Community Stories

Victoria’s Story

As a year one student at Temasek Polytechnic, I was tasked to collaborate with AWWA, the organisation behind the website include.sg. Through my project, my team were to think of ways we can encourage an inclusive community, specifically among youths.

I first started this journey thinking the objective was to make the audience aware of people with special needs and encourage them to give them ‘special treatment’ because of how different they are to ‘normal’ kids— I was far from the truth.

While working with my group mates, talking with the people of AWWA and some self-reflection, I realised that it’s not about ‘isolating who may have what type of special needs’ but about getting people to understand that people with special needs are not as different as we may think. Some of their traits, although more evident, may also be present in us ‘normal people’ e.g. shorter attention span, slower learning than peers.

I am very thankful for this opportunity as I am able to reach a more elevated and developed thinking towards what inclusion really is. I hope those who wish to be part of an inclusive community realises this too!!