Making nature education accessible to children with disabilities

Now in its 15th year, Wipro earthian is one of the largest sustainability and environment education initiatives in India. The program has been witnessing regular participation from all types of schools, from all corners of the country. To make the program more inclusive, over the last few years, our endeavour has been to encourage greater participation of children with disabilities. About a year ago, our partner organization, Vision Empower (VE), began engaging deeply with the activities in the earthian program’s module on water. They began by looking closely at the content and finding ways to make elements like diagrams, maps and other visuals in the module easily accessible to children with visual impairment.

Over the course of the last few months, supported by facilitators from VE, children across schools for the visually impaired in seven (7) states engaged in a variety of activities. These have ranged from making and exploring a tactile map of their school campus, interviewing school staff like cooks and gardeners, developing an understanding of water consumption, and using a water testing kit for the very first time!

Being hands-on and engaging, the sessions have been fun and enjoyable for the children. These have become something they actively look forward to. Teachers share how children seem a little more confident in social situations evidenced by the conversations they are having with their families, friends and neighbours. The sessions have led to increased awareness among the children. These have also inspired them to take small (and big) steps like getting a leaky tap fixed, and speaking to their farming families about drip irrigation!

Through this initiative and similar other partnerships, we hope to make nature education accessible to many more children with disabilities in the country.