Hasinah - Journal 1

Sunday, March 20, 2011 ♥ 11:28 PM

Initially, especially before the Pre-Yep activity, my thoughts on disability were that PWD needed a lot of special care and attention and that they wouldn't be able to participate in many activities like able-bodied people can. I also felt that inclusion was important so as to ease the difficulties of activities for PWD as well as to give them equal opportunities to socialize, learn and integrate into the society.

Because of these thoughts that much care and professionalism would be required to handle clients with disabilities, I was honestly quite nervous and scared that I would not be able to cater to their needs and aid them as we had only been through one briefing session about handling PWD. When I was within the group which was supposed to receive the AWWA clients from the carpark, I feared that I may not be able to provide the best of help to them. These feelings were probably triggered by the unfamiliarity of being around PWD, as well as handling of wheelchairs.

However, I was actually surprised at how independent the clients were by navigating themselves in the wheelchair. They were also comfortable in making conversations with us and made the effort to interact with us too. In fact, they were all friendly, cheerful and enthusiastic during the Pre-Yep activity.

This experience with working with the AWWA clients has made me realise that PWD are more than willing to learn and participate with others as long as opportunities are provided for them. It was also an insightful learning experience which made me realise that I had wrongly assumed how dependent PWD are. Therefore, the next time when working with PWD, I will take into account that they are actually quite comfortable in moving around by themselves and that they need aid when there are environmental restrictions. I will also be more calm and confident when handling PWD as they are actually friendly people too. I can thus use this experience to interact better when working with PWD during our trip to Cambodia.

However, I feel that much more has to be done in terms of inclusion in Singapore schools as there still is a noticeable segregation between PWD and able bodied students. As an example, many schools are actually not wheelchair-friendly and thus changes and improvements to the school environments have to be made in order to implement inclusion.

♥♥♥YEP Team♥♥♥