Podcasts

Understanding MDVI: Why Vision Is Often Missed in Children with Special Needs

Jan 17, 2026 • The Special Needs Children Podcast - with Chitra Iyer

What happens when a child’s vision challenge is hidden behind another diagnosis?

What futures are quietly lost when we focus on labels instead of possibilities?

In this moving episode of The Special Needs Children Podcast, our CEO, Chitra Iyer speaks with Dr. Dipti Gandhi, Founder & CEO of Muskaan Foundation and a nationally renowned low-vision consultant with over 30 years of experience in the disability sector.

From beginning with just two children in a small verandah to building a multi-centre organisation that has touched over 2,000 lives, Dr. Dipti shares why children with multiple disabilities and visual impairment are so often overlooked—and how early, integrated intervention can radically change a child’s developmental path.

This conversation explores why vision issues are frequently missed in children with autism, cerebral palsy, and intellectual disabilities, how vision rehabilitation actually works, and why parents and caregivers are central to every breakthrough.

An honest, compassionate, and hopeful discussion about seeing potential before limitation—and why early action matters more than we realise.

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