“National Conference on Disability, Accessibility, Inclusion and Wellbeing” 17th-18 Dec, 2019.

Organised at Library Conference Hall by I Access Rights Mission, Centre for Disability Studies and Action, Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS)

Brochure:

NCDAIW 2019 Conference brochure-TISS.pdf

Payment:

The conference registration form for participants be available at the following link:
https://support.tiss.edu/conf_regi_form/
Last date of Registration for the conference is 13th December 2019.

Background:

Disabled Population in India as per census 2011 – In India out of the 121 Cr population, 2.68 Cr persons are disabled which is 2.21% of the total population. Among the disabled population 56% (1.5 Cr) are males and 44% (1.18 Cr) are females. In the total population, the male and female population are 51% and 49% respectively. Majority (69%) of the disabled population resided in rural areas (1.86 Cr disabled persons in rural areas and 0.81 Cr in urban areas). In the case of total population also, 69% are from rural areas while the remaining 31% resided in urban areas. (Census of India 2011,
Analysis)

Indian Context

In India, 2.21% of population has one or other type of disability and 80% of them live in rural India. The Rights for Persons with Disability Act 2016 with its schedule of 21 types of disabilities, definitions, assessment for 21 types disability, bench mark disability, disability certification procedures require participation of all key stakeholders such as government departments, NGOs, rehabilitation professionals, teachers, special educators, psychologists and families, disability experts, doctors, lawyers, PWD towards its standardization. The professionals under each type of disability are working in a highly specialized manner and there is need to dialogue regarding diverse category of disabilities by understanding multidisciplinary approaches, intervention strategies in collaborative manner. This will facilitate to develop best intervention strategies for future needs of persons with disability to develop roadmap and policy interventions. This conference will focus on scope of convergence of various dimensions of disability, accessibility, with a larger goal of inclusion for all and facilitating benchmark practices at national level in context of RPWD Act 2016 and sustainable development as per United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals with larger goal of “No One Leaving Behind”.

National Conference:

This is the fourth conference organised by Centre for Disability Studies and Action at TISS on issue of Inclusion and Accessibility. We started our journey with first ‘International Conference on Disability Rights, Accessibility and Inclusion in India’ at TISS in collaboration with HRLN and ISLP UK, where more than 150 disability rights activists participated from all over India and renowned Disability Rights advocates from ISLP UK. This was instrumental to start series of National Conference on Disability, Accessibility, Inclusion and Wellbeing 2017, 2018 and 2019 is upcoming which was organised in December every year on the day RPWD Act 2016 was passed by parliament.

The current law RPWD Act 2016 were passed after a decade of struggles of the persons with disability, disability advocates, experts, disability specific organisations and policymakers with 21 categories of disabilities. With effect to that various supreme court judgements were passed to protect the rights of persons with disability however there is hardly any awareness on those. Its essential to understand the scenario after the judgements and initiatives taken by government, NGOs towards protecting the rights of persons with disability. Hence the conference is a collective effort to build capacity and highlight the rights-based perspective and disability models together i.e. medical model, social model, a rights-based model in the light of bio-psycho-social-cultural-geographicallegal perspective to facilitate inclusion of persons with disability.

The conference will provide a forum for dialogue and learning to build capacity on the use of each disciplinary knowledge and share best practices to comprehend the same in light of current law to
further realise the needs-based interventions and rights of persons with disability in India. The Conference aims to bring best practices in the disability sector and reimagining disability in the context of the current legislation and policy framework to understand the diverse needs of the population of persons with disability. This will enable professionals to empower PWD as well as design intervention strategies for them with a rights-based approach. The idea is to converge all the aspects of education, higher education, well-being, health, and disability with a larger goal of inclusion of all and accessibility. This is an effort to acknowledge all the disability models together with bio-psycho-social-cultural-legal aspects in understanding the needs of persons with disability to facilitate inclusive development in the country. The current law RPWD Act 2016 has raised the expectation of the PWD across India to get quality benefits, provisions and need-based interventions under the 21 types of disability. In current scenario of disability sector, professionals and practitioners are working in a highly specialised manner and they may be lack of awareness about knowledge generated and diverse practices of other categories of disability, Hence there is urgent need to discuss, dialogue and deliberate regarding each category of disability, rehabilitation and its inclusion process with its multidisciplinary knowledge and practices. This will enlarge the work of the multidisciplinary team to work together in a collaborative manner for understanding future needs of Persons with Disability.

Key invitees will be Indian Representatives from Internationally renowned organisations, Directors of National Institutes in Disability sector, Human Rights organisations and institutions from Health sector, Ministry Representatives of key relevance, Health care and rehabilitation professionals, Disability experts, Universities, Skill development professionals, State Directorate of Higher Education will be participating in the conference.

Aim

The Conference aims to bring together current intervention strategies and inclusive practices in disability sector and re-imagine disability in the multidisciplinary domain with value of equal access, social justice and dignity. It aims to highlights the work done by NGOs, GO, universities /higher education institutions towards inclusion and accessibility. Largely to bring all stakeholders under one platform to dialogue and strategize the develop road map for future.

Objectives

• To understand the problems, perspective and current scenario of persons with disability and bring best practices in the disability sector. Also, re-imagine the disability context in light of the current legislation and policy framework to understand the diverse needs of persons with disability.
• To build capacity and empower professionals to understand the current scenario of PWD with multidimensional context to design needs based intervention for PWD with human rights approach. This conference will focus on the scope of convergence of various dimensions of disability, health, and wellbeing with a larger goal of 'inclusion of all' and accessibility.
• To understand problems of stakeholders as well as multiple interventions strategies taken by the Government, NGOs, Universities and develop a strategic road map towards disability policy framework

Call for Papers & Important Dates:

Last Date for Abstract Submission: 9th Dec, 2019
Approval of Abstract: 11th Dec, 2019
Acceptance of Final Paper: 13th Dec, 2019
Poster Submissions of A3 Size: 13th December, 2019

Call for Papers

Rehabilitation professionals or Practioners
Evidence based practices
Case studies of PWD
PhD Scholars and Researchers
Disability rights initiatives
Education Innovations,
Inclusive practices and replicable models

Call for Abstract: All the abstracts shall be submitted to tissdisability@gmail.com by 2nd December 2019 and full paper by 9 December 2019. Best papers will be published with ISBN publication

Paper Presentation Themes

Disability Laws and Policy
Accessibility and Inclusive practices in Universities/Higher Education
Universal Design and Accessibility
Accessible Technology, ICT and Innovations
Curriculum Accessibility
Education and Inclusion Innovations
Inclusion Initiatives and Exam Reforms
Disability and Mental Health
Skill Development, Entrepreneurship and Job Fairs
Sports for Disabled and Inclusive Sports
Human Rights, Disability and Citizenship
Disability data, Statistics and Census of India
Disability Certification and UDID cards
Disability Social Work
Disability and Sustainable Development Goals

Who can attend?

The conference brings together all key stakeholders working in various disability sectors i.e. Rehabilitation professionals, teachers, Government bodies, CSRs, NGOs, skill development professionals, academicians, lawyers, multidisciplinary team, health care experts, psychologists, parents, social workers, persons with disability experts, PhD and doctoral students, human rights organisations, special educators, institutes, scholars and students from any discipline and social workers.

Organizers:

Tata Institute of Social Sciences is a deemed university of excellence, contributed significantly to the policy level frameworks in the country. It has taken leadership through national initiatives for transforming society through its benchmark inclusive practices at grassroot level in framing people centered policies, programmes for sustainable development of the marginalized population in the country. The Centre for Disability Studies and Action in School of Social Work is first of its kind in the country. This centre aims to develop competent professionals through teaching, training and research. Today it has produced ten successful batches of competent professionals working in the diverse sectors in the disability field in the country. They are primarily working in Ministry of Social Justice, Accessible India Campaign, NSDC, human rights organizations, government, national flagship programmes and non-government organization, field action projects and other innovative initiatives in the country towards people centric practices in the disability sector.

I Access Rights Mission, Field Action Project of The Centre for Disability Studies and Action, School of Social Work, Tata Institute of Social Sciences has developed a Disability Inclusion Mission for higher education institutes and a policy initiative in Maharashtra state towards accessibility and inclusion of persons with disability in higher education and creating universities disabled friendly using RPWD Act 2016 provisions towards sustainable practices for inclusive higher education. We are happy to invite you all to this esteemed conference “National Conference on Disability, Accessibility & Inclusion and Wellbeing” on 17th-18 Dec, 2019

Ali Yavar Jung National Institute of Speech and Hearing Disabilities (Divyangjan) (AYJNISHD(D)) was established on 9th August 1983. It is an autonomous organisation under the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (Divyangjan), Government of India, New Delhi. The Institute is located at Bandra (West), Mumbai – 400 050. Regional Centres of the Institute have been established at Kolkata (1984), New Delhi (1986), Secundarabad (1986) and Bhubaneshwar (1986- in association with Government of Orissa). These are centres aimed at meeting the local and regional needs in terms of manpower development and services. Regional Centre at New Delhi has been shifted to Noida in 2015.and Regional centre at Bhubaneswar has been shifted to Janla in 2008. The District Disability Rehabilitation Centre (DDRCs) under Gramin Punarvasan Yojana (GPY) a programme of the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Government of India was started in the year 2000. The objective of the programme is to provide total rehabilitation to persons with sensory (hearing and vision), physical and mental disabilities.

Directorate of Higher Education, Department of Higher and Technical Education, Government of Maharashtra is collaborating for this National conference.

Outcome:

1. Final outcome of the conference will be developing Disability Policy framework and future roadmap towards inclusive higher education, skill development and creating pathways for equal access.

2. The best papers will be published in the conference proceedings as ISBN book. This includes the compilation of inclusive practices in disability sector and critically analysis and gaps identification in implementation of RPWD Act 2016. Also recommend state network alliance to work as strategic partners towards awareness building and facilitate the implementation process of RPWD Act 2016.

Conference Convener

Dr Vaishali Kolhe
Associate Professor
Project Director
I Access Rights Mission, Field Action Project TISS
Centre for Disability Studies & Action (CDSA)
School of Social Work
Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai ,
Mobile: 8850038149, Email id: vaishali@tiss.edu