Colorado U.S. Presidential Scholar recipient helps create art opportunities for the visually impaired

ENGLEWOOD, Colo., (KRDO) - A Colorado high school student was honored through multiple scholarships due to her work in making art accessible to everyone, including the visually impaired community.

Rishika Kartik is the current president of the Colorado Tactile Art Club. Through that club, she's managed to create opportunities for blind students helping them express themselves and explore the community.

For her, art is more than just visual, it's also a sensory experience.

With that thought in mind, Kartik founded the “vision of the artist's soul,” which promotes everyone to be able to enjoy the world of art.

"Diversity is really important to me, but disability and inclusion is an aspect of diversity that is really essential and yet often overlooked, there is so much potential for change and growth to make stronger communities," said Kartik.

Over the last four years, she has worked with the teachers of students with visual impairment across different school districts in Colorado, Colorado School for the Deaf and the Blind, and Colorado Center for the Blind to create accessible art classes for students who are blind and visually impaired.

Surprised by the limited opportunities for these students- she joined the tactile club and created the program to provide multi-sensory workshops to students of all ages- regardless of their background.

“It really inspired me to see such a creative medium being pushed in new directions and people from all different ages and backgrounds to create something I love, which is to creative expression," added Kartik.

Even during the pandemic, Kartik created artistic opportunities for more than 900 visually impaired students in person and online through 70 art workshops.

"One silver lining of the pandemic, which was a very difficult time is that we were able to expand our programming from in-person classes to virtual and that was really great--and when we transition online we got to use household materials which meant that people from all socioeconomic backgrounds can participate - I think this made a more diverse and robust community."

Kartik was recently selected by the U.S Department of Education as a 2022 U.S. Presidential Scholar from Colorado. She is also a 2022 Coca-Cola Scholar, a 2022 Taco Bell Live Más Scholar, and a recipient of the President’s Volunteer Service Gold Award. 

Rashika will be attending Brown University in the Fall where she will continue to be an advocate for accessibility, diversity, and inclusion.