Thousands of people access Disability Awareness Week events
10 December 2021
Derry City and Strabane Council’s Disability Awareness Week programme has attracted over 1,000 attendees and an online reach of over 100,000 through its hybrid programme of online and physical events.
With funding from the Public Health Agency and in partnership with Fermanagh and Omagh District Council the events showcased and recognised the Council area's commitment to access and inclusion through the arts and raised awareness of the needs of those with disabilities.
Catriona Doherty, Access and Inclusion Officer at DCSDC, said the organisers were delighted with the public’s response to the programme.
“The celebration showcased disability arts through various online portals and face to face events and included visual arts and animation, discussions and lunchtime talks, performances, interactive activities, training and showcases,” she explained.
“We were delighted to see over 1,000 people at our physical events and over 2,000 web views and downloads online.
“On social media we reached over 100,000 people across our various platforms so we are delighted we were able to highlight disability arts and awareness of health inequalities to such a wide audience.
“Arts and culture activity have a wide range of health benefits for people with disabilities and these events were a suitable way to discuss and maximise those within our Council area.”
The objectives of Disability Week are underpinned by Public Health’s Five Steps to Wellbeing https://www.publichealth.hscni.net/publications/take-5-steps-wellbeing-english-and-11-translation.
This overarching theme of International Day of People with Disabilities 2021 was ‘Access All Areas’ and each day, the programme embraced a range of topics including health and wellbeing; family and friends; sustainability; social enterprise; recreation and creativity.
Throughout the week there was a series of training sessions, information sessions and workshops examining each of the topics, raising awareness and highlighting good practice locally.
For more information on Disability Awareness Week visit www.derrystrabane/DisabilityWeek or for more information contact Caitriona.doherty@derrystrabane.com.