Nirmita Narasimhan

Senior Fellow and Program Director Asia-Pacific, G3ict

Dr. Nirmita Narasimhan has over a decade of experience working on issues of accessibility for persons with disabilities. She was a founding member of the Bangalore based not-for-profit research organization Centre for Internet and Society, where she built up the Accessibility and Inclusion program on digital accessibility, which gained significant recognition within India and internationally. Nirmita has considerable expertise in Policy making, Capacity building for multi-stakeholder groups and researching various aspects of digital inclusion for persons with disabilities. Nirmita has served on several Government committees, such as the committee to draft the National Policy on Universal Electronics accessibility and the committee to revise the Guidelines for Indian Government websites and has been involved in drafting of key ICT accessibility related policies both for the Government of India, as well as other country governments; she has provided inputs and submissions on key policy issues on ICT accessibility, education, employment, copyright, procurement, smart cities and telecom.

Nirmita has contributed to several key G3ict publications such as the report on Making Mobile phones accessible for persons with disabilities; and the reports on accessibility to financial services, disaster and emergency preparedness, Universal Service; web accessibility policy making and the e-accessibility handbook for policy makers. She participated in the negotiation process for the Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works For Persons who are Blind, Visually Impaired or otherwise Print Disabled, at the World Intellectual Property Organization. In her capacity as ITU consultant, she has prepared reports on making ICTs and mobile phones accessible for persons with disabilities in Nepal and Afghanistan and also prepared reports for UNESCO. Nirmita participates regularly as an expert speaker on accessibility in national and international events. She also performs and teaches classical music. She has been given several awards in recognition of her work such as the National Award from the President of India in 2010, the NIVH Excellence award in 2011, the NCPEDP-Emphasis Universal Design award in 2016 and has been selected to receive the prestigious NCPEDP-Mindtree Helen Keller award at New Delhi on 2nd December 2017.

Nirmita also serves on the board of CPR South and the Centre for Internet and Society.

Nirmita holds a Ph.D. degree in Karnatic classical music and a Bachelors degree in Law from Delhi University and a BA (hons) degree in German from Jawaharlal Nehru University.