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Stories of Change

Persons With Disabilities

We Can Fly!

 
 
 
 
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ANTARCTICA BECOMES DISABLED-FRIENDLY

Sai Prasad Vishwanathan undertakes the journey of a lifetime

Child Sexual Abuse

Sai Prasad Viswanathan’s qualifications would leave many open-mouthed in wonder. He is a gold medalist from Chaitanya Bharathi Institute of Technology, an M.S. in Computer Science from the University of Wisconsin, and has a business degree from Indian School of Business, Hyderabad. And there is much, much more. Take a look at what all he has done just in the last one year here, in his own words.

“After watching me speak on the show, Sir Robert Swan, the first person to walk to the North and South poles, invited me to join the Antarctic Youth Ambassador Program. In March 2013, I travelled there, the first Asian with a disability to do so. The landscape was made infra-structurally accessible especially for my 15-day stay there. (See Sai Prasad on the Antarctic Sea here)

I have reached out to 20,000+ students in Andhra Pradesh, and worked with over 15 corporates, 20 schools and 50 colleges, to help them understand how they can make their infrastructure more accessible.

My venture, Sahasra (For more on this, click here), that provides scholarships to meritorious and financially backward students, has become a Harvard University case study on how adventure sports can help raise awareness about access for persons with disabilities. Through Sahasra, I was able to reach out to at least 20,000+ young engineers.

In February 2013, I was invited to speak at TedXTirupati on how employment can be generated for persons with disabilities.(Watch here) I strongly believe that we have abilities that can actually be an advantage in some jobs. The real challenge, in fact, lies in our country's infrastructural disability, which denies everyone access to education and employment.

Finally, Deloitte, the company where I work as a risk consultant, named me a Deloitte Changemaker. This helped take my work and ideas to over 200,000 employees”.(To read more about this, click here)

Sai Prasad Viswanathan

Besides being a risk consultant with Deloitte U.S. in India, Sai Prasad Vishwanathan is also an adventure enthusiast. In 2008, while in the U.S., he became the first Indian with a disability to skydive from 14,000 feet, which fetched him a mention in the Limca Book of Records. In 2009, he went scuba diving and in 2012, he was out exploring the Grand Canyon in a helicopter. The same year, he consulted the Wadwani Foundation and the Home Ministry to create a business model that could promote employment for persons with disabilities. He also co-founded Sahasra, which provides scholarships to meritorious and financially disadvantaged students so they can pursue higher education.

 
 

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