They are diploma holders and it is a diploma like no other. It imparts training in office automation and assistive technology, but also seeks to put the students in command of their lives. The fifteen students who completed the one-year programme successfully also learnt how to socialise with peers, be independent, besides other social skills.Diploma in Office Automation and Assistive Technology, as it is called, is offered by National Institute for Empowerment of Persons with Multiple Disabilities (NIEPMD) in Muttukadu. Affiliated with Bharathidasan University in Tiruchirappalli, the two-semester diploma programme is all set to have its fourth batch.It is designed for those wired differently, blessed with different abilities. Among the 15 graduates, some have intellectual disabilities, some have multiple disabilities and a few are on the autism spectrum. Their abilities outshine their disabilities. At the farewell function held recently on the NIEPMD campus, no one was in any doubt about that. It was a moment to cherish for their parents and teachers.There is a massive sense of achievement for parents of Suraag Sanjay K, and it comes from the fact that during the course of this diploma programme, he got used to travelling independently. For the first month, from his home in Ambattur to Muttukadu, Suraag, who has multiple disabilities, and his father K.G. Sanjay would travel together. His father would drop him and wait at the campus till he finished classes in the evening. A gentle nudge from the faculty got the father-duo to effect a change in that routine. Today, Suraag travels on his own both ways; only on the home stretch, the last mile, the father picks up the son.