#JobsForDisabled – Haresh Kumar Punamiya, team leader at Barrier Break, loves his role as mentor

In our series #JobsForDisabled, we profile Haresh Kumar Punamiya, a senior employee with Barrier Break, a leading digital accessibility consulting firm. Haresh, who has a mobility impairment, loves that his work is enabling people with disabilities.

As Team Leader at leading digital accessibility consulting firm Barrier Break, Haresh Kumar Punamiya is responsible for ensuring that PDF and Word documents are accessible to people with visual impairments. It’s a critical role involving a large number of clients.

PDF is one of the most widely used formats for digitising print material by organisations, which share information through annual reports, training manuals, application forms etc. Ensuring that this is accessible to people with disabilities who use screen readers is mandated. Barrier Break has clients in India, as well as the United Kingdom, United States, Australia, Canada, Qatar, and the European Union.

I joined Barrier Break 11 years ago and I love the fact that I work in the space of accessibility. As team leader, I am also responsible for training new employees in applying the various accessibility guidelines as per the client’s requirements. – Haresh Kumar Punamiya, Team Leader, PDF Department, Barrier Break

38-year-old Haresh is mobility impaired in his right leg due to polio and uses calipers. “As someone with a disability, it makes me especially happy to work in this space and empower the community”, he says.

Kamini Gharat, Associate Project Manager, Barrier Break, says Haresh has many strengths, a key one being that he is patient.

“Haresh has a lot of responsibility”, says Kamini. “He has a large team he has to manage and handles many clients as well. All the clients have their own specific requirements and he looks into them closely”. Kamini says Haresh handles this role with great tact and patience. “He is also very good with his team. He handles people very well and is a great mentor. Always ready to help”.