Group 3 — AbleWay: Overcoming Stigma in Gated Communities
As part of the Service and Experience Design workshop, I along with my team mates Charley Vincent, Priyanka Joshi and Sanjana Shenoi are working on addressing the stigma associated with disability prevalent in the society.
The area of intervention we are working on is creation of inclusive communities where people with disability and able bodied people come together, interact and support each other. Our initial proposal was focused more on meeting the disability friendly criteria set by the government. Through our own reflection and the feedback that we got, we listed down the limitations and threats in the system.
Limitations
The organisation relies on the infrastructure provided by the builders.
We cannot guarantee the change in attitude of the people. Finally it is upto people to change their attitude.
We are catering to middle and upper middle class gated communities.
Threats
- People might not be enthusiastic enough to form a group of Care force at the first place. They might put pressure on families of PWDs to join Care Force.
- Children might not be interested in participating in inclusive activities as they would be overloaded with other exclusive activities.
- Care Force might not work as intended and might create more problems for people with disabilities. Guidelines given by the organisation might not be strictly followed. Regulations of the activities is limited once the organisation gives control to Care Force.
- Certification for disability friendly as an Government initiative might be misused by some corrupted agencies to give fake certificates.
Alternate Approach
Based on the limitations, we imagined a different approach as follows:
AbleWay is a Social Enterprise which provides a suite of standards for disability friendly buildings. AbleWay is a point based system to rate buildings for disability friendliness. These points are earned through meeting credit requirements in AbleWay and there are 2 categories to earn credits. The 2 categories are 1) Social Inclusion 2) Accessible Infrastructure. The organisation is aimed at making social impact by raising consciousness about disability. The organisation is also keen in spreading the ideology of inclusive community.
Buildings complying to the standards would be AbleWay partners. Based on points they would be Gold, Silver, Bronze partners.
To encourage the CareForce we would acknowledge them with AbleWay CareForce awards
How do we cater to residential communities of lower economic backgrounds?
We can form team of Care force in a residential colony consisting of interested residents. Unemployed residents could leverage this opportunity as a livelihood. Care force would get monetary benefits and funds for their initiatives. Experienced Care force of other gated communities can help and support the newly formed care force. We would start sensitising the community and train the Care Force. In parallel we can work on infrastructural changes needed for disability friendly homes.
3D representation
Through 3D model we represented the working of the proposed social enterprise.
The proposed social enterprise focuses on removing stigma at a community level by active participation from the members of the community. Empowering the Care Force and giving them control helps sustain the system in the long run. Early intervention in children helps to mould the future citizens of India free from negative attitudes towards people with disability. The activities also contributes largely in removing stigma through active involvement between people with disability and abled bodied people.
Alternate approach specified above allows us to look at potential solution through a different lens addressing to few of the threats like problems associated with Government certification.
