April 2, 2017

Lars Waldorf

I spent part of Sunday watching some 30 young people with varied disabilities perform a head-spinning variety of dance styles – from break-dancing to Bollywood to conga line – in celebration of World Autism Day. Within the space of an hour, they had gone from what I think was a Kataragama Kawadi dance to what I know was an American cheerleader routine (complete with pom-poms!). In so doing, the concert certainly delivered on its promise to “celebrate diversity.”

This EASE Foundation concert was a happy and homespun affair geared entirely to the children and their families. I was something of a gate-crasher but was warmly welcomed by EASE’s co-founders, Anoja and her son Chandima. Their work is really inspiring and they tell their own story better than I ever could: http://easesrilanka.org/about-us/e-a-s-e-story/.

Unfortunately, our research project in Sri Lanka will only be working with people with physical difficulties. Our project partner, VisAbility, wanted us to work with people with learning disabilities but, unfortunately, the research team was not able to get ethics approval for that. My university was (understandably) concerned that I did not have the skills set or experience to be able to determine when people with learning disabilities were giving informed consent. While I share their concern, I can’t help worrying that the end result may be not enough attention to people with mental disabilities.