Differently-abled people categorically are all those people who if observed medically would have some or the other faculty of theirs not functioning normally and who need a little more care than a normal human being. These include the deaf, dumb, blind at a very high level but there are several others who have other variations in their bodily functions which make them potential candidates for additional care and comfort.

Almost everyone of us have seen and heard of families, neighbors, friends, far flung relatives, and total strangers on the street who have come to terms with some member of their own family who are differently-abled. How many of us in the general thought process have taken our own well functioning faculties for granted and have pitied those who do not possess all the skills we as normal human beings do? As a result of this thought process, we all tend to pity those who are not normal and we pity those who have to live with such people, but we would never have thought collectively to ensure that we get out and do something about making our overall society more accepting towards such people.

We have all heard tales of those times when fits and convulsions were considered signs of madness and we have known of such people being put to terrible treatments by their own families. Knowledge of such abnormal functioning of the human body has permeated the society slowly but steadily, yet India is not differently-able friendly nation at all.

We as individuals who have access to such information, we, who considered ourselves educated and intellectual intelligentsia have the knowledge which can help us make a difference in the lives of such people. If someone like Aamir Khan makes a movie about a dyslexic child, we wake up momentarily to take notice because the media hypes it up, but then we go back into our slumber of stupor and mechanical living only to be shaken up again when someone else does something of this kind for us to talk about them.

Given the changing demographies of the nation, where more and more rural folks are moving towards urban lifestyles, there are huge gaps which are yet to be filled regarding making such people aware of the sensitivities of the stressful urban life and on top of that, the additional sensitivities of the differently-abled people. This is possible only when each one of us does something on our part to spread awareness for the needs of such people amongst the people we live with, live around, in our apartment societies, our extended families, and our friends.

It is ironic that Indian laws are not strong enough to help the differently-abled people but more ironic is the fact that Indian population is semi literate and still grappling with the daily bread issue for them to be able to focus and be sensitive to such conditions/potential causes /symptoms of abnormal body and mind functions.

All of us have a responsibility as educated, normal healthy individuals to consider such aspects of people be it in our workplace, our neighborhood, or in the society in general and offer our assistance not to challenged people but to normal people to sensitize them with the special needs of the challenged people and promote equality and fairness of treatment.

Today our roads, our apartment complexes, our office spaces, our transportation systems, every aspect of our infrastructure is not geared to help such people live normally with the rest of us. This situation needs to change and people like us should move forward in helping bringing this change... designing software, designing hardware, designing any new system, doing any new activity or re-doing any old designs today need to be done keeping the differently-abled peoples' needs in mind, just like we are doing things keeping Global warming in mind...

There needs to be focused efforts on the same lines that a lot of us are trying to contribute to educating the uneducated through campaigns like Teach India.