A popular reality show featuring startup pitches recently invited a noted visually-impaired entrepreneur as an investor. Most sighted people I know consider him to be an inspiration. As an aside, relatives and random strangers have compared interacting with me to meeting him in real life! 

One of the ideas being pitched was a startup creating, and distributing audio description to make movies accessible. Audio description refers to a separate audio track explaining visual elements on screen. For movies, it is written, and synced in a way that it doesn’t interrupt any dialogue, and only reveals plot points when they happen on screen. You can check out this adorable movie trailer for a demonstration. The technology has been around for many years worldwide, and in fact, all US-produced content today is legally mandated to have an audio description track.

Here’s how the startup does audio descriptions: It uses a mobile app to listen for a movie or a show’s sound, and precisely syncs a pre-recorded audio description track to it. This enables the user to seamlessly enjoy the movie — whether they are at a theatre or in the comfort of their own home. During the show while pitching their idea, the two co-founders were taking the panel through the technology and the AI-enabled process to create these audio description tracks.

When the discussion came to stakes and valuations for the startup, the investors pounced like, well, sharks. They questioned everything about the business – as they should. However, when it was the turn of the visually impaired investor, he questioned the very need for audio description. He asked, “Why do you think production houses will invest in this? Where is the demand?” 

The co-founders talked about the recent guidelines around audio description for content in India and how these guidelines meant that the Censor Board can step in to ensure that they are followed. But the visually-impaired investor had a counter argument, of sorts. 

“I wanted to mention this earlier but I don’t need audio descriptions for things. With sound, I can estimate the height at which someone’s voice is coming and figure out how tall they are. Anyway, I’m an exceptional case.” In true reality show fashion, this declaration was accompanied by dramatic music, and visual flashes. 

As for the startup’s fate? They couldn’t get any investments. 

My introduction to audio descriptions for the visually impaired occurred through American streaming platforms around ten years ago. Honestly, until I heard about this startup, I never expected to experience it in Indian theatres. It is due to this startup, and the activists and lawyers relentlessly fighting for this accommodation, that I can enjoy audio descriptions for many popular Indian films – which is no small feat!  

As a visually impaired person, while it is possible to gauge someone’s height when you meet them in person, audio description for movies and TV shows gives you so much more detail. From the background and architecture to the actor’s outfits, gestures and facial expressions, you get a sense of what you are experiencing. To publicly question its need may provide the bureaucrats at production houses more ammunition to cut the cost for the accommodation of an audio description which would undermine the community’s work in this regard. 

This incident points to a broader trend I’ve noticed. Many successful visually impaired people disassociate from their identity as people with disabilities (PWDs). In pursuit of success in the sighted world, they sometimes distance themselves from the tools and techniques that enable independence. In fact, they are as much victim to biases about PWDs as most sighted people. Joshua Miele, an American research scientist specialising in accessible technology design, articulates this sentiment well in his memoir, “Connecting Dots: A Blind Life.” Writing about his experience of being at a summer camp for visually impaired youth, and meeting other children,

“They irritated me a great deal. I was aware enough to think that they seemed like stereotypes of blind people, fumbling characters who represented an ethos of helplessness in which you have no choice but to ask sighted people to help you through life, to guide you, to prevent you from walking through a screen door or falling off a cliff. But what was personally worrisome to me was that the world seemed to think this was my peer group, my tribe. Even my parents did — after all, they sent me to camp with them. So I had to differentiate myself from them, and fast, because I didn’t want to be thought of that way. I already sensed that they were enforcing a perception I was going to have to battle to overcome. And so I held myself apart."

I should admit that I’ve also had this perspective at times – since I don’t even want my identity to be defined by my disability. However, some members of the community take it a step further. They actively communicate that they don’t need tools for accommodation or accessibility, like audio descriptions described above. I believe this may be because they want to make it easier for the sighted world to accept them. By showing the world that they are disabled only by name and that they can be accommodated with minimal effort, they believe they stand out.

Understanding the models of disability and the ways they influence the sighted world’s perceptions could help explain these behaviours. As I have written previously, there are three models of disability – medical, charitable, and social.

The charitable model of disability states that people with disabilities deserve the world’s charity. This manifests among the sighted either as sympathy or as inspiration. Both because we are perceived to have a deficiency. Sympathy is fairly obvious. I see it especially most in religious settings. In fact, I even remember being referred to as “one of God’s special children” once! 

Inspiration, on the other hand, happens because society barely has any conception of how we live our lives. So, something as routine as doing laundry or walking down the street becomes inspirational. Do I want to be an inspiration for just living my life? I’m not sure about other visually impaired folks, but I certainly don’t.

My perspective around the visually impaired community was influenced by Josh Miele. In his book, Miele describes how he developed a sense of belonging as he began meeting students and activists with disabilities in UC Berkeley in the USA. He found people he could relate to, learn from, and of course, he found them really cool. I’m privileged to have developed my own group of visually impaired friends and mentors. We say and do so much together – and we have a blast. While I consider myself very much a part of the sighted world, this has become a community I cherish and rely on.

There are folks who leverage the charitable model to gain notoriety, and I think I understand why. After all, most of the world is inherently inaccessible and we have every right to play all the cards we are dealt with. However, I’ve learnt that there are those in our community who can’t climb on to the platform we advocate from. And it is crucial to be mindful about their interests as well. Questioning the need for tools, techniques, and systems already in place by one of our own contributes to false narratives and harms our collective interests. Advocating for accessibility and championing the social model could potentially help the community as a whole. 

And who knows, it could inspire the next visually impaired entrepreneur to not only pursue their dreams – but also show them how.