IDIA Disability Access Research and Policy Team 2026-27 (15 Positions, Remote and Part-time)

IDIA (Increasing Diversity by Increasing Access) is a national non-profit that identifies and trains students from underprivileged and marginalised communities to secure admission to India's leading law schools, with the aim of creating community leaders and change agents within the legal system. IDIA runs from No E-1/9, Hanumanthappa Layout, Off Ulsoor Road, Bengaluru, Karnataka 560042.

Two of its wings drive this call. The Research and Policy Wing (IRAP) carries out high-level research and policy advocacy with universities, law firms and government agencies, including its work on CLAT reform and its annual diversity surveys of the national law universities. The Disability Access Programme (IDAP), launched on 3 December 2015, supports scholars with disabilities and pushes for systemic accessibility change in law schools and the legal sector, including the accessibility labs set up at NLU Odisha, NALSAR and NUJS.

IRAP and IDAP are ramping up efforts through a comprehensive, systematic research and advocacy programme to address the barriers to access faced by persons with disabilities across institutions within the country's legal education and employment ecosystem.

To this end, IDIA is forming a Disability Access Research and Policy Team of up to fifteen members, which would include researchers and designers, for the 2026-27 term, to conduct research, prepare reports, and assist the IDIA Team in the advocacy process.

Team members will conduct surveys and reviews of, inter alia:

• Students with disabilities, student leaders, faculty, and administration across the NLUs;
• Accessibility compliance by NLUs, including reservation policies, and physical and academic infrastructure;
• Online legal databases;
• CLAT infrastructure; and
• Technological and physical infrastructure of law firms.

Members will also conduct research on extant and developing jurisprudence vis-a-vis disability laws and policies.

• Reports based on the surveys and reviews conducted above;
• A model accessibility policy for NLUs; and
• Manuals for setting up and operating accessibility labs, and pedagogical methodologies for faculties and administrative staff of NLUs.

Team members will also be required to prepare primers, newsletters, and blog posts on disability laws and policies.

IDIA will present these reports to relevant institutions and advocate for the implementation of the recommended policy changes. To give team members the opportunity to engage with the advocacy process, they will be encouraged to attend in-person and online meetings alongside the IDIA Team with relevant institutional heads and functionaries, including Vice-Chancellors, Registrars, and faculty and administrative staff across the NLUs; the CLAT Consortium; legal database providers; law firms; and disability rights practitioners and academics.

• Students in the third, fourth or fifth year of a law degree at any of the 26 National Law Universities.
• Students with disabilities are encouraged to apply.
• The role is remote and part-time.
• Candidates are expected to have proficiency in research and writing.
• There are limited slots for people with proficiency in designing, including Canva. Only 1 or 2 designers will be selected for the team. You may apply for both positions.

IDIA states that it is restricting this call for applications to NLUs solely because it would need team members at the NLU campuses to coordinate with various stakeholders.

IDIA states that selected members will receive a certificate on completion of the term, and named credit as a contributor on all the research output they work on, including published reports, policy documents, and manuals.

The call does not state any stipend or remuneration for the role.

Email the following to irap@idialaw.org by 11.59 pm on 26 August 2026, with the subject line "Application - Disability Access Research and Policy Team 2026-27 - [Your Name]":

• An updated curriculum vitae, attached to the email.
• If applying as a researcher: (a) your answers to the two questions set out below, written in the body of the email; and (b) a link to an academic writing sample you have published (journal article, blog post or report).
• If applying as a designer: a sample of designed material.

Shortlisted applicants will be interviewed online in September 2026.

Instructions: answer both questions; each answer must be within 200 words; write in your own words, as answers are read for judgment and precision, not for length or vocabulary; and do not use generative artificial intelligence to draft your answers, as answers that read as machine-generated will be set aside.

Question 1: Identify one barrier to access faced by students with disabilities at your own university. It may be physical, academic, digital or administrative. Name the specific office or officer who has the authority to remove it, set out the case you would put to that person, and state what evidence you would need to gather before putting it. Then say what you would do if the request were refused.

Question 2: The programme will gather accessibility information from four groups across the National Law Universities: students with disabilities, student leaders, faculty, and administrative staff. Choose one group. Explain whether you would approach that group by questionnaire, by interview or by both, and why. Identify one important question you would ask them. Then identify one reason a respondent from that group might give you an incomplete or misleading answer, and how you would guard against it.

IDIA adds a note on how these are read: both questions have many defensible answers, and it is looking for a candidate who states a concrete position, gives reasons that withstand questioning, and is honest about what they do not yet know.