Disabled Voices from Gaza team Hosts Workshop to Assess Needs of Palestinian University Students with Disabilities through Qualitative Data Collection

The team of Disabled Voices from Gaza project in Gaza held a workshop to gather qualitative data to study the needs of students with disabilities in Palestinian universities. The workshop aimed to identify the training needs to develop their media and information literacy and storytelling skills in order to effectively and efficiently communicate their voice to the world through the use of modern technologies and social media.

The workshop, which was held on Sunday, January 29, 2023 at the Women’s Studies Center at the Islamic University, was attended by the project’s research team representing the project, led by Dr. Mahmoud Jalambo, and Dr. Nesma Al-Ghoula, the coordinator of the Disability Services Center, and Engineer Sharehan Al-Masri, the project coordinator. The workshop was also attended by a number of students with different disabilities, including hearing, visual, and mobility impairments. The workshop discussed and collected opinions on the skills that students with disabilities need in the field of information and media literacy and storytelling.

The workshop concluded with a series of a focus group and individual interviews with members of the sample, including students from different universities as well as students from the Islamic University. It is worth mentioning that this workshop is part of the project to develop narrative, media and information strategies for disabled university students in Palestine, funded by the British Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and managed by Dr. Nazmi Al-Masri, in partnership with the Work Against Violence Foundation and in collaboration with the University of Birmingham in the UK.