusion and create inclusive content that can be used for training others. As to the Diversity end, we look to www.BringleAcademy.com as a technology partner for Education, Employment and Entrepreneurship needs at Vardaan4u. For any Health and Wellness requirements, we look to our other partner www.Ablekart.org to fulfil the requirements.