Author Archives: Peter
Making Mistakes: Talking about Access in an Inaccessible Way
I was speaking English… I was giving a session on disability in Indonesia. A translator was turning this into Bahasa. There’s plenty of space for confusion in that alone. But a further translation was also being doine, by another interpreter, … Continue reading
Filed under Hearing Impairment
Deaf in Modern India: finding meaning and money
If you’re a young deaf person in urban India, where do you learn? There’s a good chance it isn’t from school. Many deaf people told me that they passed their Secondary School Leaving Certificates without actually learning (and that they … Continue reading
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Filed under Disabled People's Organisations, Employment, Hearing Impairment
Choice and Disability Policy: give people choices, and try to change them
Independence doesn’t mean doing everything yourself, it means having your own choices. The point is that independent people have control over their lives, not that they perform every task themselves. Independence is not linked to the physical or intellectual capacity … Continue reading
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Filed under Uncategorized
Do you sit or squat? Toilet-makers in South Asia need to ask this question
It’s time for a toilet break. One of the problems poor people face in this part of the world is that they don’t have toilets or clean water. Language here starts getting complicated pretty quickly – the Millenium Development Goal … Continue reading
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Filed under Bangladesh, Mainstreaming
The Data Revolution: Count us in, count us out
There’s a fascinating conversation on data over on Development Drums A fascinating conversation on what now? The data revolution. The revolution is coming, and disabled people are part of it. Data is exciting. Satellite images of trees can help stop … Continue reading
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“Who will marry your daughter?” — thoughts on disabled beggars in Dhaka City
Unfortunately, disabled people are often most visible in Dhaka as beggars. Key intersections, religious festivals, shopping areas, outside fancy restaurants: all are places where you can find people asking for money. Helplessness and visible impairments are played up to. A … Continue reading
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Filed under Bangladesh
Back to the beginning – Ed Robert Campus in Berkeley
Recently I visited Berkeley, to see one of the birth places of the disability rights movement in the US. After contracting polio, Ed Robert’s doctor said that he would be “better off dead”. Rather than dying, Ed Roberts was a … Continue reading
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Filed under Uncategorized
Disability: It’s not a Bad Thing and it doesn’t make you Exceptional
An awesome talk from Stella Young, an Australian comedian and activist: I’ve lost count of the number of times that I’ve been approached, by strangers, wanting to tell me that they think I’m brave or inspirational. And this was long … Continue reading
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Filed under Uncategorized
Spending time with local disabled people’s organisations – pictures from Narayongonj
A seminar on disability! I’m there. This one is in Narayongonj, an industrial sprawl of a city 30km South of Dhaka. Liton is a good friend and the main organiser. He is the president of Narayangonj Sodor Upazilla Disability Development … Continue reading
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Filed under Bangladesh, Disabled People's Organisations
What type of matchmaking do we want? Linking disabled people and employers (part 2)
Last week I wrote about organisations in India that are working to get disabled people into employment. In this second post, I’ll write about the way the work they do is a different from business-as-normal in the disability sector in … Continue reading
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Filed under Employment