Akhil has played a pivotal role in making deafblind people a known entity in India. Equipped
with degrees in Science, Law, Social Work and Diploma in Multiple Disabilities from Perkins
School for the Blind (USA), from 1989, Akhil worked with National Association for the Blind
(India) for 7 years in reaching out to rural blind through Community Based Rehabilitation.
In 1997, he took up the challenge of developing services for deafblind when not even
handful of people knew what deafblindness was and nurtured the movement to the extent
that today, from one service in 1997 to in more than 60 in 24 states in India as well as in
Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Malaysia.
Today Sense India has transformed lives of more than 85,000 deafblind people and ensuring
their rightful inclusion in our society. Under Akhil's leadership, Sense India has created
networks of teachers, deafblind adults, and their families. He has succeeded in creating a
dedicated team to ensure that deafblind people are 'seen & heard'. It is the persistent
efforts under his active stewardship that ‘deafblindness’ has been recognized as a unique
category of disability under the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act-2016.