OIC Cambodia

OIC Cambodia has been engaged by the Australia-Cambodia Cooperation for Equitable Sustainable Services (ACCESS) Program, to provide a series of workshops for its partners on ‘Including people with communication disabilities in disability and gender-based violence related services in Cambodia’. ACCESS is an Australian Government initiative to improve the sustainability, quality and inclusiveness of services for persons with disabilities and for women affected by gender-based violence (GBV) in Cambodia.

At least 1 in 25 people in Cambodia have communication or swallowing difficulties. People with communication disabilities have the same rights as anyone else yet face barriers to full participation and inclusion in all aspects of life. In comparison to people with physical or sensory disabilities (e.g., hearing or vision), people with ‘invisible’ disabilities such as communication disabilities are more likely to be excluded. In Cambodia, people with communication disabilities experience barriers to participation in many ways including:

• Accessing information e.g., language and format used cannot be easily understood by individuals with difficulty understanding language and/or reading.
• Accessing services e.g., education, health, justice, social due to barriers such as negative attitudes, inaccessible environments (e.g., building signage only available in written form).
• Expressing their ‘voice’ (what they want to say) at individual and societal levels (e.g., independent and autonomous expression of their needs) due to a lack of availability and acceptance of other forms of communication (e.g., sign language, braille, picture/ symbol-based communication).
• - Accessing specific services (e.g., speech therapy) and assistive technology they need to communicate e.g., alternative and augmentative communication systems (communication book, communication software and/or hardware), voice amplification system and hearing aids