In our foundational research, we found that many people have little understanding of common IDDs, which hampers their ability to interact with individuals with IDDs, despite having good intentions. This lack of awareness eventually contributes to prejudice and pity towards them, leading to social isolation and marginalisation. Our aim is to demystify IDDs and inspire people to be neuro-inclusive.
Naina's Inclusive Duniya is freely available on Instagram. The central characters have diverse abilities. Some are 'neurotypical' (like Naina), and others have a form of IDD, for e.g. autism, Down syndrome, intellectual disability, dyslexia, cerebral palsy and ADHD. The stories depict daily life scenarios and what allyship could look like.
Using the comic, we design educational experiences for the youth. Inclusive Duniya Circles are 60 to 75-minute sessions done with children or adolescents, engaging them in a friendly conversation about neurodiversity and allyship. Reflective questions and discussion prompts help them interpret the selected stories, and identify how they could be allies to people with IDDs. These can be easily facilitated with materials we provide.
We are currently creating an SEL curriculum based on the comic, including short sessions targeting the development of CASEL competencies, which can be easily adopted by schools and conducted by teachers.
We strongly believe in driving social change through change agents. Hence we use a volunteering model for the Inclusive Duniya Circles. We sensitise and train interested allies/volunteers to facilitate the Circles, providing them the materials and support needed. Our volunteers are of all ages and backgrounds - senior secondary students, college students, siblings, mothers, teachers, etc. The Circles have been conducted in various parts of India, and in regional languages as well.
In the past 2.5 years, our allies and volunteers have facilitated hundreds of Inclusive Duniya Circles, leading to thousands of children and adolescents having a better understanding of neurodiversity and allyship.
Additionally, our comic has reached over 205,000 people on Instagram.
Naina's Inclusive Duniya is freely available on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/inclusiveduniya/.
We invite all volunteers and allies to conduct Inclusive Duniya Circles with children and adolescents around you!
Once you fill out the interest form, we will send you the Inclusive Duniya Circle Toolkit which has all the materials you need to facilitate a circle.
