Disability Awareness Training

Disability Equality Awareness Training (DEAT) is a registered charity based in Elgin, Scotland. Run by a small team of trainers, who are themselves disabled, DEAT's principal objective is to give able-bodied people an understanding about how there can be equality of opportunity for people with disability.

DEAT organises tailor-made courses, which normally run for a day. They give participants a first hand experience of the obstacles and frustrations, encountered by the disabled in everyday life. The courses aim to be enjoyable and informative and include a series of games and challenges, covering activities, which most people normally take for granted. For example:

• What it is like to go to the toilet in a wheelchair.

• When blind, what it is like to board a bus or train, or get a meal in a restaurant.

• When deaf, trying to understand people who are talking, but looking the other way.

• When lacking a limb, trying to get around a busy supermarket.

The overall aim of DEAT being to promote better communication and enable able-bodied and disabled people to understand each others point of view.

In addition DEAT will provide information about the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) and what it means for people in all walks of life, including employers and employees in offices and factories, staff and students in schools and colleges, shop owners, vehicle drivers and the public in general.

For further information about Disability Equality Awareness Training contact their Secretary, David Dick, The Hayloft, 16 Hay Street, Elgin, IV30 1NQ. Tel/Fax: 01343 543333. Email: david@dard.demon.co.uk