One year after Tarini Mohan recovered from a coma in the aftermath of a devastating accident in Kampala, the capital of Uganda, she applied to the Yale School of Management (SOM) for her Master’s in Business Administration (MBA) in 2011. When she was in a position to travel, she came back to New Delhi which was her home.
After a rigorous admissions process, she was offered a seat. However, what she did not realise at the time of applying was that her rehabilitation, consisting of physiotherapy and cognitive recovery, would take far more time than she had thought she needed. So, she wrote to the Admissions office at Yale SOM to say that she wanted to decline the offer because, physically and mentally, she was in no position to do her MBA. The Office got back to her, saying that the offer would be kept open and that she could join the school whenever she was confident enough to complete the course.
Then, she moved to the US with family when her father got a job there. She was now working formally, and about four years later, prodded by her boss at the organisation, she decided to enrol for her two-year MBA at Yale in 2016. But realisation dawned on her that she would not be able to complete her course in the stipulated time frame as her injury had slowed her pace. When she went to the Admissions Officer to decline her admission offer, the officer’s reply turned out to be encouraging. He said that once the school admits students, it is the school’s responsibility to ensure that they have all the facilities they need to complete the course of study. “That was the biggest push ever. Once I had his assurance, I was relieved that Yale would support me,” said Tarini.
Organisational and Peer Support
In the classroom, Yale paid a student from the same class as Tarini to type their own notes once class was over, since laptops weren’t permitted in class. She also had a conversation with a doctor at the National Institute of Health (NIH) who advised her to review class notes soon after a class ends because the accident had also affected her short-term memory. The library, classroom and the entire campus were required to be accessible. The classrooms had stairs leading to the back, but she had access to the front row.
Apart from reading the notes right after classes, what helped her a lot were the group activities of the learning team that she was part of. They were supportive and adapted themselves to Tarini’s limitations. Since they had a lot of homework and group activities, the learning team would meet at least twice a week in the building where she lived.
Her field of study was non-profit management. Her desire to work in the development sector was the main reason why she shifted from Morgan Stanley, New York City to Uganda before enrolling at Yale. During the course of her studies, she did three internships at the Gates Foundation, Oxfam India and Harappa Education.
Yale has a peer tutoring system, where a student from one of the senior classes explained the class material to students needing assistance. Yale paid the peer tutors for their service. Tarini was initially reluctant to take this opportunity as she did not want to admit to needing help. But when she heard her classmates discussing their own peer tutors and who the best tutor was, she shed her inhibitions and sought a peer tutor. ”I have come to realise that comparisons are useless. Every person’s needs are unique. The peer tutors only added to my confidence,” she said.
Yale also provided Tarini with a medical coordinator who also guided her on aspects like which doctor she should see. She also enrolled in a small but very good rehabilitation centre called Gaylord.
Meanwhile, her parents had relocated from New Delhi to New Haven, US, and her brother, who had just graduated, took time off for a semester to be with the family to support his sister.
As her graduation date neared, the pandemic had reared its ugly head, and her graduation ceremony, like all graduation ceremonies, was postponed. Tarini told a friend that she was disheartened that she would not get to celebrate her graduation. But two of her close friends, Christine and Alex, organised a Zoom convocation ceremony where about 100 people from across the world attended.
Finally, after four years, Tarini did what was seemingly impossible: graduate with an MBA from the Yale School of Management in 2020.
It is not that educational institutions in India do not have these facilities. For example, the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, perhaps is one of the best business schools in India that is most sensitive to the needs of disabled students.
It has had an Office of Diversity and Inclusion (ODI) ever since 2010. Many of the IIMs and B-schools also have been proactive on this issue. But this approach and commitment needs to be broad-based and executed in all such institutions.
It is only when students with disabilities are given access to holistic higher education can they be truly brought into the mainstream of India Inc.
