25th Annual Pacific Rim International Conference on Disabilities, Honolulu, Hawaii, 4-5 May 2009
Call for Proposals
25th Annual Pacific Rim International Conference on Disabilities
May 4-5, 2009
Honolulu, Hawai‘i
Hawai‘i Convention Center
Note that proposals for workshops need to be submitted by December 12, 2008.
Working toward a brighter future
The Center on Disability Studies (http://www.cds.hawaii.edu) at the University of Hawai‘i cordially invites you to the 25th Annual Pacific Rim International Conference on Disabilities on May 4-5, 2009 in Honolulu, Hawai‘i. Celebrate the collective achievements of the past and look forward to create an inclusive vision for the 21st century. As we face economic uncertainty and global challenges, it is even more important to honor tradition, and use this foundation to navigate our futures.
In the tradition of PacRim, the 2009 conference will revisit familiar themes and explore new directions through scholarship, best practice, and international networking. Join us, and continue this extraordinary journey. We will have several pre and post conference sessions,
including an accessible sports Sunday at the beach; an international film festival; and the 2nd Annual International Forum: Securing the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: Eradicating Poverty.
Envisioning the Future
· To achieve human and social progress we will address poverty.
· To maximize human potential we will highlight indigenous/native peoples; girls and women; and veterans with disabilities.
· To realize our dreams for inclusion and self-determination, we will ensure all people have access to services and opportunities: transition to adulthood, employment, family support, independent living.
· To create an accessible world, we will showcase Universal Design for Learning and Living and feature products and design elements for home, school, play and office.
· To ensure our future we will prepare our youth to take responsibility for the future by bringing them together to dialogue about experiences, visions, insights, and futures.
· To support your attendance PacRim 2009 will provide an early acceptance notice within 2-3 weeks of your submission. Conference rates are very reasonable and we have secured room blocks for under $160 per night. We will also help facilitate room-shares if you are trying to
keep your costs low. We all need to be together!
If you are only able to attend one conference this year, choose PacRim 2009 in Waikiki, Hawaii at the beautiful Hawaii Convention Center.
Traditionally this conference is one of the most exciting for attendees and presenters – providing a unique balance of cultures, and issues of local, national and international importance. This year’s conference will seek to better these efforts and provide you with a most unique and exceptional experience – we hope to be seeing you in Honolulu in
May.
Robert Stodden
Director, the Center on Disability Studies
Charmaine Crockett
Co-Chair, PacRim 2009
Valerie Shearer
Co-Chair, PacRim 2009
People interested in learning more about the conference should please follow the web links listed below. Any inquiries regarding the conference should please be directed to the people organizing PacRim 2009, NOT to We Can Do.
Web Site Links
Text Only version of the Call for Papers:http://www.pacrim.hawaii.edu/ad/callforpapers2009/text.html
About PacRim: http://www.pacrim.hawaii.edu/
PacRim Themes: http://www.pacrim.hawaii.edu/pacriminfo/pacrim2009/topics/
Submission: http://www.pacrim.hawaii.edu/submissions/
Registration: http://www.pacrim.hawaii.edu/registration/
About the Convention Center: http://www.hawaiiconvention.com/
I received this conference announcement via the AsiaPacificDisability email discussion group. Again, all official information on the conference is on their web site, including information on how to contact the organizers as needed.
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[Published at wecando.wordpress.com (We Can Do)]
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 2 so far )4th All Africa Wheelchair Congress Report Available Online
In low-income countries, the overwhelming majority people who need wheelchairs don’t have one. This has a profound impact on their ability to lead independent lives–or even leave their own homes. Participants in a recent conference in Africa exchanged ideas and knowledge on how to address this challenge.
The 4th All Africa Wheelchair Congress Report (PDF format, 446 Kb) can now be downloaded for free on-line. The report summarizes a series of remarks, panel discussions, and other conference sessions on how to promote appropriate wheelchair services across the African continent. The report also presents a list of resolutions made on the last day of the Congress. The 4th All Africa Wheelchair Congress was held in September 2007 in Tanzania.
The Pan Africa Wheelchair Builders Association (PAWBA) and the Tanzanian Training Centre for Orthopaedic Technologists (TATCOT) facilitated the congress. Co-funders included the World Health Organisation, ABILIS, Motivation Africa, Christoffel Blindenmission (CBM), and SINTEF. The 116 participating members came from Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Sudan, Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Angola, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Namibia, South Africa, UK, Norway and USA.
The previous three All Africa Wheelchair Congresses were held in Zambia (2003); Kenya (1998); and Zimbabwe (1995). Each congress was a landmark in developing appropriate and affordable wheelchair products and services in Africa in allowing participants to exchange knowledge across the continent. PAWBA was formed at the 2003 Congress.
You can download the full, 47-page 4th All Africa Wheelchair Congress report in PDF format (446 Kb) at:
http://www.independentliving.org/docs7/pawba-tatcot200709.pdf
We Can Do learned about this report by browsing the AskSource.info database on health, disability, and development. I gathered further detail by skimming the report itself.
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Including the Disabled in Poverty Reduction Strategies
Edited April 8, 2008, to add this paragraph: A new, up-dated version of the handbook described below is now available for free on-line in a format accessible to blind people. It is currently available only in English, but a French translation will be available in a few months from now (April 2008). For more details, go to: https://wecando.wordpress.com/2008/04/08/resource-on-line-handbook-supports-disabled-people-in-fighting-poverty/.
A resource, Making PRSP Inclusive (4 Mb), could help disability advocates in developing countries negotiate with their governments to ensure that disabled people, too, benefit from programs meant to enable them to escape poverty.
PRSP stands for “Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers” (PRSPs). A PRSP is a paper developed by governments that describe the policy and strategies they need to follow in order to reduce poverty and meet the Millennium Development Goals within their country.
These four little letters—PRSP—are some of the most powerful letters known in developing countries. These four letters can help fight poverty, disease, starvation, and ignorance among all populations—including the disabled. More precisely, they are meant to help governments figure out exactly what programs and resources they need to solve the biggest challenges that face the poorest citizens of their country. If a PRSP is developed well and wisely, then millions could benefit—and escape poverty. But if it is done poorly, then millions could lose—perhaps most particularly people with disabilities whose needs may often be overlooked.
PRSPs are never—or at least should never be—developed by government officials in isolation. Donors and development banks usually also participate in the process. They are able to offer advice based on what they have learned about PRSPs developed and implemented in many other developing countries. But the most important partners in the PRSP process are members of civil society. That means people like you—represented through non-governmental organizations (NGOs); trade unions; academic institutions; media outlets; federations of poor people; or, essentially, any organization that is not a government agency. Only the ordinary citizens of a country can best know what their own most urgent needs are. And only poor citizens know what barriers they most need to overcome before they can escape poverty.
The trouble is: in many countries, (Disabled People’s Organizations) DPOs, and people with disabilities generally, don’t participate in the process of developing their country’s PRSP. In some countries, the disability movement may still be weak and fragmented. Also, people with disabilities continue to be “invisible” in most societies: non-disabled people simply don’t think to include them unless they are asked or reminded.
The handbook, Making PRSP Inclusive, was written by the German chapter of Handicap International and the Christoffel-Blindenmission Deutschland (German Christian Blind Mission), and was financed by the World Bank and the German government. It is meant for everyone working in the field of disability including NGOs, service providers, professional associations, people with disabilities themselves, DPOs, and parents’ associations, who wants to participate in their national PRSP process. It is for people who want to ensure that the needs and concerns of disabled people are well represented when their government makes important decisions about what projects they should support; what policies they should implement; and what strategies they should follow when fighting poverty.
The handbook will help readers better understand what the PRSP; who helps develop a country’s PRSP; how the PRSP process works; who finances (funds, pays for) the PRSP; why it is important to include disability issues in your country’s PRSP; and how a DPO can participate in the PRSP. It includes ideas for how you can identify and recruit possible allies so you can help each other become more involved in the PRSP process in your country. It also includes suggestions for how you and the other groups you work with can develop a joint strategy for presenting the needs of disabled people in your country. Later chapters include detailed guidance on how you can work to develop a stronger network or alliance of DPOs and other organizations in your country to advocate or lobby for the needs of disabled people. “Case studies” are presented that describe how the disability movement has already succeeded in including disabled people in the PRSP process in Honduras, Bangladesh, Sierra Leone, Tanzania
For people new to disability–or for people who are looking for language that could help them explain disability to others–the Making PRSP Inclusive guidebook includes a section that defines disability and explains the medical, charity, and social models of disability and the World Health Organization (WHO) classifications of disability. (For additional explanation of the medical, charity, and social models of disability, and other models, see the paper Disability Movement from Charity to Empowerment by Kishor Bhanushali.)
The whole handbook, Making PRSP Inclusive, can be downloaded in PDF format; it is 4 megabytes, so people with a slow modem dial-up will need to allow plenty of time. It may also be possible for you to obtain permission to reproduce and distribute the handbook within your country: for instructions, see the page entitled “Imprint” in the handbook. [EDITED TO ADD: As indicated in the first paragraph of this article, a new, updated version of this handbook is now available on-line, without needing to download any PDF files.]
Handicap International has a full listing of its publications and resources that, like Making PRSP inclusive, can be downloaded for free. Some are targeted at disability advocates who need better tools and resources for educating their country governments about disability and persuading them to be more inclusive. Other publications are targeted at mainstream development organizations who want to find more effective ways of ensuring that people with disabilities are able to fully participate in the programs and projects they offer.
The information contained in this We Can Do post was gathered from the Handicap International web site; from the World Bank web site; and from the Making PRSP Inclusive guidebook itself.
Learn about the updated version of this handbook at https://wecando.wordpress.com/2008/04/08/resource-on-line-handbook-supports-disabled-people-in-fighting-poverty/
Learn how to receive an email alert when new material is posted at We Can Do.
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