Panibagong Paraan

September 27, 2004

The “Work-at-Home Project for Persons with Disabilities Through Available Informa-tion and Communication Technology” was the entry of The NOVA Foundation for Dif-ferently Abled Persons, Inc. to the World Bank’s 1st Philippines Development Innova-tion Marketplace ‘Panibagong Paraan’ competition. It was adjudged one of the win-ners out of 1,800 proposals that competed nationwide, and a recipient of a grant sponsored by the Australian Agency for International Development.

The project shall benefit 25 beneficiaries, as follows:

• 17 wheelchair users (7 with polio; 1 with celebral palsy; and, 9 with spinal cord injury);
• 3 with mobility impairment (2 with celebral palsy, and 1 with polio)
• 5 parents of autistic children requiring full time attention and home care

The project shall provide training on medical transcription, with a curriculum that leads toward meeting the criteria of our partner organization, Total Transcription So-lutions, Inc., for eventual work-at-home contracts for those who qualify. Medical transcription, as a growth outsourced industry, presents itself to be the future em-ployment vehicle for wheelchair users, and parents of children with disabilities requir-ing full time home care.

While the small percentage of disabled sector may have been graduates of computer-related courses, the competency demanded for medical transcription calls for famili-arity of medical terms, a good command of the English language and keyboarding skills. The NOVA Foundation has recognized this challenge, as well as, the logistical demand and the financial burden of having to converge daily at one venue for class-room-type instruction.

The project addresses these by providing a 6-month training module that will cover: medical terminology; English as a second language; and medical dictations for tran-scription proficiency, and shall be delivered through ‘distance learning’ via the inter-net, with connectivity being provided by our partner organization, Infocom Technolo-gies, Inc. As a consequence, this evolution to a ‘training-at-home’ leading toward the execution of ‘work-at-home’ contracts is a ‘first’ of its kind for persons with dis-abilities and without medical course-related background.

As the training materials reside in The NOVA Foundation’s web server, the training shall later be made available to future members of the Foundation, as the project is envisioned to be replicated in major cities that have telecommunication infrastructure in place.