The Spastics Society of India was born in March 1985 in a garage in Chennai. It was started by Mrs. Poonam Natarajan, the mother of a child with profound disability, since there were no services available for this group. It was renamed ‘Vidya Sagar’ in 1998. Today Vidya Sagar is housed in a building that is designed in a manner that is totally barrier-free, and accessible to persons with disabilities, on land leased by the Government of Tamil Nadu and with community support.