President of the Disabled People’s Association Nicholas Aw, 50, looks to the younger generation to be the change for a more inclusive Singapore in the future. Nicholas, who has Tourette’s syndrome – a neurological disorder characterised by involuntary movements or…
As a kid in a mainstream primary school, Charmaine Tan had resigned herself to sitting in a corner and reading books because she was not able to play with her normal-sighted classmates. “When I was young, I did not have any…
In May of 2000, my fourteen-year- old daughter looked forward to making the volleyball team at her new school. Instead, Beth would begin her freshman year with a C6-7 spinal cord injury, the result of a car accident near our hometown in…
Since she was a kid, Charmaine Tan thought up of many strategies to keep reading. Born with retinitis pigmentosa, a progressive deterioration that causes eventual total vision loss, Charmaine had tunnel vision and only lost her ability to read two years…
Photographer Dennis Ong has always found life to be more educational outside of school. Describing his scholastic performance as being “just good enough to progress to the next stage,” he remembers his childhood as a fun time. “My parents are…
Families of children with disabilities (CWDs) probably know the fear and insecurity that surrounds the first moments when they discover their child’s condition. For many, these doubts may cloud their decision-making. Occupational therapist and life coach Sid Hamid believes that…
“In the realm of disability and family, we talk most often about mothers,” says Donna Thomson, who is the primary caregiver for her son, Nicholas, who has severe cerebral palsy. But lest we not forget the important roles our…
A new change is upon the fashion world. Led by the collaboration between Runway of Dreams and Tommy Hilfiger, a line of adaptive clothing for children is being introduced in mainstream fashion. Mindy Scheier, the founder of Runway of…
Occupational therapist and life coach Sid Hamid knows what it was like to not fit in with his peers, as a kid. “There was one thing that made me stand out differently, in a bad way,” he said. Families of children…
Being misunderstood or discriminated against is something that ‘deafies’ – a slang term that Grace Ng uses for members of her deaf community – deal with persistently. Even though there are well over 5000 deaf people in Singapore, many still face…