National Disability Prevention and Rehabilitation Week

Module 2: Sensitivity Training to PWDs

Ice Breaker: Kanta tayo!

The ice breaker is a practice of receiving and responding by means of music.

The housemates will be divided into two groups, including interns (who have previously
practiced the melodic lines.) Each group will be given a unique melodic line to sing.
After each group practices singing their melodic lines, the two groups will sing together.
Singing the melodic lines together is meant to produce a rich harmony, when sung
correctly. Neither group must be too loud nor too soft. Each group must, thus, make
sure that they can still hear the other group’s line, and at the same time, they must still
hear their own voices. If they cannot hear the other group anymore (receiving), they
must adjust by toning down their volume (responding), and vice versa.

Module Proper:

● Objectives:
1. To instill the need for sensitivity and empathy for PWDs in housemates
2. To encourage housemates to be sensitive and empathetic towards each
other
3. To reiterate principles of proper etiquette towards PWDs in light of the
need to be sensitive

Sensitivity or Pakikiramdam
- A condition in which one is receptive and responsive to another person’s state
of being, including a person’s emotions, thoughts, beliefs, and life circumstances

A practice in sensitivity:
What will you do when you see someone…
- Crying?
 - Who fell and scraped his knee?

- Stressed out?

How do we show sensitivity to people with disabilities?

1. Address and correct our erroneous impressions towards PWDs.

- PWDs are often viewed as:
o Victims or objects of pity
o Burdens to either society or to their families
o A threat to our comfort and safety
o Unable to do certain things
- How do we correct such impressions?
o Remember, people with disabilities are people first, who simply happen to
have a disability.

2. Look beyond the disability, and seek to unleash their potential

- Help PWD not because we pity them
- Help PWD to help them discover their strengths

3. Practice empathy.
- But first, what is empathy?
o It is not pitying a person. (Sympathy)
▪ Have you experienced being pitied by other people? How did it
feel?
 o It is not pretending to be disabled when you see someone with a disability
(Faking empathy)
o It is not showing indifference to another person’s struggle. (Apathy)
▪ Have you experienced being ignored by other people inspite of
showing clear signs of struggling? How did you feel?
o It is striving to understand the struggles of others, by putting oneself in
their situation.
▪ Have you experienced being shown empathy? How did it feel?
▪ How can you show empathy to your seatmate? (Or too invasive na
po ba yung question na ito?) To your co-housemates here in
LCRC?

● Follow-up questions to each point to be discussed in small-groups. Each group

will then share a summary of their discussion with the rest of the audience.

The bottomline: Do unto others as you would have them to unto you!

Activity: Simulating a physical disability

● Materials:
1. 3 blind folds
2. 3 sets of ear plugs
3. 3 pcs. of modeling clay
4. Masking tape
5. Half sheets of paper
6. Pencils

● Procedure:
1. Housemates will be grouped into three
2. First round: One person per group will be blindfolded, and will be asked to
write down their names on a piece of paper.
3. Second round: One person per group will be given ear plugs and will be
asked to sing the happy birthday song.
4. Third round: One person per group will be asked to put one hand behind
their backs, and to mold a lump of clay into a person using only one hand.
5. Fourth round: One person per group will have their thumbs taped to their
palm, and will be asked to draw a person.
6. Fifth round (optional): One person per group will be asked to “walk” from
one end of the room to another with only one foot on the ground.

● Processing:
o Reflection questions:
a. How did it feel to be temporarily blind/deaf/crippled?
b. Was it a nice feeling?
c. Did you feel that you were able to do the tasks assigned to you
well?
 d. In this exercise, you were able to put yourself in the “shoes” of
people with physical disabilities—those who are blind, deaf, and
crippled. How has this exercise affected your impression of people
with those disabilities?

Processing: