Barrier free environment is about providing the Persons with Disabilities (PwD) with access to build environment in schools, colleges, academic and training institutions, offices and public buildings, roads and transport facilities, recreational areas etc.

“REACH, ENTER & USE are the three key words to encapsulate the rehabilitation technology. A PwD should traverse the destination safely and freely, enter and use the facilities within.

The PWD (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights, and Full Participations) Act, 1995 was enacted in India to give an effect to the “Proclamation on the Full Participation and Equality of the People with Disabilities in the Asian and Pacific Region. The Act mandated to lay down standards of accessibility in physical environment, different modes of transports, public buildings and areas which are to be observed mandatorily and a 5-year time limit was provided to make existing public buildings accessible. Even in 2022 the Act remains oblivious and barrier-free environment is still a dream for the PwD.

Even while addressing this disrepair situation of barrier-free environment in our country, Santhigiri College is proud to announce that the entire campus of Santhigiri College is 100% barrier-free. Even long before the enactment of the legislation in 1995, Santhigiri had already internalised the concept of barrier-free environment, accessibility and adapted environment and from the inception of Santhigiri Rehabilitation Institute in 1988 we constructed all our buildings barrier-free and created accessibility in the campus. Today, a student in wheelchair can reach, enter and use all the classrooms, offices, toilets, conference halls and the whole campus. Santhigiri College may be the single higher education institution in India with complete barrier-free environment.

It is worth mentioning that Santhigiri College was established with the prime motive to offer higher education to the Youth with Disabilities. Following our pristine vision and mission we admit all eligible applicants with disabilities for the programs of their choice with free hostel facilities and scholarships ensuring inclusive education. We have numerous sprightful alumni with disabilities with glittering success stories and laurels, placed even at the higher levels of the society.

Moreover, we have been implementing Community Based Rehabilitation (CBR) programs in the nearby 20 Panchayaths, recording the construction of 250 barrier-free houses for the PwD.

In concurrence with the ethos our institution our mission for the PwD is our distinctiveness and continue the same resolutely with deep joy and satisfaction.

We greatly appreciate the Sugamya Bharat Abhiyan scheme (2015) of the Government of India which aims to make India a friendlier country for differently-abled persons.

Let our motto resonate “we have a heart for the handicapped”