SHIFTING DISABILITIES TO ABILITIES

Shifting Disabilities to Abilities:

Why a “Disabling” Environment Enables Better Communication

Shiyin Cai - COO

Berlin, April 16th 2011
 SHIFTING DISABILITIES TO ABILITIES

›  about 284 million people are

visually impaired worldwide

›  39 million of them are fully blind

›  about 90% of the world‘s visually

impaired persons live in developing
countries

›  about 85% of all visual impairment

is avoidable
SHIFTING DISABILITIES TO ABILITIES
SHIFTING DISABILITIES TO ABILITIES
SHIFTING DISABILITIES TO ABILITIES
 SHIFTING DISABILITIES TO ABILITIES

Moving Beyond Sight

SHIFTING DISABILITIES TO ABILITIES
SHIFTING DISABILITIES TO ABILITIES
 SHIFTING DISABILITIES TO ABILITIES

Video from Dialogue in Silence

 Global Footprint 2010
SHIFTING DISABILITIES TO ABILITIES

23 Years, 34 Countries, 164 Cities, 6.5 million visitors

Close to 7000 VI s employed
SHIFTING DISABILITIES TO ABILITIES
 SHIFTING DISABILITIES TO ABILITIES

When There is Dialogue, There is no Darkness

 SHIFTING DISABILITIES TO ABILITIES

OUR MISSION

Social Inclusion of Marginalized People on a Global Basis

OUR GOAL

•  Raising awareness and shifting perspectives towards “otherness”

•  Overcome barriers between “us” and “them”
•  Empower disabled people, raise self-confidence, provide employment
opportunities
 SHIFTING DISABILITIES TO ABILITIES

Video from WEF

SHIFTING DISABILITIES TO ABILITIES
 SHIFTING DISABILITIES TO ABILITIES
> »Managerial staff without a personal identity often fail to get across fundamental concepts
for decisions. A few hours in darkness helps sharpen the identity of any manager.« (Klaus
Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum, 2007)

> »The learning effect is achieved by really listening to each other and by thinking together in
a challenging environment. Both of these things found direct application at work.« (Herald
Sun, Australia, 2007)

> »The half-day training session for our European Junior Managers met even our highest
expectations. Afterwards, the impressions and the exercises in the dark were discussed,
giving our colleagues a chance to analyse their leadership skills from a new
perspective. The feedback of all 16 participants was very positive, and for the future we
have decided to offer this training to our own colleagues.« (Heino Ploeger, Manager
Personnel Development—Olympus Europa GmbH)

> »This was really a very special experience, not just for our group, but as a feedback from
other colleagues.« (After workshop at Allianz Global Investors in Munich, 2009)
 SHIFTING DISABILITIES TO ABILITIES

IN THE DARK:

When You Don’t Talk, You don’t Exist

When You Talk Too Much , the Others don’t Exit

 SHIFTING DISABILITIES TO ABILITIES

It’s a Dialogue

to enlarge our horizon of understanding

 SHIFTING DISABILITIES TO ABILITIES

It’s a Discussion

to convince the others

 SHIFTING DISABILITIES TO ABILITIES

CONTACT ›

Shiyin Cai
Dialogue Social Enterprise GmbH
Alter Wandrahm 9
20457 Hamburg
Germany
www.dialogue-se.com
www.dialogue-in-the-dark.co
www.dialogue-in-silence.com