[Applause]
hi everyone I’m Debra
and I’m here to share with you my story
today I often hear people telling me
these things you are so inspiring the
work that you do is amazing how did you
even find the courage to set up your own
social enterprise and while I really
appreciate all these nice things that
people have been telling me I see myself
as a very average 23 year old
Singaporean the only reason I’m able to
do these things is because of one word
privileged privileged enough to be able
to work on the things I care about
and M passionate about and also
privileged enough that I have a
relatively well-to-do family that
supports me in my journey but this
realization only came to me early last
year I grew up with two brothers with
autism and have always witnessed
countless of times how disadvantaged
they are in society how society is very
unkind to watch people like them and
just how in general they didn’t really
fit in okay so but I never understood
these experiences and I never understood
these feelings that my brothers were
facing because on the converse I was an
extremely lucky go I was given all sorts
of opportunities leadership programs
corrective development overseas exchange
programs but my childhood was not as
positive I remember in the early days my
younger brother would melt down almost
every weekend and spoiling all kinds of
possibilities of family outings and
because of that I didn’t enjoy Show and
Tell lessons as well because while all
my classmates were talking about how
much fun they had with their siblings
over the weekend I could never relate to
those experiences and these accumulated
experiences made me feel very isolated
and alienated in secondary 3 when my
family was sending me to Changi Airport
for my exchange trip to Melbourne my
elder brother asked my mom why do I get
to go to so many different countries
with my school and yet he was never
considered for such opportunities at all
I felt something in my heart when I
heard him say that but to a 15 year old
girl going to bought a plane with my
friends flying to a foreign country was
just so much more exciting and enticing
as compared to pondering about why life
was so different from my brother’s so I
ate not that slight discomfort oh yeah
okay so and so now you would think that
my experiences actually led me to what
I’m doing today but it was actually
quite the opposite for very brief
moments in my life I toyed with the idea
of changing society’s perception towards
persons with disabilities but really
what were teenage go to besides I had to
study get good grades so that I can
secure a good job all very typical
Singaporean student mindset secondary
school was also the time where I met my
co-founder Ryan and I also realized that
Ryan had a brother with special needs
upon knowing that fact I was so excited
that I finally found someone who would
understand my feelings and my situation
someone that I could finally connect
with but of course it was nothing like
that
so I found out that Ryan was actually a
saint the kind that would be profound on
news media as the perfect representation
promoting positivity hope and inclusion
but it took an online article to
actually shatter that entire worldview
seeing how a group especially school
teachers were making snide remarks about
their student was enough to make it his
life goal to combat condescending
attitudes of society towards persons
with disabilities so that was back in
2011 and 19 year old Ryan then excelled
in one thing which was dragon boating so
he conceived this idea of wanting to
train an entire team of persons with
disabilities in the spot and it made
perfect sense to him because dragon
boating is perceived as a very
physically and mentally demanding sport
and of
that if they were able to race that
would really make a bold statement that
persons with disabilities are equal so
coincidentally he chanced upon this idea
competition so he submitted the idea and
got through the first round himself and
then after that worked me in for the
finals yes later I would have found out
that he only got me into the finals
because he realized that I could speak
well and design nice lights or at least
better than him so talk about telling
something right from the beginning right
so after that we we actually want the
competition and I remember when I was
walking up on stage I was bombarding him
with so many questions so I asking
questions like what are we going to do
now um we don’t have a plan
we have never worked with persons with
disabilities before how on earth is this
idea ever going to materialize I had no
clue and the whole thing just didn’t
make sense to me
so because we had no plan we did totally
nothing um for the next few weeks after
the competition until one day the
organizers caught us or to check on the
progress and we were like oh yeah I’m
working on it yeah I’m trying to get in
touch with a few organizations oh yeah
there was a hook the line so after I put
down the phone I panic I immediately
went to Google out a whole list of
voluntary welfare organizations serving
persons with disabilities and I emailed
about 20 of them and trust me when I say
it’s uh it seemed like the exact carbon
copy of a spam email so it went along
the lines like this
hey I’m Debra I want to set up a dragon
ball team for you hope to hear from you
soon thank you
so obviously nobody replied even after
two weeks and I remember I was telling
Ryan okay definitely no go we’re just
going to like no not not do anything
from now on but two weeks later the deaf
Association actually replied and that
was how we got started so deaf dragon
started its very first training on 4th
of March 2012 with four deaf peddlers
and the beginning days were extremely
difficult so many people were telling us
deaf dragons wouldn’t work how on earth
can deaf people dragonball when dragon
boating is such a verbal and
communicative spot and how are we going
to communicate with our deaf paddle
when we had no prior knowledge or
experience in sign language but thanks
to partners like StarHub who believed in
us enough to commit to a three-year
sponsorship so with that support the
team grew and by 2014 we will we had
participated in multiple local and
international competitions and because
of we were performing well enough more
people started taking notice of us and
more support also came pouring in and
this was actually a pivotal moment in my
life seeing the kind of impact that a
team like deaf dragons had created it
really changed my perception of persons
with disabilities and turn me into an
advocate for them so now we needed to
win more competitions so we could make
bigger and bolder statements that
persons with disabilities are our equal
stop discriminating them and leaving
them behind
so I send them um so we started getting
our deaf paddlers or to go to the gym
only for them to come back telling us oh
I don’t know how to use the gym
equipment or do the exercises that we
wanted them to do so I send um once
again I send a few more youtube links to
them and they came back telling me coach
I can’t watch this video I don’t
understand it at all back then in 2014
YouTube they don’t have subtitles or
closed captioning so that was when we
considered this crazy idea of wanting to
create Singapore’s first inclusive gym
but upon further research and speaking
to hundreds of people we realized that
there was a bigger gap a more urgent
issue to be addressed there was little
to no awareness and education of persons
with disabilities in society and due to
this gap it was causing so much
misconceptions and discrimination
towards this group of people so that’s
how society staples came about we forum
in 2015 and through our team building
workshops community outreach events and
school programs we want to raise
awareness and educate the public about
persons with disabilities and also
empower everyone to contribute to the
inclusive movement that we are building
and our vision is extremely simple we
want to create an inclusive future for
them
five years ago the word inclusion belly
existed but today it is a buzzword that
is appearing everywhere everyone from
the government to corporations and even
individuals are prepared to put in every
ounce of effort to increase the quality
of lives of persons with disabilities
and also to integrate them into society
but I speak to the people who are not on
the bandwagon yet because creating an
inclusive society is not just merely
creating inclusive playgrounds and
inclusive schools or promoting
inclusiveness as a value and inclusive
society only materializes when every
single one in society is involved when
people start seeing persons with
disabilities not for their disability
but for who they are and when they can
be fully integrated into society not
treated or regarded as a marginalized
group thinking back in my life I
realized that I had privilege in every
step of the way
from being able to dream and hope that
I’ll be driving a Porsche when I was
when I’m 25 years old to getting all
kinds of opportunities and even running
my own social enterprise right now but
the narrative is so so different for so
many persons with disabilities and other
people out there some of them don’t even
have a dream some of them don’t even
dare to dream about the possibilities
and the future because they are so busy
fighting daily struggles and
discrimination that they have no time to
think about this sort of things so my
challenge to you is this start
recognizing and acknowledging the
privileges that you have and after you
have done that what are you going to do
about it are you going to continue to
turn a blind eye to the issues plaguing
society or will you open up yourself to
different perspectives and opinions and
take whatever privilege that you have NP
forward I dream of the day where the
word inclusion doesn’t even exist
anymore because that means Singapore and
the entire war has become so inclusive
that we don’t even need to use the word
to remind or
teach people how to practice inclusion I
have just begun my journey now will you
join me and create an inclusive future
together thank you very much
[Applause]
hi everyone I’m Debra
and I’m here to share with you my story
today I often hear people telling me
these things you are so inspiring the
work that you do is amazing how did you
even find the courage to set up your own
social enterprise and while I really
appreciate all these nice things that
people have been telling me I see myself
as a very average 23 year old
Singaporean the only reason I’m able to
do these things is because of one word
privileged privileged enough to be able
to work on the things I care about
and M passionate about and also
privileged enough that I have a
relatively well-to-do family that
supports me in my journey but this
realization only came to me early last
year I grew up with two brothers with
autism and have always witnessed
countless of times how disadvantaged
they are in society how society is very
unkind to watch people like them and
just how in general they didn’t really
fit in okay so but I never understood
these experiences and I never understood
these feelings that my brothers were
facing because on the converse I was an
extremely lucky go I was given all sorts
of opportunities leadership programs
corrective development overseas exchange
programs but my childhood was not as
positive I remember in the early days my
younger brother would melt down almost
every weekend and spoiling all kinds of
possibilities of family outings and
because of that I didn’t enjoy Show and
Tell lessons as well because while all
my classmates were talking about how
much fun they had with their siblings
over the weekend I could never relate to
those experiences and these accumulated
experiences made me feel very isolated
and alienated in secondary 3 when my
family was sending me to Changi Airport
for my exchange trip to Melbourne my
elder brother asked my mom why do I get
to go to so many different countries
with my school and yet he was never
considered for such opportunities at all
I felt something in my heart when I
heard him say that but to a 15 year old
girl going to bought a plane with my
friends flying to a foreign country was
just so much more exciting and enticing
as compared to pondering about why life
was so different from my brother’s so I
ate not that slight discomfort oh yeah
okay so and so now you would think that
my experiences actually led me to what
I’m doing today but it was actually
quite the opposite for very brief
moments in my life I toyed with the idea
of changing society’s perception towards
persons with disabilities but really
what were teenage go to besides I had to
study get good grades so that I can
secure a good job all very typical
Singaporean student mindset secondary
school was also the time where I met my
co-founder Ryan and I also realized that
Ryan had a brother with special needs
upon knowing that fact I was so excited
that I finally found someone who would
understand my feelings and my situation
someone that I could finally connect
with but of course it was nothing like
that
so I found out that Ryan was actually a
saint the kind that would be profound on
news media as the perfect representation
promoting positivity hope and inclusion
but it took an online article to
actually shatter that entire worldview
seeing how a group especially school
teachers were making snide remarks about
their student was enough to make it his
life goal to combat condescending
attitudes of society towards persons
with disabilities so that was back in
2011 and 19 year old Ryan then excelled
in one thing which was dragon boating so
he conceived this idea of wanting to
train an entire team of persons with
disabilities in the spot and it made
perfect sense to him because dragon
boating is perceived as a very
physically and mentally demanding sport
and of
that if they were able to race that
would really make a bold statement that
persons with disabilities are equal so
coincidentally he chanced upon this idea
competition so he submitted the idea and
got through the first round himself and
then after that worked me in for the
finals yes later I would have found out
that he only got me into the finals
because he realized that I could speak
well and design nice lights or at least
better than him so talk about telling
something right from the beginning right
so after that we we actually want the
competition and I remember when I was
walking up on stage I was bombarding him
with so many questions so I asking
questions like what are we going to do
now um we don’t have a plan
we have never worked with persons with
disabilities before how on earth is this
idea ever going to materialize I had no
clue and the whole thing just didn’t
make sense to me
so because we had no plan we did totally
nothing um for the next few weeks after
the competition until one day the
organizers caught us or to check on the
progress and we were like oh yeah I’m
working on it yeah I’m trying to get in
touch with a few organizations oh yeah
there was a hook the line so after I put
down the phone I panic I immediately
went to Google out a whole list of
voluntary welfare organizations serving
persons with disabilities and I emailed
about 20 of them and trust me when I say
it’s uh it seemed like the exact carbon
copy of a spam email so it went along
the lines like this
hey I’m Debra I want to set up a dragon
ball team for you hope to hear from you
soon thank you
so obviously nobody replied even after
two weeks and I remember I was telling
Ryan okay definitely no go we’re just
going to like no not not do anything
from now on but two weeks later the deaf
Association actually replied and that
was how we got started so deaf dragon
started its very first training on 4th
of March 2012 with four deaf peddlers
and the beginning days were extremely
difficult so many people were telling us
deaf dragons wouldn’t work how on earth
can deaf people dragonball when dragon
boating is such a verbal and
communicative spot and how are we going
to communicate with our deaf paddle
when we had no prior knowledge or
experience in sign language but thanks
to partners like StarHub who believed in
us enough to commit to a three-year
sponsorship so with that support the
team grew and by 2014 we will we had
participated in multiple local and
international competitions and because
of we were performing well enough more
people started taking notice of us and
more support also came pouring in and
this was actually a pivotal moment in my
life seeing the kind of impact that a
team like deaf dragons had created it
really changed my perception of persons
with disabilities and turn me into an
advocate for them so now we needed to
win more competitions so we could make
bigger and bolder statements that
persons with disabilities are our equal
stop discriminating them and leaving
them behind
so I send them um so we started getting
our deaf paddlers or to go to the gym
only for them to come back telling us oh
I don’t know how to use the gym
equipment or do the exercises that we
wanted them to do so I send um once
again I send a few more youtube links to
them and they came back telling me coach
I can’t watch this video I don’t
understand it at all back then in 2014
YouTube they don’t have subtitles or
closed captioning so that was when we
considered this crazy idea of wanting to
create Singapore’s first inclusive gym
but upon further research and speaking
to hundreds of people we realized that
there was a bigger gap a more urgent
issue to be addressed there was little
to no awareness and education of persons
with disabilities in society and due to
this gap it was causing so much
misconceptions and discrimination
towards this group of people so that’s
how society staples came about we forum
in 2015 and through our team building
workshops community outreach events and
school programs we want to raise
awareness and educate the public about
persons with disabilities and also
empower everyone to contribute to the
inclusive movement that we are building
and our vision is extremely simple we
want to create an inclusive future for
them
five years ago the word inclusion belly
existed but today it is a buzzword that
is appearing everywhere everyone from
the government to corporations and even
individuals are prepared to put in every
ounce of effort to increase the quality
of lives of persons with disabilities
and also to integrate them into society
but I speak to the people who are not on
the bandwagon yet because creating an
inclusive society is not just merely
creating inclusive playgrounds and
inclusive schools or promoting
inclusiveness as a value and inclusive
society only materializes when every
single one in society is involved when
people start seeing persons with
disabilities not for their disability
but for who they are and when they can
be fully integrated into society not
treated or regarded as a marginalized
group thinking back in my life I
realized that I had privilege in every
step of the way
from being able to dream and hope that
I’ll be driving a Porsche when I was
when I’m 25 years old to getting all
kinds of opportunities and even running
my own social enterprise right now but
the narrative is so so different for so
many persons with disabilities and other
people out there some of them don’t even
have a dream some of them don’t even
dare to dream about the possibilities
and the future because they are so busy
fighting daily struggles and
discrimination that they have no time to
think about this sort of things so my
challenge to you is this start
recognizing and acknowledging the
privileges that you have and after you
have done that what are you going to do
about it are you going to continue to
turn a blind eye to the issues plaguing
society or will you open up yourself to
different perspectives and opinions and
take whatever privilege that you have NP
forward I dream of the day where the
word inclusion doesn’t even exist
anymore because that means Singapore and
the entire war has become so inclusive
that we don’t even need to use the word
to remind or
teach people how to practice inclusion I
have just begun my journey now will you
join me and create an inclusive future
together thank you very much
[Applause]
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