Currently, I am studying for a part-time Master's Degree in Women's Studies at the Institute of Education in London. I live in London for six months in the year and in Mumbai for the other six. I use a wheelchair because I have cerebral palsy and a voice synthesiser (a communication tool) if people fail to understand what I am saying. I access the computer using two fingers of my left hand.

When I'm in London, I'm a free bird whizzing about the university area where I live, in my electricwheelchair. I go off to classes, pubs, the library, to shops and to meet my friends and consult my tutors.

Returning to Mumbai, I am trapped inside my own home. I feel as though I have little control over my life as I can hardly go out, and if I do I must have somebody with me. This is because roads and pavements are unfriendly to the disabled. Wheelchairs cannot be manouevered where the tiling and cement have spilled out on to the surface or where there are large holes.

Public buildings are also difficult to access. I love to shop but I can't go pottering about alone in Mumbai because there is usually not enough room for me to weave my wheelchair around, and there are no aisles like there are in London, where I buy everything I need.

I enjoying browsing in bookshops. For me books are wonderful because they open up whole new worlds of thought. Reading helps me come up with ideas for the papers, articles, and essays I write. I'm deeply interested in feminism, and one of my favourite authors is Simone deBeauvoir.

I have just finished writing about Gandhi as a patriarch in his home. He might have encouraged women to come forward out of their homes and from behind purdah to fight for India's freedom, but he wanted his wife to be the `typical Indian woman.'

In London, I haunt libraries and bookshops, reading all that interests me. Here, I cannot, because I have problems with my wheelchair. Cinemas, pubs and museums are not easy to access either.

In Mumbai, I attended St Xavier's College where I studied for a Bachelor of Arts degree. I had a wonderful time with all my friends, but I did have accessiblity problems. The library and classes were all upstairs and there was no lift. I had to struggle up the stairs and I used to get tired. I was also demotivated from using the library because it was so difficult to get there. I depended on my many friends to issue books for me, and I spent my free hours having a good time in the canteen.

A couple of days ago, I visited Westside with my family to replenish mywardrobe, but the shop had no ramp and it was tedious getting inside. However, once I was inside I used the stairs the attendants were very friendly and helpful.

It's not all that difficult to make public buildings user-friendly for people in wheelchairs all we need is a ramp. Ramps should be incorporated into the designs of all buildings that are constructed for public use. They can be added to those which are already in existence. I explained the importance of ramps to the people at Westside who had never thought of it before.

I read in a book by Susan Wendell that ``any society despises an adult who needs help to eat, wash, and use the toilet.'' It is important for me to be able to use the toilet on my own in a public place. Once again, the solution isn't shrouded in some dark, exotic mystery -- all that is necessary is a bar along the wall with which I can support myself.Accessibility to any place in this city can empower me to be where I want to be, when I want to be. Policy-makers need to bemore aware that simple changes could make sweeping differences to our lives and the attitudes of people towards us. When I go out, people stare. Many of them don't know how to react. Though I feel people are more aware now, I believe if people like me can go wherever we want, and other `normal' people can see us independent, making choices, in museums and libraries, at public meetings, confident, zipping about doing our own thing, just as they do it would go a long way towards acceptance. It would also make them more positive about us and `positive' is vital if we are to be included in the mainstream.

-- Joeyta Bose