Category Archives: Seminars

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Assistive Technology for People with Disabilities: Employment

Category:Challenges,Seminars

The team attended a session online on Assistive Technology at the Global Science Collaboration Conference at the 75th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA75) on Monday, 28th of September from 11am – 3pm (BST). The importance of AT is highlighted as a hugely transformative and enabling influence for people with disability in education and employment.

This session addressed specific issues and challenges related to employment for people with disabilities and the use of assistive technologies to promote diversity, inclusivity and workplace success.

Research has demonstrated that Assistive Technology (AT) are powerful tools to improve independence, employment and community participation among people with disabilities. AT, including both high-end and low-end devices, equipment and systems, apps and other products. While AT could be useful in improving the life of people with disabilities, the WHO identified that only 10% of the population in need of AT products had access to them. Although AT provision varies across countries, the intent to support people with disabilities should be a global priority with a focus to remove barriers and provide facilitators in independent living and employment.

Globally, the employment rates of people with disabilities is significantly lower than their peers without disabilities. In addition to the socio-economic implications, social exclusion impacts negatively on self-esteem, mental health and wellbeing. People with disabilities encounter many barriers as they try to obtain and sustain meaningful and gainful employment. Promoting employment and independence through the use of AT in collaboration among stakeholders will have significant impacts on the quality of life of people with disabilities. These will help address some of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), such as Goal 1 (No Poverty); Goal 2 (Good Health and Well Being); Goal 10 (Reduced Inequalities) and Goal 17 (Partnerships).

In this session, speakers focused  on SDG1, SDG2, SDG10, and SDG17. Specifically, we will draw together interdisciplinary and multi-sectoral stakeholders from research, industry, other stakeholder groups to exchange current technological, research and policy developments especially in the context of employment. Stakeholders with a vast range of expertise and experience identified the challenges of translating research and products into practice as well as discussing strategies and sharing best practices to support design and development of AT tools for use in employment context.


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Disabuse project in Rome

What a wonderful group of people in Rome!

Category:Seminars

What a wonderful group of people tackling bullying and cyberbullying in Rome as part of our IADT erasmus + project called Stop Disabuse, which runs in Ireland, Italy, Spain and Portugal .Hearing stories of how the materials we developed at IADT with the Antibullying Centre in DCU helped these young people in their lives moved me a lot. See www.disabuse.eu for more details. The news tab is the best!


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European Parliament Coordinator for Children’s Rights

Category:Seminars

Marian McDonnell from Lets go Skills  and Lian McGuire (ABC, DCU) continue to represent DisAbuse at the World Anti-Bullying Forum in Dublin, Ireland, including speaking with the new , Anna Maria Corazza Bildt . Anna Maria is the European Parliament Coordinator for children’s rights. She is the spokesperson for the entire European Parliament, ensuring the promotion, respect and safeguarding of children´s rights in all European Parliament policies and legislation and that the best interests of children are always fully respected in EU legislation and non-legislative initiatives of the Parliament


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WORLD ANTIBULLYING FORUM PRESENTATION

Category:Seminars

The partners from Lets go Skills  were joined ABC for their Workshop on DisAbuse and Disablist Bullying at the World Anti Bullying Forum. Prof. Mona O’Moore, Lian McGuire, Fiona Weldon, Irene Connolly & Marian McDonnell delivered a workshop presentation Tuesday June 4th at 10.30 in the Helix theatre at Dublin City University, Dublin.

The workshop showed that DisAbuse aims to empower young people (15+) and adults with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEN/D) and their support services / care workers and teachers to educate about and take charge around the issue of disablist bullying to help prevent and intervene in it’s happening.

By drawing on the direct input and experiences of people with SEN/D, alongside international research and best practice for educating about disablist bullying and utilising techniques such as
•eLearning
•partnered learning
•peer learning
•Lego Serious Play


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INTERNATIONAL DISABUSE SEMINAR IN MURCIA, SPAIN

Category:Seminars

The third DISABUSE Multiplier Event and Partner Lego Methodology Workshop and Partner Meeting will be held at Universidad de Murcia, Spain.

15 – 16 October 2018.

This conference will be held on the subject of bullying and cyberbullying of people with SEN/D at the University of Murcia together with a meeting of the DisAbuse EU project partners. Professor Pilar Arnaiz, who is an expert in the topic of people with SEN(D) and who has directed a thesis on cyberbullying, will participate in this conference. She will present her perspective on this problem.

Two associations of people with disabilities will participate: Asteamur and Fundown. Asteamur is an association of people with autism. Research shows that people with autism are the ones who suffer most from bullying at school. This association goes to schools to give talks about the bullying suffered by people with autism. Fundown is an association that works with people with Down’s Syndrome in all aspects of life, including bullying issues. Finally, Luis F. Martínez, Head of CARM’s Diversity Service, will tell us about the current situation of people with SEN in the Region of Murcia in relation to bullying.


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INTERNATIONAL SEMINAR IN LISBON

Category:Seminars

Let’s Go skills partners Marian McDonnell and Dr Irene Connolly attended and presented at the  2nd International DisAbuse Seminar on the 9th of March in ISCTE-IUL in Lisbon.

Partners from all countries presented alongside the Ana Sofia Antunes – Portuguese State Secretary of Inclusion of People with Disabilities, Carla Moleiro – Director of CIS-IUL, ISCTE-IUL and prestigious guests from the Portuguese Association of Disabled People; APPACDM – The Portuguese Association of Parents and Friends of the Mentally Disadvantaged Citizen and Pró-Inclusão the National Association of Teachers of Special Education.

The focus of the Seminar was current Research and Best Practice cross-nationally, reflecting the first project aim of DisAbuse. The multi-lingual version of the DisAbuse website and content management system in English, Portuguese, Spanish & Italian, which was developed by the team at IADT,  was launched.

 

 

One of the main aims of the DisAbuse Project is to give SEN/D individuals voice in how the issue of disablist bullying is addressed and tackled, and amongst the guests were future participants/evaluators for the pilot testing phase of DisAbuse’s course work. As part of this, the floor was opened for an affective, instructive and emotive discussion of the bullying experiences of SEN/D individuals and those who care and work with them, underlying the value of the work being done by the project, and the necessity of directly involving those who it aims to help. You can follow the DisAbuse Facebook Page at This Link

When invited speakers finished their presentations at the conference, participants at the 2nd DisAbuse session to counter disablist bullying engaged in discussion about bullying among SEN/D individuals and what needs to be done.