Disability Challenge

Disability Challenge

Making a phone call, withdrawing money from the ATM and buying a canned drink from the vending machine - these are daily living tasks most of us take for granted. However, a group of 100 "disabled" youth, aged 15 to 18 years old, found that it is not all that simple at the Disability Challenge.

The Disability Challenge is part of the annual Youth Volunteer Involvement Programme (YVIP) organised by SVC to introduce students to social service volunteerism as part of their schools' community involvement programmes. These YVIP participants will also take part in a 3 day/2 night camp, a two-week attachment at VWOs and a beach cleaning exercise to learn more about social service volunteering.

Participants assumed a certain disability (visually handicapped, hearing impaired, speech impaired, wheelchair-bound and loss of use of fingers) and went round the NUS campus conducting day-to-day tasks.

By using experiential learning and a hands-on approach, the Disability Challenge, jointly organised by the Student Volunteer Corps (SVC) of NCSS and the NUS Student Union Volunteer Action Committee (NVAC), aims to prepare students for volunteering work.

Student volunteers in a discussion sharing their experiences of their temporary disability.