At 21, Aravind J was a proud youth. He had landed a job as a Navy Sailor. Life looked promising for him until one day at a remote village in Vishakapattanam, he fell off his motorcycle. The accident injured his spinal cord and left him paralysed below the waist. It seemed all over for him. When everything came to a halt, he just took off. In the years to come, the Perinthalmanna native studied hard, cleared exams one after another and two weeks ago, he joined as the Assistant Professor at the School of Indian Legal Thought, under the Department of Law at Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam.

Aravind, who is now 41, champions the cause of disability justice, planning a road trip under the slogan “Inclusion through innovation” from Ladakh to Kanyakumari, in his improvised car. Aravind feels that the fight is more against the system than the disability.

By the time he completed his LLB, he had also cleared banking examinations and secured a job at a nationalised bank. Aravind joined the organisation with high hopes, but soon he would be overwhelmed by disappointments. There were infrastructural shortcomings, people were indifferent to his plight, and Aravind’s health worsened. Ultimately, he had to resort to deliberate dehydration to avoid having to use washrooms that were not suited to him, which added to his health complications.

 The last straw would be the organisation’s failure to make concessions for him when arranging his travel for training. “People who were from states that were closer to the training centre in North India had flights arranged for them, while I was forced to board a train,” he says, expressing his frustration at the negligence. He ended up in the hospital and in need of treatment due to the stress that his body endured. Finally, in exhaustion, when it was once again clear that he would have to choose between career advancement and his well-being, he chose the latter, he quit.

When he joined the NUALS for his LLM, he was suddenly surrounded by people who genuinely cared about making life easier for him. Unlike his prior experiences, people took note of the infrastructural deficits on campus and ensured that wheelchair ramps were installed at the required locations. In fact, it was this positive experience on campus that inspired him to pursue a career in teaching. "I recently received a call informing me that another disabled student is using the ramps that were installed for me," says Aravind, overjoyed by the impact his initial steps have had on others.

 However, Aravind is of the view that a social and cultural shift must precede legal changes for the latter to be fruitful. “There was this restaurant with a ramp that I frequented. One time I visited, someone had parked their car on the ramp, rendering it useless,” Aravind recalls.

 Aravind cites his personal experience as a testament to the impact of community on personal growth. His mother, Sheena, and brother, Ashwin, played a vital role in his recovery and the journey that followed. “When he was in class 10, he injured his hand and had to get nine stitches. But the next day he went for the CBSE district meet and came first in the 1500 meters race,” Sheena says. “That is the kind of dedication that pushes him every day,” she adds. 

During his days at the hospital in Mumbai following the accident, his path crossed several people who would shape him, like Dr Khaleel Issac Mathai. He not only guided him through his physical recovery but also lit the hope for the dreams he harbours today. “If you find a dream, you won't ever blame fate,” the doctor would tell Aravind.

 Aravind loves to drive, and thankfully, innovations by others like him helped him find a doorway to it. A simple redesign of the accelerator and brake enables him to drive around in his car. For Aravind, driving feels liberating. “For one, it allows me to reclaim my sense of independence,” he says.