In mid-September Huy and Miriam will travel to the Nossal Institute for Global Health at the University of Melbourne to present a session on Disability Inclusive Development at an intensive course, “Disability in Developing Countries”, run by Alex Devine. During the session a group of more than 40 Masters and PhD students in Development Studies will consider “enabling environments” – that is, how to make development activities disability-inclusive and how to design disability-specific activities in country.

The students will be presented with case studies from Huy’s time in Timor Leste, including a learning model of an accessible toilet, developed by Huy whilst delivering on-ground training during January and February 2011. The learning objectives of the course focus on the social-environmental model of disability – wherein we recognise that a person’s physical and social environment ultimately enable inclusion or create barriers to inclusion for people with a disability. This ties in perfectly with a core goal of Greatvenue – to reduce these barriers by providing the information needed by people with a disability to make venues accessible to them.

Huy’s time in Timor Leste is also used as a case study for a report written for a group of International Development Organisations on the WAter, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) needs of People With a Disability. This report will be released in the near future, so watch this space!