Every advocacy appeal needs to be backed up with strong evidence and data to make it more convenient in understanding the scenario.
From the perspective of identifying practical and attainable policy solutions that make it possible to build a consensus in favor of change, research helps you gain a clear understanding of the causes and effects of issues.
Without a thorough understanding of your problem, which research provides, it is impossible to make logical and coherent arguments in favor of changing policies.
Voice of Specially Abled People’s biggest priority is to spread the knowledge and awareness of our present situation to advocate the data modeling driven possibilities in future that we envision to unravel a brighter and more prosperous path!
It all started in 2020 when the world was under Covid Lockdown, the youth volunteers of Voice of SAP Manushri Desai and Anusha Singh – USC undergraduate students, stepped up to bring forth an initiative “VOSAP Collegiate” an engagement program, to involve youth in colleges for becoming disability rights advocates.
VOSAP Collegiate started VRI – VOSAP Research Internship, under which so far 100 students from 20 leading US university students have participated to carry out research in the disability sector. In 2022, VOSAP Research Internship witnessed participation of students from US, Nigeria and Bahrain and undertook Research on Projects like Employment Opportunities in the Disability Sector, CSR Funding in the Disability Sector, and Impact of Rehabilitation Programs.
The VOSAP Collegiate program offers Research Internship with VOSAP to conduct 10-week long research in topics ranging from Accessibility, DII (Disability Inclusion Index) score of Corporations, among others.
VOSAP Collegiate Network aims to promote accessibility and inclusion by establishing VOSAP Club at Universities. 1st club is established at UC Berkeley and the entire Campus of UC Berkeley has been mapped out by students on VOSAP mobile app. Every year as part of VOSAP Collegiate, the students engage in Data Driven Research for various topics.
For Spring 2022 project in UC Berkeley, students undertook Research on ‘Sentimental Analysis about Disability among Politicians and Public in the US using NLP (Natural Language Processing)’
VOSAP strongly believes in citizen participation to create more impact. Our VOSAP mobile application is a useful tool in finding the right kind of resources related to the latest technologies, studies, and innovations taking place around the world. People also contribute to creating a collective database for accessible places which is helpful in multiple ways to strengthen and promote data-driven advocacy.
How can you help?
- We would like to invite more like-minded individuals to engage with us in our endeavor to generate data-driven findings that will help form a strong foundation for Advocacy for the Empowerment of Specially Abled People.
- If you are a student in college/university, enroll yourself or help your fellow students and university become a part of our Research Internship Program. Start VOSAP club
- Share our research findings with leaders in your community and friends in your network