DESI nation stays for diversity exchange for social inclusion.
And that is the new venture & vision of our Dialogue partners in India.
For Krishnan and Sudha, the journey that took them from light to dark, as they call it, began in 2010 in Atlanta when they visited Dialogue in the Dark.
A year later, they were already inaugurating their first DiD exhibition in India.
It took them 5 years and many failures to understand the Indian market and the unique nature of the dark business.
Just before the pandemic, DiD India, according to Krishnan, had the experience and skills needed to make the big leap. They were operating several centers in India when the pandemic hit.
Reopening after the peak of the pandemic did not help them. For some reason people seemed to think that the virus was hiding in the dark and not visiting us, Krishnan says. That was when the death of Dialogue in the Dark India was declared.
But even if you have lost everything, your job, your course and you don't know how to continue, everything comes back if you haven't lost your vision.
India is a complex society with many cultures where still many are excluded. The aim of our Dialogue partners in India has always been to promote social inclusion.
As shared before, they were back with a physical Dialogue in the Dark focused on job inclusion of persons with disability. But the DESI nation project targets the digital communication.
DESI nation was designed to achieve the vision through a different channel. It is a digital learning tool designed for Indian audience and targeted to those who want to include but don’t know how.
So far it consists of 40 3-4 minutes lesson on disability. Several topics are addressed such as inclusive language, accessibility and others. Each micro lesson is followed by a quiz.
The learning methodology of DESI nation follows DiD principles of being exciting and interesting. No boring presentations or lectures. Direct encounters with real persons with disabilities.
The aim, says Krishnan, is to make the micro lessons as consumable and meaningful as possible. For this, experts with disability participate on the content and e-learning experts work on the design.
So far, several big companies in India have included DESI nation as part of their learning or training platforms. And in the medium term, Krishnan said, the platform will not only expand its leaning content on disability, but also turn its attention to other diversity dimensions, such as the LGBTQ+ community.
Questioned if the new DESI nation project doesn’t feel like launching another startup after 12 years of Dialogue work, Krishnan answers certainly and full of energy: What they do now could not had been done without 12 years of DiD experience.
With vision you are never lost.
And Krishnan and Sudha own a great vision for an inclusive India, a DESI Nation. We accompany their journey with a lot of appreciation.
Visit DESI Nation here.