Malaysia has an informed and articulate Universal Design and disability rights community. Unfortunately some of the conversation escapes English-only speakers around the world. That is one reason why the blog by Naziaty Yaacob (Nazy) Inclusive Design for Malaysia is so important.
The other reason is simply because it is a well-done and thoughtful blog!
One example - humor & advocacy in My Office is Not Accessible.
Another example - engaging the international dialog on Inclusive Heritage Tourism
Still another - a thoughtful essay on contextualizing disability simulation exercises to Malaysian reality:
With regards to Training on Disability, I would like to give my opinion on the use of “Simulation Exercises” as a tool or method, which is a disability awareness training module that requires the participant to experience a ‘temporary state of disability’ by having them simulate, ie using a wheelchair, blind-folded etc., which is meant for them to understand barriers.Simulation exercises should be used in conjunction of a specific context. Let me explain a bit more. In countries such as Japan, USA and the UK, they already have (i) disability discrimination laws; (ii) the disabled people had started their campaign way back in the 70s and 80s, and also, (iii) the architects and professionals would find it unacceptable where there are legal recourse (extensive laws) if they do not plan, design and managed the built environment and public transportation according to the discrimination acts and so on. They would be deem to be unprofessional if they did not include disabled people’s needs.
Simulation exercises in Malaysia and in many other UNESCAP countries MUST be used in conjunction with an ‘activist approach’ to solving the problems at the same time.It must never be a stand-alone exercise. You need to design it with a LEARNING COMPONENT, where the participant would understand the difference between an ‘impairment’ and a ‘disabling environment’ (two different concepts) and the ‘disabling environment’ is created by society and the participants themselves. This works particularly well with engineers, architects, planners, building managers, facilities managers and the CEO of an establishment.
Continue reading her argument at http://inclusivedesign.wordpress.com/2007/08/19/debate-on-simulation-exercises/
Posted by rollingrains at August 21, 2007 06:26 PM