Mini Parti Series!
OhBaker is a home-based business set up by Mr Kelvin Leong, who is a stroke survivor. OhBaker stands for 'one-handed baker' which is telling of Mr Leong's journey with stroke that caused him to have a non-functional left upper limb. Despite his physical challenges, Mr Leong persevered and did not let his challenges limit or restrict participation in his daily life. Baking started off as a hobby which eventually evolved to what it is currently. Mr Leong learnt to adapt his ways over the course of 15 months before he became fully independent again. The man behind OhBaker is truly inspiring and his lived experiences is a prime example of the importance of promoting participation.
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News article can be accessed by clicking on Mr Leong's photo above!
oHbAKER
Asociación Música Para Despertar
Asociación Música Para Despertar (“Music to Awaken”) is a non-profit organisation that provides persons with dementia the opportunity to engage with therapeutic and personally meaningful music. Music is believed to “awaken” the individual through enhancing physiological, physical and emotional states by providing a medium for engagement, self-expression, enjoyment, communication, and socialization. Music can also serve as a powerful stimulus to reminisce life events. Altogether, these may restore a sense of identity and autonomy.
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[PARTIcipation value - Meaningful Engagement and Being a Part of]
Persons with dementia can freely self-express and engage with the music (e.g. reminiscence, music creation) as they like. Their engagement may be private (e.g. physiological experience) or social. Additionally, through reminiscence with music, they may re-engage physically, spiritually and/or emotionally in meaningful occupations and roles.
This is seen in the video below of the lady with Alzheimer’s who relived her role as a professional ballerina with the music of Swan Lake.
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Xavier Hopkins
Xavier Hopkins is a Downhill Mountain Biker. From far, he may seem like any other professional biker completing these 30 seconds to 1-minute runs with utmost confidence. Yet, he sets himself apart from the rest by racing through the uneven terrain with Albinism and Nystagmus. These eye conditions have left Xavier with less than 10% of his eyesight and he sees the world as a blurry, overexposed image. To overcome this, he walks every route and commits the turns and drops to memory before he bikes. His hard work and commitment to the sport has helped him to achieve excellence and proves that anything is possible regardless of physical ability.
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[PARTIcipation value - Meaningful engagement and being part of]
Hopkins does not let his physical disabilities restrict his pursuit of meaningful engagement in Downhill Mountain Biking. For many with physical disabilities, it is easy for them to solely focus on day to day survival. However, given the chance and an environment that they feel safe in, these individuals can dare to be spontaneous and take risks. For Hopkins, this meant receiving sponsorships from different companies to attend bike shows and shoot videos. These opportunities afforded to him, coupled with his growing confidence in himself, has allowed him to thrive and be an inspiration to others.
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Click on his photo to watch him in action!
Izzywheels
Izzy Wheels was founded by Irish sisters Ailbhe and Izzy Keane. The inspiration came due to Izzy who was born with Spina Bifida who felt that her wheelchair is a symbol of freedom but does not showcase her personality. Ailbhe created various colourful designs of wheel covers during her final year college project. This then sparked collaboration with various designers in coming up with different wheelchair covers with the motto of "If you can't stand up, stand out!".
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[PARTIcipation value - Choice & Control & Having an impact & Supporting others]
Having different options and designs for wheelchair covers provide wheelchair users the choice & control over how their wheelchairs look like. Wheelchair users are able to use the wheelchair covers and showcase their own personality and fashion choices, not limited to the standard design used by everyone else. This will provide a stronger sense of identity and individuality.
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The Keane sisters also showcased the participation value of "Having an impact & Supporting others". What started out as a school project by Ailbhe to provide choice & control to her sister, is now impacting other wheelchair users' choice & control over their wheelchair designs as well. The collaboration that they have with other designers spread awareness on the wheelchair users community as well.
Check out their instagram by checking on their photo!
Will & Well
Will & Well is a local fashion label, who believes in inclusivity. They seek to enable people with different abilities to participate in a fundamental Activity of Daily Living (that is, dressing), by use of design thinking and technology. Examples include use of magnetic buttons, front zips and velcros to simplify the dressing tasks. Will & Well believes in embracing diversity, enablement, challenging old thoughts to continuously improve, ease of task and problem solving to improve the lives of those with different needs, by changing the way in which clothing can be worn. Their good works bring comfort and dignity to those they serve and also in line with our theme of promoting participation, they play an important role in fostering a greater sense of independence in daily dressing routines.
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Find out more by checking on Elisa's photo!
Makers Making Change
As the cost of many assistive technologies can be expensive and often may need customization, Makers Making Change is a platform that taps on the maker community to positively impact the lives of people with disabilities. On this platform, Makers (engineers, hobbyists, students, corporations, etc.) can volunteer their time to make affordable assistive technologies from the Organisation’s project library. People with disabilities, their family members, or disability professionals can request a project that they feel will help address a person’s barriers. Designs of projects can be freely downloaded, enabling everyone to publish and share open-source assistive technology designs. It also encourages the community to share access challenges, solutions, and review existing projects. This platform hopes to increase the access to affordable assistive technologies, enabling people with disabilities to be fully included and participating in their communities
Head over to their instagram by clicking on the photo to check out what they are working on!
Surfability
Surfability is a UK based adaptive surf school that operates from Caswell Bay. Mr. Clifford who is the head coach and director of the school attended a surfing event where children with autism participated, this inspired him to start surfing lessons for autistic children studying in the local schools to enable participation in the sports. They teach people with special needs which not only includes children with autism, cerebral palsy, down syndrome and learning disabilities but also adults on wheelchairs and other illnesses. Surfing started as an interest for Mr. Clifford when he was inspired by another surfer at the tender age of 4. He then returned to surfing and teaching surfing after university. The team has adapted the sports tremendously since 2013, when they started to enable participation for people with special needs. Surfability is surfing the waves of all challenges that people with different needs have to truly enable participation and providing fun yet meaningful experiences to the people they serve.
Run by the autism resource centre (ARC), the Professor Brawn Cafe currently aims to provide a platform for people with special needs and the disadvantaged in society to be hired and to provide social integration opportunities. Professor Brawn outlets employ and train autistic, deaf and intellectually differently-abled adults, making up 50% of their team. Acting as a catalyst to the whole initiative, Professor Brawn was a superhero who was created by a child with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).
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PARTIcipation value - Having an impact and supporting others]
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By having an inclusive quality workforce, they also aim to showcase special talents, raise awareness and contributions by being supporters of the cause. Through values of quality, dignity and inclusiveness, they continue to expand the vision of creating an inclusive workforce, recently opening it's largest outlet yet in the Enabling Village at Lengkok Bahru.
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Professor Brawn Cafe
Click below to watch a CNA news on Professor Brawn Cafe!
Dignity Kitchen
Dignity and disability somehow do not seem to fit together; people have always assumed that a person who is differently abled does not have the ability to participate in the routine activities of work and play. This notion in itself disables participation in work and lends many people who are differently abled disempowered and undignified.
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Meet Mr. Seng Choon, he started a food court at Balestier road in 2010, run by differently abled people. Through the project known as ‘Dignity Kitchen’ he envisions to restore dignity to the differently abled and disadvantaged through vocation with passion. In their initial days they trained and employed persons with physical & intellectual disabilities and socially and mentally disadvantaged people.
Earlier days were tough for the social enterprise as people would see the batch of DEAF, BLIND and MENTAL on the uniform and would walk away. Batches were soon gone and the business started to pick up.
Mr. Choon stayed resilient and motivated, despite facing financial difficulties. He went on to the implementation stage and started another dignity kitchen at Kaki Bukit in 2011 with 14 stalls. Innovating while accommodating to the needs of the differently abled person they came up with one hand noodle cooking equipment and a pictorial sales machine for the visually impaired cashier. Second social venture came up in the form of ‘Dignity mama’, which is a retail store selling upcycled items and second-hand books. They train mothers and their special needs children in entrepreneurship skills and then employ them in these shops. All the shops are located in hospital premises.
Over the past 10 years Dignity kitchen has helped 720 differently abled people find jobs and now they run a hawker training program which is nationally certified. Dignity kitchen through its train and place program has EN-abled work participation for differently abled people. Mr. Choon is truly inspiring for the grit and resilience that he has shown to enable participation for the differently enabled.
APSN
Association for Persons with Special Needs (APSN) is a social service agency providing special education for persons with mild intellectual disability (IQ 50-70). APSN cares for any individual with special needs regardless of age, at the respective schools and care centres for children, youth and adults. There are currently four Special Education (SPED) Schools, an APSN Student Care Centre and an APSN Centre for Adults located across the island to ensure those in the special needs community have access to their services.
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The APSN Schools and Centre adopt a holistic approach in its curriculum, including academic, vocational and social skills, which are important for open employment and lifelong learning. Their foal is to enable and empower persons with special needs to be active contributors of the society and is committed to inspire and hone capabilities of its partners and community to build an inclusive society. The Association is constantly expanding its network to reach out to and understand the needs of its members to better support them.
Did you know that the APSN logo has a special meaning behind it? The APSN logo comprises the abbreviated name "APSN", with each letter contained in a square block, and the full organisation name. "Building blocks" are easily associated with a child's all-rounded development in their growing years, this symbolises APSN's pivotal role in providing the foundational knowledge crucial to fully maximise their abilities and potential for learning and independent living. Similarly, the vibrant colours highlight the determination and passion in serving the special needs community. Orange emphasises the enthusiasm, optimism and confidence of the Association, in empowering persons with special needs to be active contributors to the society. While blue symbolises the sincerity and continuous commitment of the Association in advocating a more caring and inclusive Singapore.
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