Urvi turned blind post birth due to medical lapses and doctor’s negligence. Her visual disability came as a shock to her parents, but not once did they lose hope. Instead, they did their best to raise Urvi as a normal child. Urvi believes that she has been fortunate enough to experience life in her own unique way. For instance, she was scared of water as a child and to let go of the fear, her father used to take her to the beach often. With the touch of the sand, and the sound of the sea waves, eventually she was introduced to the touch of water firsthand.
Urvi’s parents wanted her to have a normal childhood so they enrolled her in a regular school. She solely relied on her auditory senses in classes, so Urvi’s mother used to help her out in terms of collating study materials, notes and books so that she could study on her own.
Urvi refused to learn Braille as she didn’t want to be treated unequally or singled out as a child with visual impairment. She owes every experience she has had to her parents - be it the love birds she received for her second birthday or a box of Lego. They ensured that she was treated on par with sighted individuals in all her experiences and she believes that has helped her in shaping who she has become today.
Initially, Urvi had turned to explore the German language purely as an experiment, only to fall head over heels for it! Urvi has also penned down several books in German (fiction, non-fiction, case studies). She wanted to pursue creative writing which she fulfilled by writing a fairytale book in German, published in 2022.
On being asked upon her experience studying abroad in Germany and India, she pointed out that one of the best things she loved about Germany was that people did not exhibit sympathy or pity. When it came to grades, there were no concessions, it was all about proving her mettle! She recalls giving one of her exams in a completely auditory format in Germany. On the contrary in India, she always had to have a scribe writer in place, one who was academically lower than her. The logic behind this was that the person shouldn’t help you. It turned out that this hinders more than it actually helps. In fact, Urvi’s German scores plummeted as the writer did not bother to write half the things she mentioned and didn’t write down the answers correctly.
While there have been challenges, Urvi believes she has been fortunate to have met really good mentors, teachers and companions along the way. The path was rocky to where she has reached today, but Urvi managed to overcome the hurdles that came her way. Back in the day, there was no accessibility and no screen readers. Since the German language option was out of the question in India she had to process audio recordings, and edit digitalised materials (worksheets, books). It used to take Urvi six to nine hours to digitalise and read one book and then process its content. Her passion and perseverance for the language is what kept her going and securing a PhD at it!
Urvi wanted to do her bit and give it back to the society. In 2020, she initiated a training institute for the blind and visually impaired students from underprivileged backgrounds named Aesthesis Foundation for Visually Impaired. The aim was to make them financially independent, enhance their skills and build a career for themselves. Here, the focus lay on the optimal utilisation of four senses, mobility training along with other fundamental training like language, computer, personality development and courses like perfumery which focused on the gustatory sense.
Urvi Jangam is proof that disability isn’t a constraint. It all comes down to one’s capabilities!