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The activities below can help you work with persons with disabilities so that they can benefit from lifelong learning opportunities.

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Use your mouse or keyboard to expand each of the activity headings below. To add an activity to your action plan, select the Add button beside it. Once you have added an activity to your action plan, select Action plan > My action plan from the menu above to complete that activity.

Facilitate support for transitions
A group of four women, including one woman in a wheelchair, attend the Garment Workers Adult Literacy Class.

CBR personnel are ideally placed to act as liaison between students with disabilities and families, employers, trainers and self-advocacy groups. The transition from school to work or to further skills training and increased independence can be very challenging if unsupported. CBR personnel can help identify and advise on available careers and peer counselling opportunities, and ensure that they are accessible, relevant and effective. CBR can also involve organizations of people with disabilities in advising and assisting young people to develop confidence and skills to make their own choices and to direct their own learning.

The following is a video about how CBR in the West Bank and Gaza Strip provided support for a young woman during transition periods in her life.

Select Learn more to watch this video. As you watch, think about the traits and characteristics that enabled this young woman to overcome the series of obstacles she faced. Notice also what the CBR programme did to support and enhance these inner strengths.

Learn about how a young woman in Palestine received the support she needed for the transitions in her life.

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Select the video Play () button (above) to watch the story of Hanan.
Identify opportunities for adult literacy and adult education

Many adults with disabilities may face a variety of barriers in accessing formal or continuing education, including:

  • Inability to meet entry qualifications
  • Inaccessibility of buildings
  • Inability to pay fees
  • Unwillingness of the institution to accept a learner with a disability
  • Having to work during school hours

CBR can identify and create opportunities for adult literacy and adult education through open schooling within the wider community.

Learn about how CBR helped to enrol a young woman in open schooling.

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Maya successfully completed the first three grades in school because there were no written examinations. However, at age 10, the school authorities forced her to leave school because of her visual, intellectual, and physical disabilities. She went to an association of blind people for advice, and the association helped her enrol in an open school. There, Maya completed her higher secondary examination over a period of 13 years. Afterwards she took part in vocational training, a computer course, and other classes that taught social skills. Today, Maya is trained in flower arrangement and artificial flower making. She still takes part in classes at the open school according to her needs and interests.

Identify opportunities for continuing education

Continuing education opportunities are becoming increasingly available through local educational institutions, distance education and web-based educational programmes. Distance education can often eliminate barriers such as:

  • Physical distance
  • Lack of accessible transportation
  • A hostile environment
  • Lack of fit between an individual learner’s pace and style of learning and classroom-based approaches

Distance education can enable people with disabilities to benefit from higher education. CBR personnel need to be aware of these developments and be equipped to help people with disabilities to take advantage of the benefits they offer.

Learn about how a young woman from Malaysia participated in distance education.

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Yusof is a young woman living in Georgetown, Malaysia. She became paralyzed at age 13. However, she always wanted to get a degree and set an example for her seven siblings. So, she enrolled in a distance learning programme at a university to study literature, where she studies online through video and self-learning modules.

Facilitate learning for individuals and groups with particular needs
CBR can help individuals or groups of people with disabilities to access appropriate learning opportunities and acquire the skills they want and need. Your organization can identify or create opportunities for individuals with significant disabilities to attend school, undergo training or access distance learning opportunities. You can also assist institutions and their staff to orient themselves to the assistive devices and media required to interact and communicate meaningfully with persons with various disabilities.
Ensure opportunities for learning life and survival skills
CBR programmes can work with organizations and community groups to provide opportunities for youth and adults with disabilities to develop the skills required for daily life and participation in society. Remember that the key principle is to identify existing education programmes and work to make them inclusive, rather than setting up parallel programmes. Also, keep in mind that some people in your community may be particularly vulnerable, such as young girls with disabilities and people with intellectual impairments or long-term mental health conditions. The organizations and community groups you work with may require awareness-raising and code-of-conduct guidelines for working with persons with disabilities, as well as helping individuals develop specific skills for self-protection from physical and sexual abuse.
Work with educators in the community to promote social inclusion
Once community educators are sensitized to the desire for lifelong learning opportunities among people with disabilities, they can help to bring about the inclusion and active participation of people with disabilities in such community-based activities. CBR can work with community organizations such as disabled people’s organizations and parents’ associations. CBR can encourage them and others to share their experiences and knowledge to create disability awareness and promote inclusion in available lifelong learning opportunities.

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