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Integrating Women and Girls with Disabilities into Mainstream Vocational Training
5. Integrating students with disabilities into the VTC community

The VTC creates for its students and staff a community which can offer companionship and peer support. Full integration for students with disabilities means not only being included and being able to participate in training activities but also being accepted and included in the VTC community. Disabled female students, like everyone else, differ in their personalities and ability to make friends and to integrate. Some women with disabilities are very outgoing, having learned to overcome any embarrassment they might have had about their disabilities. They often take the initiative in making friends and experience little difficulty integrating into new environments. However, there are others who find integration difficult.

You can play a vital role in supporting those women with disabilities who face difficulty integrating. Three groups of people need to be influenced:

• disabled students themselves
   
• their classmates
   
• the larger VTC community: the other students and teachers.

Your challenge is to change attitudes which have put up barriers to integration in the first place.

The disabled student

What are some of the problems the student has in integrating with her peers?

• Poor self-esteem, shown through lack of confidence
   
• Fear of rejection
   
• Fear of not being able to communicate clearly or correctly
   
• Fear of behaving awkwardly or of not having social skills
   
• Fear of not being able to participate anyway because of the disability.

What can you do to help the student overcome these problems?

• Take an interest in her and in her work in class.
   
• Create opportunities for her to talk to others about her disability in a non-threatening atmosphere.
   
• Encourage her to participate in class discussions. If she has a hearing impairment or speech difficulties, she can participate by writing her comments on the board.
   
• Encourage her to participate in the social and recreational activities of the class as well as of the centre.
   
• Impress upon her that she has an equal responsibility for interacting with others at the centre.

The disabled student’s classmates

What are some of the problems classmates may experience?

• Fear of the disability itself
   
• Ignorance of the causes and effects of the disabilities they see
   
• Fear of hurting or harming her
   
• Not knowing how to greet or talk to her
   
• Pity, preventing them from treating her as an equal.

What are some things you can do to help the students overcome these problems?

• Discuss in general the causes and effects of disabilities, as well as misconceptions about disabilities and disabled people.
   
• Encourage the disabled student to talk to her class about her particular disability, what she cannot do because of it, and what she can do despite it – and the kind of practical assistance she would like from her classmates.
   
• Draw up a roster for students who want to volunteer to take turns helping disabled students. For example, reading textbooks or handouts to visually impaired students, sharing notes with hearing-impaired students, and helping physically disabled and visually impaired students to move from one place to another.
   
• Encourage students to include students with disabilities when organizing activities outside the class work.

The VTC community at large

The problems other students in the centre face in interacting with the disabled student are similar to those faced by the student’s classmates. However, because these students have significantly fewer opportunities for interaction, it is more difficult to influence their attitudes and help them overcome their fears.

What can you do to help overcome the problems?

• Use opportunities during staff meetings to give information (a little each time) about the disabled student that will be helpful to the other staff members in interacting with her.
   
• Organize a talk for staff and students by representatives of organizations of or for people with disabilities to raise the general awareness about disability.

Remember that you yourself are the best example of how to interact with a disabled student.

As we have seen earlier, being able to enter buildings and use the facilities is important. Inaccessibility isolates disabled students, preventing them from sharing facilities and participating in the VTC activities.

Words shape attitudes and some expressions may offend people with disabilities. Knowing which expressions to use or avoid may therefore be helpful. When talking to or about disabled people:

• Don’t use words that invite pity or suggest dependence.
  
  Don’t say: victim of . . . or suffering from . . . or afflicted with
  Say: was injured by . . . or has . . .
  
  Don’t say: confined to a wheelchair or wheelchair bound
  Say: wheelchair-user
   
• Don’t use medical or other labels to describe a disabled person.
  
  Don’t say: She is a diabetic or She is an amputee
  Say: She has diabetes or She had her leg amputated
  
  Don’t say: the disabled or the handicapped
  Say: people with disabilities or disabled people
   
• Don’t use words which suggest that disabled a person is not normal.
  
  Don’t say: normal when you mean the opposite of disabled.
  Say: non-disabled or able-bodied

Whenever you are uncertain about which expression to use you should ask the disabled person you are talking to, and respect her wishes.

In general, greet a disabled person and behave just as you would with anyone else in your culture and country.

When meeting someone in a wheelchair:

• Put yourself at their level.
   
• If you are behind a high desk or counter, move to the front.
   
• Offer help with heavy doors.

When meeting someone with a hearing impairment:

• Always face the person. If the person lip-reads, speak clearly and slowly.
   
• Speak directly to the person, even if there is a sign-language interpreter.
   
• With those who have speech difficulties, if possible ask questions that require short answers, like a yes or no.

When meeting someone with a visual impairment:

• Always identify yourself first.
   
• If you are moving away, tell the person. Do not leave her talking to an empty space.
   
• If she needs to be guided to a place, offer your arm so that you will be walking slightly ahead of her but beside her.

5. Integrating students with disabilities into the VTC community
Integrating Women and Girls with Disabilities into Mainstream Vocational Training

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