IIT KGP to offer course on disability accessible design

Civil engineering students at Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur (IIT-KGP) will soon have the opportunity to study accessible building design, thanks to a new partnership between the Centre’s disability affairs department and the institute. 

This course - currently an elective - will be available to students in the sixth and seventh semesters starting from the 2024-25 academic session. 

Two professors from the institute’s Department of Architecture and Regional Planning, Subrata Chattopadhyay and Haimenti Banerjee, are reportedly working on developing the Accessible Built Environment course, along with the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (DEPwD). 

The course will cover such topics as smart and inclusive habitats, accessibility and infrastructure-driven liveability, and inclusive urban planning. 

The Centre subsequently plans to introduce the course in 27 other institutes, including other IITs. 

Presently, the course will carry 30 credits, and it aims to integrate accessibility into education early so that future engineers can incorporate it into their building designs. 

Accessible infrastructure - the need of the hour - still remains a distant dream in India despite the Rights for Persons with Disabilities Act of 2016 (RPwD Act) mandating all existing public buildings become accessible within five years of the passing of the act. 

Over the next three years, the course will be an elective at IIT-Kharagpur and will likely become a mandatory subject thereafter. 

Rajesh Aggarwal, Disability Affairs Secretary, emphasised the importance of this initiative, stating, “The objective is to integrate accessibility into education early so that students incorporate it into building design.”

Previously, IIT-Kharagpur collaborated with the National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA) on the Building Accessible Safe and Inclusive Indian Cities (BASIIC) initiative. 

In addition to IIT-Kharagpur, the disability affairs department is in discussions with the Council of Architecture to include this subject in their curriculum as well. 

A senior official from IIT-Kharagpur highlighted the need for this course, saying, “Constructing accessible buildings needs experts and it is important that our future infrastructure builders have professional training about the same.”

This initiative is part of the government’s Accessible India 2.0 campaign, which aims to achieve universal accessibility for persons with disabilities (PwDs). 

The Accessible India campaign focuses on making buildings and transport systems across the country accessible for people with disabilities. 

Under this campaign, access audits were conducted on 1,671 buildings across 48 cities, and retrofitting work has been sanctioned for 1,314 buildings, with 623 buildings already retrofitted in 20 states.

The norms for retrofitting, as specified in section 44 of the Persons with Disabilities Act, include creating ramps in public buildings, modifying toilets for wheelchair users, and installing Braille symbols in elevators.