The Path To Understanding Disability Issues
I am currently preparing training materials on Disability Equality Training (DET). Writing about disability in this blog is one thing, drawing up training modules for people who have little knowledge about disability is another matter altogether, more so when the people that I am facilitating are in the position to change things, if they so desire. How do I make them understand that impairments to the body do not necessarily lead to disability?
I have seen how effective Dr. Kenji Kuno used the process of facilitated participatory learning to conduct DET at the Jabatan Kebajikan Masyarakat Malaysia (JKMM) two weeks back. I was invited to co-facilitate with him at the event called “Intellectual Discourse Mengenai Disability Equality Training dan Independent Living” for officers from the JKMM at Jalan Raja Laut.
The various training modules were all centred around the Social Model of Disability as opposed to the Medical Model of Disability. The medical model is determined to diagnose, treat, cure and rehabilitate people to become “normal” again. In the social model, disability is seen as a social construct. It is people that creates an environment that disables other people. The social model respects the diversity in humanity and promotes equality through inclusion.
While I am appling the methods used by Dr. Kuno, I still need to come out with the training materials to suit my style and pace of conducting the course. I usually prefer to customise the course to suit the participants who have different levels of understanding of disability and the expected outcome from it, whether they are disabled people, non-disabled people or officers from the private sectors or government departments.
As I see it, DET is the most effective tool for promoting the understanding of the causes of disability. DET facilitators guide participants through as series of exercises that show disability as a social issue rather than a personal one. At the end of the course, participants come up with an action plan to resolve these issues.
DET promotes proactive behaviour towards creating an environment of equality for all. I like how the process of learning DET is structured with an outcome expected at the end. This is the tool that disability rights advocates should use to educate society with. DET allows people to understand disability through the process of discovering it themselves. This is more effective than giving a 2-hour monologue on disability and boring participants into slumber halfway through.
Tags: DET, Disability Equality Training, facilitated participatory learning, Jabatan Kebajikan Masyarakat, JKM, Kenji Kuno, Social Model of Disability, Social Welfare Department of Malaysia
Kelantan DET – Day 1: April 24, 2009
First view of Kota Bahru – Sultan Ismail Petra Airport.
The Jabatan Kebajikan Masyarakat Negeri Kelantan (Kelantan State Department of Social Welfare) invited me to conduct Disability Equality Training (DET) to a group of about sixty participants from various districts in the state. They included a good mix of disabled people, community based rehabilitation (CBR) workers and social welfare officers. The one-day training was held at Hotel New Pacific in Kota Bahru last Saturday.
Entrance to the Hotel New Pacific.
Wuan and I landed at the Sultan Ismail Petra Airport in Kota Bahru at 3:10pm on Friday. Yoshie, who had been coordinating the training with me via emails and SMS for a couple of months, was there to pick us up with JKMN Kelantan staff Ismail. My first impressions of Kota Bahru were that it has very few tall buildings and the city is relatively clean. Most of the businesses were closed as Friday is a weekend holiday in Kelantan.
Ice breaker session the evening before DET.
The event started that evening with a briefing of the training by Tuan Wan Asrul followed by an ice breaking session for participants. Ice breakers are a good way to help the participants relax and get them to be acquainted with each other before the training begins. It was evident from their laughters and happy faces that they had fun at the session conducted by Yumiko, Michiko and Yoshie. The trio of pretty lasses are Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers (JOCV) staff currently working at JKMN Kelantan. As the evening’s event came to an end, I wondered how the training the next day would pan out.
Tags: Department of Social Welfare Malaysia, DET, Disability Equality Training, JKM Kelantan, Kota Bahru, Lapangan Terbang Sultan Ismail Petra
Busy As A Bee
One thing I like about being busy with work is that I have no time to brood which I am very apt to. An idle mind is a devil’s workshop, so they say. This and the previous month have been an especially busy period with several speaking engagements and working on a few new blogs that I am building.
There are also a couple of entries that I would like to post but have not found the time to write yet. Hopefully, I will be able to do that when I have finished preparing materials for the Disability Equality Training (DET) that I will be conducting in Kelantan next weekend. Right now, it is all a rush as I try to wrap up the preparations before Friday.
In the meantime, do check out the two blogs that I have been working on – Softly Whispering is a photoblog of the favourite images that I have taken while Delicious Food in Malaysia is a repository of food and ingredients that have shaped my appetite through the years. The links for both blogs are available on the right sidebar of the main page.
The other site that I have been busy with is the Asia Pacific Disability Equality Forum. This site is developed by Dr. Kenji Kuno of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). It is a treasure trove of resources on DET and provides a list of DET trainers from eleven countries in this region.
Tags: busy, DET, Disability Equality Training, Japan International Cooperation Agency, JICA, JKM Kelantan, Kelantan, Kenji Kuno