Creation of focus group within CHAOSS Asia for differently abled people contributing to open source

[divya-mohan0209]

Context

This is further to the discussion item initiated on our Slack channel by @rowlandm.

• Similar to the initiative by CHAOSS Africa
• Potential to tie into DEI, Metrics/Metric Models for Accessibility, and Badging, locally and expand it to a wider audience.
  • Events
  • Projects

What do we need to do?

• [ ] Engage people with lived experiences and invite them to our meetings
• [ ] Hold space for them to be a participant across the project by understanding their challenges
• [ ] Empower them to participate in ways that are meaningful to them
  • [ ] Evangelists
  • [ ] Software development
  • [ ] Community management
  • [ ] Project/subproject management
  • [ ] Co-ordinators

[rowlandm]

Just a point that even though language around disablity can be challenging, using "differently abled" can be more problematic for some people.

Just two examples below:

Why Disability Activists Argue Against Labels Like ‘Differently Abled’ | The Swaddle

Terms like “special” or “different” are often created by non-disabled, but “well-meaning” people — that doesn’t mean they’re not able-ist. “People use these terms because they see them as accentuating the strengths of people with disabilities. But despite the good intention, these terms are euphemisms that deny recognition of disability as a valued aspect of diversity and identity,” said Carrie Pilarski, a clinical psychologist from the U.S. And no matter how well-intentioned the positive euphemisms may be, at the end of the day, not only do they fail to contribute to inclusivity, but also, by perceiving that disabled individuals have “special abilities,” the terminology can, in fact, hinder or reduce the support available to them. “Euphemisms protect society from accepting hard realities and give it an excuse to not act on them,” Nipun Malhotra, a disability rights activist from Mumbai, wrote in Scroll.

https://www.theswaddle.com/why-people-with-disabilities-often-prefer-to-be-called-disabled-over-differently-abled

Found via nottheonlyone.org as one of 10,100+ #DEI #Diversity, #Equity and #Inclusion items.

1/6 A note for parents and carers of disabled kids and the language you're using... You're not disabled you're differently-abled You're not disabled you're special You're not disabled you're a superhero! These aren't the empowering statements that people think

https://twitter.com/Nina__Tame/status/1577254090979315712

Found via nottheonlyone.org as one of 10,100+ #DEI #Diversity, #Equity and #Inclusion items.

[divya-mohan0209]

Ack!

[sandeepkanabar]

Hey @divya-mohan0209, I would love to nominate myself on this and help in every way I can to drive this forward and make it win-win for folks with disability and for allies as well.

[divya-mohan0209]

Thank you for your self-nomination, @sandeepkanabar! I'll float this as a nomination during our next call and if there are no concerns, we can merge you in as a lead for this initiative to figure out next steps.