Tribe to launch tours of Enabling Village with three local heroes

There is a place in Singapore that is little known even to locals. I only got to know of it after I enrolled my dog in a canine therapy programme run by EQUAL, a Singapore charity Institution that strives to transform lives through Animal-Assisted Services.

Bowie goes for his training as a therapy animal at EQUAL’s office in Enabling Village, and every now and then, I accompany him to the centre to watch him “work”, although I’m not sure he sees it as work, more of an outing for play, treats and new friends. In any case, he’s taking to it like a Golden Retriever to water.

Enabling Village, an inclusive community space in Singapore “that serve and are supported by people with diverse abilities”. Photo credit: Enabling Village

Enabling Village is an interesting space. An initiative by the Ministry of Social and Family Development and SG Enable, it is an inclusive community space “that serve and are supported by people with diverse abilities”.

Its website says, “Our goal is to make the Enabling Village a place where people with different abilities can move independently; where they can feel accepted for who they are, and be valued for their contributions.”

Its open spaces are inclusive and accessible to visitors with disabilities. There’s a showcase of current assistive technologies and product/service design and there’s a cluster of several social businesses like cafes, bistros and art shops that are staffed by both able-bodied and disabled individuals.

Put simply, it is an inclusive and accessible place specifically for people with disabilities but is also generally a really cool space, with lots of open areas and greenery, for anyone to hang out.

From left, Joanne Toh, Eliza Hoh, Yock Song Law, Warren Sheldon Humphries and Jackie Cheong – the newly-minted team behind the new tours of Enabling Village

Meet Joanne, Jackie and Warren, Tribe’s newest tour guides

It was at Professor Brawn Café, run by the Autism Resource Centre (Singapore), where I met with Yock Song Law, head of partnerships of Tribe Tours, tour guide trainer Eliza Hoh and his newest tour guides, Joanne Toh, Jackie Cheong and Warren Sheldon Humphries. Joanne, Jackie and Warren are not just any tour guides though, they are the first PWDs (Persons with Disabilities) who will become docent guides at the Enabling Village.

Law, whose company is known for creating award-winning tours such as Chinatown Murders, a games tour where participants get to solve puzzles, is creating the first inclusive and accessible tour of Singapore, to be run by PWD guides. These customised tours will be run for corporates, and groups including schools, from August.

While there have been tours of Enabling Village before, this is the first to be guided by PWDs. Said Law, “PWDs are referred to as Persons with Disabilities (PWDs). However, I see them as Persons with Determination, and a source of inspiration to many. I felt these tours should highlight their stories, so it’s not just about the village but the incredible human stories that Joanne, Jackie and Warren can share.”

Law started talks with SG Enable late last year on the possibility of hiring PWDs. “They shared that many companies failed to recognize the value PWDs bring, believing they are less productive than able-bodied individuals. While I understand these concerns, my time with Joanne, Jackie, and Sheldon has reaffirmed my belief in their immense potential.”

Indeed, spending time myself with Joanne, Jackie and Warren has been truly enlightening. Each has their own story to share, not just about how they got their disability but about how they overcame the odds to live pretty extraordinary lives.

Bowie at his workplace in Enabling Village with Joanne and Warren

An author, iChamp and personal trainer

Joanne suffered a stroke about one-and-a-half years ago. “It was a drastic life change. I was pretty busy, independent, doing everything myself, a super mum. After the stroke, I couldn’t do a lot of things, my perspective changed. After two months, I felt compelled to share my story and I wrote a book.”

The book is called “I Found My Smile: Inspiring Courage and Strength in Drastic Life Changes”, and today Joanne speaks at events, and is a coach and mentor to many.

The world went dark on Sheldon in 2020. On April 1, 2020, right before the world went into a pandemic, he was diagnosed with Charcot-Marie-Tooth (CMT) disease, a rare hereditary motor and sensory disorder that is characterised by progressive loss of muscle and touch sensation across various parts of the body.

“It was a cruel joke and it affected me pretty badly. I was coming out of a bad marriage, had lost my job, was estranged from my daughter and got hit with this,” he said. He wallowed for a while, struggled with mental health until a friend’s advice stuck – “you can show the world your plight or you can show the world your might”.

He signed up for numerous training courses but it was his role as an iChamp, an SG Enable initiative to empower “persons with disabilities to co-create and co-produce solutions that enable lives” that changed his perspective on his condition.

“I didn’t realise it was a disability, I thought it was a disease,” he said. “When I met fellow iChamps, I was blown away, all of them had wonderful jobs.” Today, he is an advocate for creating an inclusive society and championing job opportunities for PWDs.

When Jackie was six, he had a bike accident which left him in a coma for five days and paralysed his right side. He was in a wheelchair for a year. Today, he’s a certified physical trainer and is an athlete, running 100m and 200m races as well as javelin. Other than that, he’s also a Latin dancer and a magician.

“I cannot sit still,” he said. “I need to do something all the time.”

Travel industry missing out on massive opportunity – “you could be friendlier”

The three are looking forward to being tour guides for the first time. They have undergone the required training by Tribe Tours, and will run the tours on demand. “I’ve never done tours before. I was looking for jobs that would allow me to speak and this seems like the perfect job, being a tour guide,” laughed Warren.

Said Law, “We will see how things go, we may open up to the public later, but it depends. “It’s about a two-hour tour, the guided component is 1.5 hours. The key is to get people to be aware of such a place in Singapore and that PWDs are as able as people without disabilities.

“Through Warren, Joanne and Jackie, perhaps we can inspire more PWDs to come onboard. There are lack of job opportunities for them,” said Law.

Other than the lack of job opportunities, Warren also has a bone to pick with the travel industry. “We can live regular lives, have regular jobs but we lose out on the ability to travel. To see the world, we have to pay a premium. You could be friendlier to us.”

His most recent trip was to Goa to film an upcoming Channel News Asia documentary, Live Free. “It was an eye opener,” he said. “I love the sea. Even though Singapore is surrounded by sea, it’s not as accessible to us. In Goa, there is a wheelchair-accessible beach. There is a carpet of pontoons, called the Red Ramp, that lead to the beach and it was amazing experience to feel the waves.”

He also cited challenges with wheelchair travel on airlines and in airports, which can be pretty physical taxing for travellers with disabilities.

Warren said the travel industry was missing out on a huge market. According to a recent report from MMGY Global, “Portrait of Travelers with Disabilities: Mobility and Accessibility,” approximately 12.5 million disabled people traveled in 2018-19.

Factoring in the growth of baby boomers expected to acquire a disability as they age, MMGY estimates that number to nearly triple to 33.4 million by 2028. Travelers with mobility disabilities spend $58.2 billion per year on travel, MMGY found, and take leisure trips with nearly the same frequency as those without mobility issues.

But disabled travellers experience a range of issues and roadblocks at nearly every stage of their journeys. Lodging and transportation accessibility are cited as the two biggest barriers to travel for people with mobility issues, MMGY found, with nearly all (96%) of more than 2,700 respondents of the survey (those who either have a disability and use a mobility aid or their caretaker) saying they have faced an accommodation problem while traveling, experienced flight problems (86%) or have had in-market transportation problems (79%).

Law said that he’d like to see Singapore become a more inclusive and accessible destination. “It is still not possible at this time to organise a group tour for wheelchair-bound visitors. Perhaps with this first step of hiring PWDs as tour guides, we can begin the journey towards creating an inclusive society for all.”