Public education has a key role to play in building the community’s support and allyship for people living with disability. This is the finding of a multi-year project undertaken by CEI and Asia Insight for Singapore’s focal agency for disability and inclusion, SG Enable.
“Although our research showed generally positive attitudes toward disability and inclusion across the Singapore community, fewer than one in two people feel confident in directly interacting with, supporting or assisting people with disability,” says CEI Associate Director Dr Grace Chng.
“But among those who had engaged with SG Enable’s public education activities, nine in 10 said they now felt more confident in their ability to interact and provide assistance or support – a significant shift in sentiment.”
SG Enable’s public education team sought to establish and then apply an Impact Measurement Framework to understand how well their program of general public and targeted audience activities might be enhancing social inclusion of people with disabilities.
“An early step was developing a Theory of Change, which identifies the program’s overarching goal, key activities being undertaken and the short-, medium- and long-term outcomes sought,” Grace explains. “Defining these elements was key to building and testing a rigorous Impact Measurement Framework and a toolkit to track the effects of SG Enable’s public education program.”
A representative series of 2023 activities were evaluated using the Framework: two national public awareness campaigns, three specifically targeted approaches, a disability champions initiative and a public education fund for which organisations and individuals could apply to support local projects promoting positive attitudes, abilities and action in disability and inclusion.
Key findings include:
- 90% of people in the general community who engaged with public education initiatives are more confident to interact with and support people with disabilities
- 97% of people in schools who engaged with public education initiatives are more confident to interact with and support people with disabilities
- 85% of participants in public engagement initiatives are now more aware of people with disabilities in the community
- 78% of participants in public engagement initiatives have an intent to act on creating a more inclusive society for people with disabilities
- 96% of those who participated in disability awareness sessions rated themselves as more familiar with disabilities post-initiative, compared with 64% pre-initiative
“We find that the more contact and familiarity people have with those living with disabilities, the more positive and inclusive their responses are,” says Grace. “This shows that public education, particularly when it directly involves people with disability, may help to bridge the knowledge-to-action gap and to build and sustain a positive mindset shift among the general public.”
“Collaborating with CEI and Asia Insight has been valuable in enabling us to systematically measure the reach and impact of our public education efforts,” says Ku Geok Boon, Founding CEO of SG Enable.
“This research not only validates the significant progress we've made but also highlights areas where we can strengthen our efforts. These insights also lay a strong foundation for future initiatives, ensuring that we create lasting change and ultimately propel Singapore toward becoming a truly inclusive society.”