Chennai: J Santhosh, a 17-year-old student with a 90% spinal muscular disability and cerebral palsy since birth, was in tears last year when he was the only student from Class XII who couldn’t visit IIT Madras on a school trip. Fast forward to Aug 2026, he is in tears again, though for a different reason: he is the only one from his class to get a seat for IIT-M’s Bachelor of Science programme.Having cleared the qualifiers in his second attempt two weeks ago, Santhosh, the son of an auto driver, is set to start the four-year data science and applications course in the third week of Sept.“I wanted to enrol in a course that I could do from home. Engineering courses require in-person attendance and correspondence courses require a lot of money. I got to know about the course after an NGO called ‘TN Volunteers’ visited our school last year,” he told TOI.Noting that it was challenging to prepare for the qualifiers after failing it the first time, he thanked TN Volunteers for helping him. “I want to finish the degree and work in the IT sector,” he said.The ‘IIT-M for All’ initiative enables BS students to take lessons online, but exams and quizzes will need to be taken in person. Weekly assessments, semester exams, daily practice sessions and projects allow students to earn credits.“TN Volunteers will assist Santhosh with in-person training in the initial stages, also teaching him about AI. We will bear the first year tuition expenses,” said Hari Krishnan, founder of the NGO, who also heads social impact and outreach initiatives for the BS programme.Prof Andrew Thangaraj, chair, centre for outreach and digital education, said, “The course focuses on full stack development, data science and analytics. These are relevant in all major industries today. Several students with disabilities have taken this course and secured jobs in top firms.”
