Journey of Inclusion: Through the Voices of Families
Date & Time: Thursday, 20 August 2026, 5:00 PM (India Standard Time)
By bringing these voices together, the webinar seeks to deepen understanding of inclusion as a lifelong and shared responsibility, and to encourage families, institutions, and communities to work collectively towards creating environments in which every individual is valued, supported, and able to participate meaningfully in society.
Listening to the voices of families is essential to understanding inclusion as it is experienced in everyday life. Their perspectives reveal where systems succeed, where they fall short, and what needs to change to move from access and accommodation towards genuine belonging, participation, opportunity, and respect.
A key focus of the conversation will be the importance of collaboration. Meaningful inclusion requires families, educators, professionals, employers, policymakers, and communities to work as partners rather than in isolation. By sharing practical experiences of advocacy, support, transition, and partnership, the webinar will examine how stronger and more responsive ecosystems can be created around individuals and families.
The discussion will explore inclusion across the life course, beginning with early intervention and education and extending to adolescence, adulthood, employment, relationships, community participation, independent or supported living, and future planning. It will consider not only the barriers families encounter, but also the conditions that enable persons with special needs to participate meaningfully, exercise choice, build relationships, and lead lives of dignity and purpose.
This webinar highlights the central role families play in shaping more inclusive pathways. Through their lived experiences, the panelists will reflect on the challenges they have encountered, the progress they have witnessed, and the ways in which their own roles as advocates have evolved over time. Their journeys offer important insights into how inclusion has changed across generations and where significant gaps still remain.
Inclusion is not achieved through access alone. For persons with special needs and their families, it is a lifelong process shaped by opportunities, relationships, support systems, and the responsiveness of the institutions and communities around them. Families often navigate complex decisions related to education, therapy, social participation, employment, independence, and long-term planning, while simultaneously advocating for greater understanding, acceptance, and opportunity.
Families are often the first advocates, caregivers, and support systems for persons with special needs. Their experiences shape the journey of inclusion from early intervention and education to employment, independent living, relationships, and participation in the wider community. This webinar will bring together family advocates to reflect on these lived experiences and explore what meaningful inclusion looks like across different stages of life.
Speakers & Panelists
Neena Wagh
Founder, ALAP – Assisted Living for Autistic Persons, Founder, ALFOC – Assisted Living Facility Organisations Consortium
Neena Wagh is a parent, advocate, and changemaker who has been actively involved in autism advocacy for over two decades. As the mother of a 26-year-old son on the autism spectrum, her work has been shaped by lived experience and by the question, “What after us?”
Driven by the need to create sustainable support systems for autistic adults, she founded ALAP – Assisted Living for Autistic Persons, which focuses on supported living solutions for young adults on the autism spectrum. Recognising the need for greater structure, collaboration, and standards within the assisted living sector, she also founded ALFOC – Assisted Living Facility Organisations Consortium, bringing together organisations working in this space across India.
Neena is a regular speaker and writer on inclusion, disability rights, and the rights of persons with disabilities. Alongside her advocacy work, she is also a poet, playwright, and Hindi translator.
Pooja Sharma
Founder & CEO - The Sarvodya Collective
Pooja Sharma is the Founder and CEO of The Sarvodya Collective, an organisation working to build informed, enabling, and inclusive communities around persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities in India. Drawing on her lived experience as a sibling, she focuses on cultivating active allies across schools, workplaces, and communities, and on shifting attitudes from awareness towards deeper acceptance and meaningful inclusion.
Before founding The Sarvodya Collective, Pooja spent over a decade working in corporate strategy and portfolio management with organisations including Pearson plc and Central Square Foundation. She has also served as a trustee of The Bell Foundation, as a school governor, and in advisory roles with social impact organisations.
Her work is grounded in the belief that inclusion is shaped not only by policy, but through everyday choices that enable people to be seen, accepted, supported, and included as equal members of society.
Merry Barua
Founder-Director, Action For Autism, Director-National Centre for Autism
Merry Barua is an activist, special educator, parent advocate, and one of the pioneers of the autism movement in India. She began her work at a time when awareness, understanding, and support for autism were extremely limited, and has since played a significant role in advancing autism awareness, education, diagnostics, training, advocacy, and policy in the country.
As Director of Action For Autism, Merry has worked extensively with autistic individuals, families, educators, and professionals, helping to strengthen services and support systems while encouraging the growth of parent-led initiatives across India. She is also a writer, teacher, trainer, counsellor, and advocate, and is an Ashoka Fellow.
Her work reflects a longstanding commitment to building an inclusive society that challenges narrow definitions of “normal” and recognises the rights, strengths, individuality, and potential of autistic persons. She has received national and international recognition for her contribution to the field.
Raman Bhushan
Independent Data Science & Analytics Consultant, Parent Advocate and Primary Caregiver
Raman Bhushan is the primary caregiver to his daughter with cerebral palsy, and his lived experience as a parent has shaped his understanding of care, development, dignity, and quality of life. His primary focus has been on supporting his daughter’s development and creating the conditions that enable her to lead a meaningful and fulfilling life.
Professionally, Raman is an independent consultant with close to 30 years of experience in functional and business leadership roles across analytics and data science. He has extensive experience in designing and implementing data science solutions for leading global and Indian corporations, as well as government and social sector organisations.
Raman brings together his professional experience and personal journey as a caregiver.
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