Peeling the Onion
How do we help people with disabilities increase their employability in Peru?
The major challenges with addressing this issue is the lack of central information on the current situation faced by people with disabilities as different organizations play different roles and there is no central mechanism to obtain reliable data.
In our discussions with Prisma (Marianne shares a great overview of the organization here) we agreed that there was a need for us to do a market analysis of the entire situation to gain a holistic view of the challenges and barriers prior to co-creating any solutions.
We introduced the concept of Design Thinking to help us uncover the problem space.
Part of this discovery phase, we led the Prisma team through a discussion of the current challenges, ideal future state and barriers faced by people with disabilities. It was very well received as we had a bigger group of staff members join to provide their input as well. We used the “coffee room” at Prisma, which had the perfect ambiance for creative thinking with bright colors and a fun painted wall!
We learnt a lot about challenges faced by PwD including lack of accessibility in infrastructure such as buildings, public transportation and schools, bureaucratic processes to get certified as a PwD, awareness with employers, social discrimination and self-esteem issues amongst other things.
We also identified other stakeholders and coordinated interviews with individuals and organizations such as a lawyer, CONADIS (National Council for Persons with Disabilities at the Ministry of Women and Vulnerable Populations), prospective employers, educational institutions such as OMAPED, Help and Hope, and individuals living with a disability.
Each perspective will help us “peel the onion” further. Our goal is to then create different personas and points of view to feed into the ideation phase of design thinking (but more to come on that when we get there!)
