They give a sensitivity and interaction workshop towards people with disabilities from a Rights Approach
SANTO DOMINGO- The students and administrative staff of the Instituto Tecnológico de Santo Domingo (INTEC) received a workshop on sensitivity and interaction towards people with disabilities, from a rights-based approach, promoted by the ACCESS project within the framework of the Erasmus+ program of the European Commission.
The training given with the National Council on Disability (CONADIS) showed the main challenges that people with disabilities face and the protection they have according to legal regulations.
Raphael Tejada, Degree in Education with a mention in Modern Languages, and graysi garcia, an educator with experience in sign language, both representatives of CONADIS, advocated for an inclusive language in which the term “disabled” is replaced by “persons with disabilities”. In the same way, they motivated good practices for coexistence, promoting equal and respectful treatment.
“The elimination of social and environmental barriers are what will guarantee a world without limitations”, assured the educator Greysi García. Tejada also mentioned the need for inclusive alternatives for students with disabilities to be incorporated in universities, including ramps for people who use wheelchairs and sign language translators.
"Imagine going to the classroom and not understanding anything that is explained, you don't hear anything, you only see the teachers teach their classes while your classmates participate, you don't understand anything, you don't feel part of it," Tejeda compared when mentioning the case. of people with hearing disabilities.
In the legal framework, they shared Law No. 5-13 on disability in the Dominican Republic, which protects and guarantees equal rights and equal opportunities for all people with disabilities.
Likewise, there are articles 39 and 58 of the Constitution of the Dominican Republic and the International Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities as references on the subject.
El ACCESS project It is executed through the Institutional Mobility Unit, and seeks to improve accessibility, guarantee learning conditions, and promote policy change towards the inclusion of students with disabilities in the context of Higher Education in Costa Rica, Cuba, and the Dominican Republic. , through modern practices of inclusion, training and collaborative work.
Among its objectives is to create a modern and inclusive framework through the creation of Support Centers for students with disabilities, long-term strategies for the access and retention of these students in the higher education system and equip them with assistive technologies to improve the provision of services for the consortium institutions.
Some universities that are part of the project are: University of Alicante from Spain; University of Macedonia in Greece; Technological of Costa Rica; Agrarian University of Havana "Fructuoso Rodríguez Pérez" in Cuba, among other universities in such countries.
The National Council on Disability (CONADIS) was the institution that gave the talk whose mission is to guarantee equal rights, the equalization of opportunities and the elimination of all forms of discrimination against people with disabilities.
Group dynamics during the workshop
At the beginning of the workshop, the psychologist Miladys Serrano, INTEC Student Development coordinator, gave participation to the students and in the second session to the collaborators with a practice to understand disability, in which they were divided into groups to talk, but some with their ears covered and others with their eyes closed. In the middle of the activity they tried to communicate while the blind tried to walk around the room.
"I was very scared, I was going to hit a wall and Ana did not guide me well", was the intervention of Karla, one of the participating students who was walking through the Social Security Auditorium, where the activity took place, without seeing anything, while Arturo complained when doing the practice with his ears covered. “My ears were healthier than ever, but gossiping was uncomfortable. I felt left out."
Angelina, a student who served as a guide, also shared her experience. “The person I was guiding bumped into the chair twice. She was bumping into other people,” she emphasized.
