A Promising Future

1. A Promising Future Akhil Paul, Director, Sense International (India) 2nd DbI Asian Conference, Dhaka, 29th-31st January 2006

2. Recognition of Deafblindness • Social Communication- spread awareness about deafblindness • Influence governments to recognise deafblindness as a separate and unique disability in the Acts and legislations • Advocacy and campaigning for rights of deafblind people • Generate relevant statistics by including deafblind people in different surveys Akhil Paul, 2nd DbI Asian Conference, Dhaka, 29th-31st Jan 06

3. Access to services • Strive that every deafblind person gets appropriate and needs-based services • Develop a mechanism to be used in empowering even the grassroots level workers to identify deafblind persons • All educational set-ups (including special schools) open their doors for deafblind children Akhil Paul, 2nd DbI Asian Conference, Dhaka, 29th-31st Jan 06

4. Partnerships and Empowerment • Develop partnerships with governments, main-stream/ development NGOs and INGOs • Establish networks to empower deafblind people and their families • Involve parents in decision making • In-country and Inter-country networking/ Learning from each other Akhil Paul, 2nd DbI Asian Conference, Dhaka, 29th-31st Jan 06

5. Human Resource Development • Skill development programmes for creating a pool of trained/ qualified human resources • Build capacity of educators from single disability to conduct assessment and develop education programmes within the purview of their schools • Training/ exposure visits for educators Akhil Paul, 2nd DbI Asian Conference, Dhaka, 29th-31st Jan 06

6. “Until the great mass of the people shall be filled with the sense of responsibility for each other’s welfare, social justice can never be attained.” Akhil Paul, 2nd DbI Asian Conference, Dhaka, 29th-31st Jan 06