Shakila’s remarkable and diverse accomplishments can be described as contributing towards creating an inclusive society. Shakila social entrepreneur, innovator, recognised global disability trainer and strategist, member of the Presidential Working Group On Disability is a Masters graduate of Columbia University New York, USA and a registered Organisational Psychologist. Shakila says “whenever I come across something that liberates me as a blind person, I want to share it”. She has pioneered in SA access to books for persons with print disabilities through the promotion of alternate reading formats and is the founder and MD of DAISY SA (Digital Accessible Information Systems South Africa) which is part of the global non-profit International DAISY Consortium. Shakila designed the prototype and manufactured the first Braille voting template for the IEC used in SA national elections, enabling visually impaired persons to vote independently. She introduced the Indian SmartCane to SA visually impaired white cane users to enhance safe and independent mobility. Shakila founded and chaired the Inclusive Tourism Forum, trained tour operators in accessible tourism, created the first access guide for the city of Durban and served as a board member for the KZN Tourism Authority. In her consultancy Disability Management Services, Shakila’s disability rights enforcement through her research, strategies and policies developed for corporate and government locally and internationally has brought her several esteemed awards and recognition from the disability, private and public sectors which acknowledge her contribution to business, the arts and society. She pioneered audio description for 12 years and established AudioDescribe (Pty) Ltd. and later the sister company ShazaCin Accessible Media (a first in the country and continent) with the aim to bring young blood and shift audio description into the digital space. Shakila’s aspiration for blind persons to see the visual world resulted in the creation of the ShazaCin mobile app and which is soon to be released on the google play store.
She has trained almost 200 disabled and non-disabled persons, (including isiZulu) and also conducts the blind verification and quality control on current ShazaCin AD projects. She has received the Sabella Award from the Durban International Film Festival for her contribution to inclusion in film. Shakila is the MD and Business Development Lead at ShazaCin Accessible Media