Interacting in an accessible manner with disabled youth peers: round tables on awareness creation, following the peer support model Erasmus Project

Project Title

Interacting in an accessible manner with disabled youth peers: round tables on awareness creation, following the peer support model

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for youth

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2016

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Disabilities – special needs; Inclusion – equity; Youth (Participation, Youth Work, Youth Policy)

Project Summary

Despite the prevalence of 15% of youth having one or more disabilities in our general population, hardly any youth is aware how to interact and communicate with their young peers with disabilities. Even the basic principles of barrier free communication are hardly known.
Young people with disabilities want people to know more about their feelings, and want to communicate, in order also for their peers to gain a better understanding of disabilities, also in adult life. Disability Matters launch package (UK) stated that 25% of Britons do not feel confident communicating with a child with disabilities.

(Young) people with disabilities encounter many different forms of attitudinal barriers that hamper a communication with mutual respect:
• Inferiority: Because a person may be impaired in one of life’s major functions, some people believe that the individual is a “second-class citizen.” However, most people with disabilities have “compensating skills”.
• Pity: People feel sorry for the person with a disability, which tends to lead to patronising attitudes. People with disabilities generally don’t want pity and charity, just equal opportunity and be part of their youth peers community.
• Hero worship: Most people with disabilities do not want accolades for performing day-to-day tasks.
• Ignorance: People with disabilities are often dismissed as incapable of accomplishing a task without the opportunity to display their skills.
• The Spread Effect: People assume that an individual’s disability negatively affects other senses, abilities or personality traits, or that the total person is impaired.
• Stereotypes: The other side of the spread effect is the positive and negative generalisations people form about disabilities. Aside from diminishing the individual and his or her abilities, such prejudice can set too high or too low a standard for individuals who are merely human.
• Backlash: Many people believe individuals with disabilities are given unfair advantages, however they do not get special privileges rather just equal opportunities.
• Denial: Many disabilities are “hidden,” such as learning disabilities, psychiatric disabilities, epilepsy, arthritis and heart conditions. People tend to believe these are not bona fide disabilities needing “accommodation”.
• Fear: Many people are afraid that they will “do or say the wrong thing” around someone with a disability. They therefore avert their own discomfort by avoiding the individual with a disability.

Making youth aware of these very basic aspects in interaction with a peer with disabilities is a first step in solving the problem, while in a next step barriers need to be broken down by applying proper and accessible interaction/communication methods.
These 2 steps are at the core of the project, aiming to impact young people, thus investing in the future, and providing the proper basis for spill over effects into society, and into the working environment.

The project wants to help youth communities increase their understanding of disabilities and reduce the fear of approaching or being approached by an individual with disabilities, by applying the peer support model.

Target groups
– Youth workers and leaders
– Student leaders
– Student bodies
– Youth organisation responsibles
– Disability youth organisations responsibles

Beneficiaries
– Youth volunteers, youth organisation members
– Student bodies/Youth council members
– PwD youth organisation members
– PwD youth
– (Disabled) Students
– Youth NGOs

The project will therefore create:
– a handbook “ABC to inclusive communication with my peers with disabilities”: This booklet will address a wide range of disabilities, how it affects communication and how to cope with it to ensure qualitative communication can take place.
– inclusive youth volunteering awareness campaign: The awareness campaign will focus on how youth can be prepared to communicate in a polite yet efficient manner with peers who have a disability, with a mutual satisfaction.
– mobility events for youth workers: A range of practical workshops will be organised in all partner countries, together with mobilities between partner countries regarding good practices that will be identified via brainstorming sessions among youth from different countries, and in attendance of youth with disabilities.
– establish an inclusive communication peer support hub in every partner country to support uptake by target groups and stakeholders, as well as support all participants in mobility events.

This set of communication skills for youth is universallly needed (disability knows no borders) and transversal since it is applicable not only to youth environments, but equally to the working environment, as well as family life. After all, people with disabilities should be intrinsically fully part of society (inclusive citizenship).

The project consortium brings together 7 partners from 4 countries (Turkey, Bulgaria, Serbia and Greece).

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 155365 Eur

Project Coordinator

ANKARA SOSYAL BILIMLER UNIVERSITESI & Country: TR

Project Partners

• Gonullu Hareketi Dernegi
• International Inclusion Institute (Uluslararasi Sumul Dernegi)
• NATIONAL YOUTH FORUM BULGARIA
• N.G.O. CIVIS PLUS
• NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF PROFESSIONALS WORKING WITH PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES
• BEOGRADSKA OTVORENA SKOLA