Hubballi's visually challenged boy selected for exchange programme in the Netherlands

The Hindu

a day ago

Visually impaired student from Hubballi Suhas Dharwad, who is pursuing a Masters programme in Human Computer Interaction (HCI) at the University of Trento in Italy, has now become the first visually challenged student to get selected for an exchange programme at the University of Twente in the Netherlands.
Suhas has already completed two semesters in his postgraduate course and will now be pursuing the third semester at the University of Twente as he got selected under the Eramus+ programme, a European Union programme for education, training, youth and sport.
The only son of health insurance advisor Lingaraj Dharwad and homemaker Roopa, Suhas was like any other normal child until tragedy struck him in the form of Retinoblastoma at the age of one-and-a-half years taking away his eyesight.
Supported by his untiring parents, an undeterred Suhas had his primary education in Braille till Class VI at Bengaluru's Jyoti Seva School.
Subsequently, he studied at Giants School in Hubballi and passed his SSLC examination with 92% marks.
After II PU in Commerce, he completed his BCA (Bachelor of Computer Application) from Global College, Hubballi.
His passion for learning more in computer science took him to Italy where he got a seat for postgraduation in Human Computer Interaction (HCA) in the University of Trento which has waived his tuition fee.
However, proceeding to Italy became a bit cumbersome as his Visa application got rejected in 2024. Learning about it from reports in a section of the media, Union Minister Pralhad Joshi took up the matter with the External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar whose intervention ultimately resulted in Visa being issued to Suhas on fresh application.
It has been a year now. Having completed his first two semesters of the postgraduate course, Suhas is now all set to fly to the Netherlands for the exchange programme.
'I have had a very interesting and exciting experience studying and living in Italy. People are very helpful and have a different, more proactive attitude toward people with disabilities. People are quick to offer assistance. In fact, I've travelled to Bolzano, Riva Del Garda and Padua by myself as people have always been helpful,' Suhas, who is in Hubballi now for holidays, said.
Suhas tries to be as independent as he can. Every day, it took a 30-minute train ride from Trento to Rovereto and a 25-minute walk for Suhas to reach his university building.
He has learned to cook and uses assistive apps like Google Lookout, Seeing Assistant Go, Seeing AI, Envision AI and Gemini Live to read physical documents, identify products, navigate unfamiliar places and do much more.
Naturally Suhas is excited, while his parents are double excited over the opportunity that their son has got at the University of Twente.
'I am thrilled to start this new chapter. The courses I will be studying at the university include Multi Agent Systems, Basics of Impact, Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Speech Processing, Computer Ethics and Human-Robot Collaboration. Although not strictly HCI-related, they will help me explore my interests and that's the advantage under Erasmus+ programme,' Suhas said.
During his video conference with Suhas, Study advisor (Student Services and Well-Being) of the University of Twente E. Vink informed him that so far no visually impaired student has studied at the university.
But that does not seem to bother Suhas. 'My tutor at the University of Trento M.T. Ceccherini used to term me as adventurous and that has boosted my morale further,' Suhas told The Hindu.
The credits secured by Suhas in the first year have already got him scholarships for the second year too. And, after the completion of his masters, he plans to engage himself in research.