Happy Teacher’s Day! Teachers are the noble knowledge guides in our communities from whom we gain much from, through their insights and experiences.
In this article, we spend time speaking to Abdul Rahim who’s a trainer with SPD. With a cheerful and uplifting personality, Rahim shares his thoughts on coaching clients with disabilities and special needs, and why teaching is a passion of his.
Hello Rahim! Could you tell us how did you become a trainer?
I was formerly working at HP until 2010. In my free time, I used to volunteer as a trainer with Mendaki. It was something I enjoyed doing, and I love sharing my knowledge with others.
So, I began working towards becoming a certified trainer. I started as a freelance trainer, working and coaching adults for over 10 years. I taught students to use Microsoft Office products and my classes were held at various community centres and organisations.
What do you do as a trainer with SPD?
I made the switch from being a freelance trainer to an employment and training executive with local-disability focused charity SPD in 2020. I support clients from two programmes, the SPD Sheltered Workshop and the SPD Employment Support Programme.
In the Sheltered Workshop, I introduce the trainees to the digital world and technologies. I teach them how to use gadgets like smartphones and computers and introduce them to useful apps. In the Employment Support Programme, I help the trainees seeking employment build their resumes, prepare for job interviews, conduct online job searches as well as assist them with on-the-job support functions.
The trainees comprise of people with different needs and learning abilities, therefore I do adapt my teaching methods to accommodate them. I realised that they really want to learn, open up and embrace all these technologies. They are as eager to pick up knowledge as much as anybody else.
What’s it like training individuals with disabilities and special needs?
For a start, the teaching methodologies I employ are different. The language I use and how I communicate must be comfortable for them. You must be friendly and engage with them.
I don’t see them as people with disabilities, but as students who really want to learn. If you pay too much attention to their individual disabilities, it may present obstacles in their learning as they might not want to open up and embrace what’s being taught. So, instead of simply teaching and presenting, I do a lot more hands-on demonstrations and work with them at a level they are comfortable at.
Analogies are useful when I need to bring a point across to them. For instance, when explaining to them about some of the dangers and things to be careful of while using the internet, I remind them about how you are usually aware of cars and the traffic when you’re walking on a road. Similarly, in the online world, you also need to aware of some of the dangers that are present.
I prepare before classes by assessing the students’ individual needs. For instance, arrangements will be made to provide a special keyboard with larger numbers, fonts and clearer color contrasts to accommodate a student with vision loss. For students who are hard of hearing, I may rope in a sign interpreter during the training session.
How are you equipping your students with useful skills and learning?
When Covid-19 hit in 2020, Singapore made plans to pivot towards digitalisation. We encountered students who didn’t know how to use a smartphone, other than for making calls.
I showed the trainees on what they could do with all the apps on the phone. They learnt to set an alarm, schedule appointments in their calendars, use a Google map, so in case they got lost, informing someone of their location was convenient. I taught them about all the extra features on Whatsapp they could utilise, such as voice recorders, video calls and showing your location.
This was the first time some of these students were using and experiencing these technologies, possibly because their caregivers limited their use of their smartphones. But I made sure that they understood cyber safety tips and tools, so they could use the internet safely.
There was a client who had cerebral palsy, and had a smartphone and a laptop but never knew how to turn them on. Eventually, she discovered a love for watching videos on You-Tube. Learning how to navigate these digital gadgets was so important for her because she lives alone. She learnt to buy daily necessities online, which saved her the trouble of having to take the bus or train to the supermarket.
For trainees with vision loss, I show them the available tools in their digital gadgets, that can aid them. These Accessibility Tools can enlarge reading fonts, achieve clearer color contrasts and switch viewing screens from normal to high-contrast views, all with a simple tap on the on/off buttons.
By helping them become more aware of all the tools and technologies available to them, they can become more independent.
In the SPD Employment Support Programme, sometimes I have to guide the trainees through repeated tries until they become confident of their own abilities. For instance, when joining a new workplace, they will be familiar in configuring and adjusting their own IT setups to aid them in their work. Being able to solve these issues by themselves, they won’t have to be over-reliant on their colleagues for help with functional support.
What do you aspire to do more for persons with disabilities and special needs groups?
I would love to dive deeper into the different aspects of disabilities and into the specific tools which can help my trainees work better and more efficiently.
I’m always on the lookout for these tools and features that they may have, but don’t use or know much about. This is where we must spend time talking to them, helping them find these methods that can help them acquire these skills and make their work more efficient.
I’m always fulfilled when the trainees enjoy my classes, gain knowledge, and appreciate me for it. If someone can use the knowledge I teach and use it to perform their job well, that for me is a success story!
If you’d like to show your support in the upliftment of individuals with disabilities and special needs, you can donate to SPD! Visit Giving.sg to learn more.
