Ankur Kankonkar

Ankur Kankonkar was born on 19th June 1989 in Canacona. The only child of Mr. Shahu Kankonkar and Mrs. Pramila Kankonkar, Ankur was born completely normal and was a very bright kid when at school. He did his schooling at Katyayani Baneshwar Vidyalaya in Canacona. He passed his SSC in the year 2004 and then moved to Fatorda to pursue his Higher Secondary Education (Class 11 and 12) in the Science stream at Chowgule College in Gogol. He passed his Class 12 board exams in the year 2007 and then took up B.Pharma at PES College of Pharmacy in Farmagudi. During his first year in college, his vision started deteriorating, but it still did not affect his daily life significantly.

However, in his second year, his vision started getting worse. He could not see things and identify things clearly. Due to this, he was unable to cope with his studies at college. Eventually, he dropped out of college in 2009.

After a series of medical examinations by doctors, he was diagnosed with a very rare eyesight condition called retinitis pigmentosa. This is a genetic disorder of the eyes that causes loss of vision. Symptoms include trouble seeing at night and decreasing peripheral vision (side and upper or lower visual field). The onset of symptoms is generally gradual and often begins in childhood. There is currently no cure for retinitis pigmentosa.

Having dropped out of college, he went into depression. He couldn't digest the fact that a bright and energetic youngster with a lot of dreams and aspirations is sitting at home. He kept asking himself as to what wrong did he do to deserve this. However, during those difficult moments of his life, he received a lot of support from his parents, his childhood friends, his cousins and other family members.

During this period, Ankur came across a software called JAWS, which stands for Job Access with Speech. JAWS is a computer screen reader program for Microsoft Windows that allows blind or visually impaired users to read the screen either with a textto-speech output or by a refreshable braille display. JAWS enabled Ankur to once again use the computer and the internet despite being visually impaired.

While browsing the net, he came across the story of Kartik Sawhney, a Delhi based visually impaired student who became the first 100% visually impaired student to pass the CBSE Class 12 board exam in the Science stream. After his class 12 exams, he wanted to join IIT but did not get admission because of his blindness. So he went to the USA, got admission in Stanford University and completed his Masters in Computer Science from there. He now works as a software engineer at Microsoft. Kartik's story led to Ankur thinking that, “if Kartik can achieve so much despite being 100% visually impaired, then why can’t I? Kartik's story served as a spark of inspiration that drove Ankur to start exploring as to what course he could take up to study further.

After a lot of research and thinking, Ankur decided to pursue a B.Sc. in Computer Science. However, to pursue this course, he needed to have maths as one of his subjects in Class 11 and 12. He did not take up Maths as one of his subjects during his higher secondary days at Chowgule college. After a couple of trips and discussions with the Goa Board of Education, he was permitted to answer the class 12 Mathematics paper and Computer Science paper. The next challenge was to find good tutors who would coach Ankur for these two papers. They approached many tutors and finally found two who were willing to teach Ankur and prepare him for these two subjects.

He answered both the papers with the help of a writer and cleared both successfully. Armed with all the prerequisites needed to apply for a B.Sc. in Computer Science, he approached Chowgule College for admission. The college was a bit hesitant to admit him because they were a bit apprehensive whether a visually impaired person would be able to cope with the studies, especially since it involves Maths and other complicated computer related formulas and algorithms. They asked him to approach Goa University who told him that the decision to admit him rests with the college. After a few trips running back and forth between the college and the university, Ankur was finally granted admission in Chowgule College in 2014. Going back to college after a gap of more than 6 years, Ankur had to share the classroom with students who were six years younger than him in age. However, despite the huge age gap as well as the fact that he was visually

impaired, he was treated very nicely by all his college mates. Being an extrovert, he made many friends during his first week in college. Also, all his teachers were very supportive of him. They were amazed by his confidence and willpower to study computer science and were very eager to help him out with anything that he needed. His first year of college went by quite well. He used to manage his studies as well as his social life with friends very well. He used to understand whatever was taught in class and did not face any major difficulties with studies despite being visually impaired. He answered all his papers with the help of a writer, except his computer science paper, which he answered on his own by typing the answers to the questions on a computer. It was his computer science teacher who insisted that he answer this paper on his own, as it would help him to become more independent and gain more confidence as well.

He cleared all of his first five semesters with very good marks. In his 3rd year, he majored in Computer Science. He scored 94.5 % in his final exams and successfully graduated in 2017. He was the topper of the entire Goa University across all B.Sc. streams. For his incredible achievement, he got a lot of press coverage and was felicitated by various organisations. He was also felicitated in the Goa Vidhan Sabha by the then CM Mr. Manohar Parrikar. After graduation, he pursued a two year Masters in Information Technology programme at Chowgule college and successfully completed the programme in 2019. Fresh out of college, he along with two of his friends started a company called Kapslock. It is a company that provides software development and social media marketing and branding services. The company got its operating licence in August and the company commenced operations on 15th August 2019. The firm has developed eCommerce websites, custom software for companies for internal use, websites for finance companies, tourism companies, healthcare companies and investment firms. Ankur liaises with his clients via video conferencing apps like G-Meet and Zoom. Ankur says that a lot of awareness needs to be generated on a very large scale to improve the lives of persons with disabilities in Goa. There are a lot of misconceptions that people have regarding persons with disabilities. For example, "many people ask me how do I run my firm? How do you type on the keyboard when you cannot see?"

The attitude that society has towards people with disabilities needs to change and for that awareness is very important”, says Ankur.

Secondly, the government should work to make public buildings more accessible to persons with disabilities by providing ramps, markers etc. Also, educational institutions must be more open to accepting persons with disabilities. “Society should be more empathetic to persons with disabilities”, he says.

Also, there needs to be the promotion of technology for persons with disabilities."What technology has done for me, no person could have done for me. Technology has made my life easier. It is a big boon for me and for all people with disabilities. Without technology, life would be very difficult for me" says Ankur.