True Colours Festival features several inclusive firsts

Source: True Colours Festival website. Some of the featured performers.

Twenty artistes/troupes will converge in Singapore this March for what will be the first and largest gathering of artistes with disabilities to perform in an event in the Asia Pacific region. From 22-25 March 2018, Singapore will play host to True Colours Festival – the Asia Pacific Celebration of Artistes with Disabilities. 
True Colours is presented by UNESCO and The Nippon Foundation (TNF), two international organisations which champion the rights of persons with disabilities (PWDs). It is produced by Very Special Arts Singapore (VSA) and supported by partners such as Platinum Partner DBS, Venue Partner Singapore Sports Hub and the Asia Pacific Development Centre on Disability (APCD).

The festival comprises a ticketed multimedia indoor concert experience at the Singapore Indoor Stadium, a free admission outdoor festival village nearby, and an international conference on arts and disability. The momentum generated at True Colours this March will pave the way for a global festival event timed to coincide with the Tokyo Paralympics 2020.

Multimedia indoor concert experience 

The concert will take place on three evenings, and presents musicians, singers and dancers from the Asia Pacific, along with guest artistes from Canada, the UK, the US and Chile. They will perform to a total estimated audience of more than 12,000 at the Singapore Indoor Stadium. 

Specially commissioned for True Colours performances are new works by contemporary inclusive dance troupe DAZZLE from Japan; wheelchair dancer Rodney Bell from New Zealand, a collaborative theatre production by Singapore’s Very Special Theatrics and Australia’s No Strings Attached Theatre of Disability. Japanese contemporary dancers Kazuyo Morita and Natsumi Sadayuki will also perform a special festival commission on the outdoor Festival Village stage while No Strings Attached will carry out the world premiere of its new work, I Forgot to Remember to Forget.

Among the other highlights are Canadian virtuoso violinist Adrian Anantawan; crooner Tony Dee from Australia, star of the 2016 Rio Paralympics trailer We’re the Superhumans; multinational crew ILL-Abilities, considered one of the world’s most talented street dance crews; Drake Music Scotland’s Digital Orchestra; and Alienette Coldfire from the Philippines, second runner-up in France’s Got Talent 2016. Ma Li and Zhai Xiao Wei, the first pair of dancers with disabilities ever to enter China’s CCTV national dance competition, will also make an appearance. They won the silver medal and the audience popular vote in 2007. 

True Colours Festival Village 

This free admission outdoor festival runs from 23-25 March 2018 and comprises a wide range of activities to appeal to many tastes and ages. Besides interactive experiences that allow visitors to experience and learn about various kinds of disability, the village will also offer up screenings of short films about disability, theatre performances, Paralympic Sports tryouts, an exhibition and sale of art, merchandise, food and drink. 

Arts and Disability International Conference 2018

The Arts and Disability International Conference 2018, jointly organised by the National Arts Council (NAC) and Very Special Arts (VSA) Singapore, takes place on 22 and 23 March at Marina Bay Sands & Enabling Village. The conference aims to provide insights on innovative ways to increase arts accessibility and facilitate sharing of best practices. Featuring a lineup of international and local guest speakers and arts groups from Australia, Cambodia, Canada, Japan, Singapore and UK, they will address some 400 conference participants from comprising social service professionals, disabled and able-bodied artists and policy makers. (Visit URL  for more information).

Said Ichiro Kabasawa, Executive Director of TNF: “Our foundation has been supporting people with disabilities in Japan and around the world for more than 50 years. As the global population increases, including those ageing, we will all need to work harder to eliminate barriers and ensure accessibility, so that everyone is respected and able to play an active role.”

UNESCO’s Dr Indrajit Banerjee, Director of the Knowledge Societies Division in the communication and information sector said: “Government policies, legislation and development planning help create more inclusiveness and opportunity but the arts have a power all their own. Performing arts celebrations such as True Colours Festival play an important role in effecting change in the social and cultural spheres of society too.”

Sim S. Lim, Group Executive and Country Head, DBS Singapore said that being part of the True Colours Festival is part of the bank’s vision to shape a better future for Asia with a focus on building a more inclusive society. “We believe that the True Colours Festival celebrates the strength of the human spirit. Through the medium of performing arts, DBS can help draw people across the region closer together as one community, bound by an appreciation of the resilience and depth of strength that lies within each of us. By supporting these exceptionally talented artistes, we are enabling the community to live their dreams and also nurture the next generation’s mindset when interacting with persons with disabilities among us,” Lim said.

The True Colours Festival will also present other inclusive ‘firsts’, such as:

• A more inclusive seating plan. Ground level seats at the indoor concert will be configured to allow wheelchair users to be seated with or as close to their friends and loved ones as possible.

• A ticket sales campaign called MyTreat in which individuals and companies can purchase concert tickets via the True Colours website. These MyTreat tickets will go into a pool which will be distributed (via disability organisations) to persons with disabilities who cannot afford a ticket.

• A festival website that is screen reader-friendly to people with visual impairment, accessible to those with extreme mobility impairment, to the deaf and hard-of-hearing via closed captions and/or English subtitles for video content, and to the elderly and others with moderate visual impairment via customisable font sizes and colour contrast for easy reading of website information.

“VSA is exceedingly proud to be hosting and producing this historic event. The magnitude and scope of this Festival is unprecedented in the Asia Pacific and its successful outcome will help begin a new narrative about ability before disability in Singapore and the Asia Pacific,“ said Andrew Liew, Chairman of VSA.

True Colours Festival presents performances from talented artistes with disabilities

True Colours Festival, presenting talented performing artistes with disabilities in the Asia Pacific region, will take place from 22-25 March 2018 in Singapore.

Up to 20 performing artistes/troupes from Japan, China, India, Korea, Malaysia, Cambodia, Kazakhstan, New Zealand, Australia and Singapore, plus guest artistes from the UK and Canada, will perform at a multimedia concert experience at the Singapore Indoor Stadium and at the accompanying True Colours Festival Village, a short walk from the concert venue.

True Colours Festival also includes the Arts and Disabilities International Conference 2018, a one-and-a-half day event for professionals and practitioners in the field.

More details including a confirmed lineup of the artistes will be announced in early January 2018.

True Colours is presented by UNESCO and The Nippon Foundation, and produced by Very Special Arts Singapore. 

Details:

Tickets are priced at S$30 with concessions and discounts. An inclusive seating arrangement will be introduced to allow wheelchair users to enjoy the concert experience seated together with their family members and friends.

Tickets cost S$30 each and will go on sale from 11 January 2018.

Add your own branding to SPD paper and electronic greeting cards

Source: SPD website.

SPD, an organisation dedicated to working with people with disabilities to develop their potential to the fullest, has a sheltered workshop* that produces both paper and electronic greeting cards for various occasions, including birthdays, Hari Raya, Deepavali, Christmas and Chinese New Year.

Cards can be customised with corporate logos, specific messages, or designed for other occasions.

Interested?

Visit the e-shop to view the full range of cards. Christmas 2015 and Chinese New Year 2016 cards are already available
Enquire at +65 6579 0742

*A sheltered workshop is a work environment for people with disabilities. 

Getting people with disabilities off the training treadmill and into real jobs

People with disabilities should not be trained for the sake of training, with no jobs in sight, but placed where they can learn on-the-job. In a speech titled Best Practices of Employers in Supported Employment for Persons with Disabilities, Christy Lynch, Chief Executive Officer, KARE Ireland, an organisation which provides support to people who have an intellectual disability and their families, advocated working with people with disabilities and employers to ensure that there is real empowerment.

Speaking at Towards an Inclusive Workforce 2015, an event jointly organised by SPD, and supported by SG Enable and the Singapore Workforce Development Agency (WDA), Lynch noted that the reality of people with disabilities is that they are disconnected from the labour market and typically do not get the opportunity to go to work. Regular supported employment is attainable, he said.

"The problem is – not was – that lots of people do lots of training and never get to the labour market," he noted, pointing out that many people with disabilities are still stuck in less desirable options of sheltered workshops - a daily programme - and vocational training centres.

While many believe that the severely disabled cannot work, Lynch gave real-life examples of people who have done just that with regular supported employment, with job responsibilities matched to their abilities. "Employers don't hear the success stories," he said.

Supported employment enables individuals with disabilities to be employed in real jobs in regular settings where training and other supports are provided on an ongoing basis, Lynch explained. Kare negotiates with employers on what a disabled person may need to learn to fulfil the requirements of the job, and assigns a job coach to work with the person to ensure that he or she can do the job to the standard that the employer requires.

There may be physical adaptations required for the workplace, and the disabled person may need to learn social skills appropriate for the corporate culture, Lynch noted. Many people may fit the job requirements, but need help on the logistics, such as how to get to the workplace, he added.

Misconceptions with the practice are that employers may think disabled people are a source of cheap labour, or that they create a token job that would not have existed otherwise, Lynch cautioned. "It's about real wages and benefits," he said.

Another misconception is that the support for supported employment stops once the disabled person has been successfully placed in the job. Problems can crop up years later, requiring the support organisation to step in again, Lynch said.

"No two people are the same so no support package is the same," he said. "You have to tailor this to the individual."

The fifth Towards an Inclusive Workforce 2015 was held in conjunction with the 2015 Microsoft YouthSpark Scholarship Award Ceremony, which offers financial support to students with disabilities studying in IT-related disciplines. Over 100 participants comprising employers and representatives from institutes of higher learning attended the event at the NTUC Business Centre.

“People with disabilities have work potential. When given the opportunity, job accommodation and support, they too can contribute to the economic growth of Singapore. We are encouraged by the help of Microsoft Singapore in supporting the IT-related aspirations of students with disabilities, and our partners SG Enable and WDA in advancing the employment of people with disabilities, and hope that inclusive hiring will become second nature, and not initiated as a corporate social responsibility exercise,” said Abhimanyau Pal, Executive Director, SPD.

Interested?

Read the TechTrade Asia blog post about the Microsoft YouthSpark Scholarships for 2015