Youths with Disabilities Identify their Barriers and Potential Solutions through Human Design Workshop
August 21, 2023
In Cambodia, 65.3% of the population is under 30 years old and can be classified as youth. There are youth groups and youth leaders who have the potential to become important advocates, yet youth with disabilities are often unable to participate and lack a voice and representation
Even those that are pursuing an education express frustration at the lack of accessibility and stigma associated with their entering or continuing education and seeking employment for the first time. There are a number of organizations offering great training, but this is often not accessible for those with disabilities, putting them at a further disadvantage in building skills, successful businesses, and careers. To overcome these barriers faced by youth with disabilities, we believe there is a need to empower them to understand and advocate for their rights and work towards eliminating barriers to their inclusion.
With support from USAID, WE Act collaborates with Agile Development Group, a disability enterprise development agency that creates economic opportunities and independent lifestyles for people living with disabilities, designed and delivered a workshop called “Human-Centered Design Workshop – Empowering Youth with Disabilities” aiming to create a safe space for youth with disabilities to identify their own priority needs and ideate solutions to the barriers they face using the creative approach of Human-Centered Design. There were ten youth with disabilities with support assistant participated in the workshop and jointly identify their priority needs, applied empathy to understand others, challenge and identify the key barriers, ideate and create a series of possible solutions to these needs, collaboratively work to select the most feasible and test out the solutions.
After the workshop, 27-year-old Preap Voleak, living and working in Phnom Penh Center for Independent Living said, “Despite not being able to complete primary school due to my disabilities, I always strive to be the best version of herself every day.”
Her biggest barriers are the lack of an assistant, a low level of education, and discrimination. However, these barriers do not stop Voleak from pursuing her dream. She actively participates in social activities and joins workshops to gain a better understanding of the world and continue developing herself. Her accomplishments are being courageous, learning from good people around her, and being dared to face obstacles. Voleak’s dream is to become a public speaker, helping and supporting other people with disabilities who feel they are not being heard.
“I want to tell the world that living with disabilities does not stop us from having dreams and ambitions. It is that we try, strive, and be persistent.”
Following this workshop, the youth with disabilities were brought together with women with disabilities role models, government stakeholders from the Ministry of Social Affairs, Disability Action Council, and partner organizations in the national level co-creation to further analyze, discuss and co-create potential solutions to the barriers.
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