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UCL student wins Diana Award 2024 for landmark action on disability rights

11 December 2024

Kavya Mukhija, a master’s student on the Disability, Design, and Innovation programme at UCL East, has been recognised for her work to champion disability inclusion in the UK and India.

Photo of Kavya Mukhija

Now in its 25th year, The Diana Award is the highest recognition a young person can achieve for social action or humanitarian efforts.

UCL student Kavya Mukhija joins 200 young people across 45 countries, who received this prestigious accolade and placed in the 2024 Diana Award Roll of Honour. The exceptional young leaders were selected based on their efforts to inspire and mobilise new generations to serve their communities, drive lasting change, and create a fairer, more equitable society for all.

The winners were congratulated at a virtual ceremony by HRH The Prince of Wales and Prince Harry, The Duke of Sussex who support this award set up in memory of their late mother Diana, Princess of Wales.
 

Championing disability inclusion

Kavya Mukhija, a Chevening Scholar and MSc Disability, Design and Innovation student at the Global Disability Innovation Hub at UCL East, champions disability inclusion by addressing accessibility, fostering inclusive attitudes, and creating impactful content. She combines humour, storytelling, data-driven research, and her own experiences as a disabled person to challenge societal barriers and inform policy. 

In May this year, Kavya co-authored a chapter on access to education, Present but Forgotten, for children with disabilities in India, which was included in the Finding Sizes for All report by NALSAR University of Law. The report addressed critical gaps in accessibility and equality in educational opportunities for disabled students. Drawing from the findings of this report, the Supreme Court of India delivered a landmark ruling in November 2024, declaring accessibility a fundamental right for individuals with disabilities. 

Kavya is the founder of Namastey Disability, a virtual peer support network promoting accessibility and inclusion and, since June 2023, she has been serving as the Chief Operating Officer and Trustee of Chronic Pain India. Their advocacy efforts led to the Pain Disability Scale being included in the new assessment guidelines of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act 2016, making millions of people with Chronic Pain and other Chronic Neurological Conditions eligible for a Disability Certificate in India.  

As an NCPEDP-Javed Abidi Fellow on Disability, Kavya also leads research on accessible tourism, and her digital content to raise awareness and challenge stigma around disability has reached over 100,000 people.
 

Dr Tessy Ojo CBE, Chief Executive, the Diana Award, says:

“We warmly congratulate our new Diana Award Recipients from the UK and across the world who are inspiring change for their generation.  This event is special as it marks our 25th anniversary year and our most competitive year yet with record nominations. This new cohort of Diana Award Recipients demonstrate that young people have the power to change the world; a belief also held by Diana Princess of Wales.”

Kavya says:

“I am proud to have received the Diana Award in recognition for my disability rights advocacy, which I have been engaged in since the age of 15. Being a wheelchair user coming from the Global South, exclusionary design has been my biggest foe. 

“I was very keen to explore ways to make physical infrastructure more inclusive, accessible, and sustainable while keeping in mind factors like culture and resources. The all-encompassing approach of the MSc in Disability, Design and Innovation has allowed me to widen my perspective and start thinking about accessibility in the most unthought-of context like parenting or intimacy. Because that is that accessibility is all about - it is everywhere. 

“I cannot wait to continue to use the skills I have acquired to make the lives of people with disabilities in India not only more accessible and inclusive, but also happier and more fun!" 


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