When designed with lived experience at its heart, AI tools like conversational screen readers, adaptive dashboards, and real-time captioning don’t just remove barriers; they expand possibility. They transform access into agency and the freedom to learn, lead and contribute fully.

Avoiding a ‘shinier version of the same old bias’

Surashree Rahane was born with several physical disabilities, including club foot and polymelia, a condition in which affected individuals are born with extra limbs. Growing up in a family where disability was part of daily life, she never saw it as limitation, but just another way of navigating the world.

“My mentors always said,don’t just seek jobs, create them,” she shares. “That’s how I learned that leadership itself is inclusion.”

Ms. Rahane is now the founder and CEO of Yearbook Canvas, a technology platform that specialises in digital yearbooks for academic institutions. As she built her company, she saw how structural barriers, such as inaccessible infrastructure, biased funding networks and rigid education systems, persist.

To address these challenges, she is currently working with Newton School of Technology near New Delhi, focusing on inclusive academic design and AI-based learning tools that adapt to each student’s pace. “AI can democratise access to education,” she says, “but only if we teach it to understand diverse learners. Otherwise, we risk building a shinier version of the same old bias.”

‘The great equaliser’

From voice-to-speech tools for people with speech impairments to gesture-based wheelchair controls, technology is now breaking barriers once seen as permanent.

Prateek Madhav, CEO of AssisTech Foundation (ATF), describes AI as “the great equaliser.” “While the world worries about AI taking jobs,” he says, “for people with disabilities, AI is creating them.”

Ketan Kothari, a consultant at Xavier’s Resource Centre for the Visually Challenged in Mumbai, demonstrates how AI tools have made him fully independent at work. “Today I can format a document, access meetings with live captions, and even generate visual descriptions through apps,” he explains. “AI has turned imagination into function.”

Purple Fest predominately features Indian entrepreneurs and business leaders but, as Tshering Dema from the UN Development Coordination Office reflects, “this is not a single-country story – it’s a global transition. Inclusion isn’t only about laws or infrastructure; it’s about mindset and shared design. The future of work must be built not just for people, but with them.”