Expanding your interests: AKASA case study – Part 4

In this step, we look at some of the ways that AKASA, an association of women with disabilities in rural Sri Lanka, has worked to support disabled women.

As Kamala explains, AKASA provides practical supports so that women with disabilities can have opportunities equal to those of other women in their communities. In particular, their livelihood projects have helped to create opportunities for women with disabilities to be involved in cultural, social, recreational, educational and vocational activities.

In addition to providing individual supports for disabled people in the community, such as leadership training, AKASA has also worked more broadly to raise awareness about human rights among individuals, community members, and governments; and has supported disabled women to form supportive relationships with one another across cultural and ethnic boundaries. These various supports have also worked to change the perception of women with disability in their communities, and even to change their own perceptions of themselves.

For Kamala, providing support goes hand-in-hand with the provision of access and opportunity. But it also involves cultivating respect for human diversity and human rights, and helping people to see past their differences and form supportive relationships with one another.

Talking points

• What different kinds of support do you recognise from the video?
• Does this example in any way change your ideas about support?
• Human rights is central to AKASA’s approach to support. What impact do you think a human rights framework has?
• How does this case study tie together the different topics from this course?

In the next step we look at yet another case study — support for parents with intellectual disabilities.