DISABILITY RIGHTS AWARENESS MONTH · SOUTH AFRICA

Invest in the voice of people with disabilities

A five-session individual coaching journey to strengthen self-insight, advocacy, disability knowledge and confidence — completed before Disability Rights Awareness Month begins.

South Africa's Disability Rights Awareness Month runs from 3 November to 3 December.

To sponsor or ask a question, email:

Lidia@disabilitymojocoach.co.za

Maximum 15 people · R10,000 per person · Enrolment closes 30 September 2026

The challenge

Many organisations recognise that the lived experience of people with disabilities should be part of their inclusion work.

But knowing that lived experience matters is one thing. Creating the confidence, knowledge, skills and opportunity for people with disabilities to use that experience to influence change is another.

People with disabilities bring knowledge that cannot be gained from policy documents, awareness training or technical expertise alone. Yet lived experience does not automatically provide someone with the confidence to advocate, the language to communicate their experience, the knowledge to understand their rights, or the skills to influence others.

This coaching opportunity is designed to help bridge that gap.

The opportunity

Sponsor one, two or three people with disabilities to undertake a five-session individual coaching journey before Disability Rights Awareness Month.

The aim is to invest in their existing strengths and capacities, and support them to become more confident self-advocates and contributors to disability inclusion and change.

The coaching is individual, virtual and confidential.

The five-session journey

SESSION 1 · SELF-INSIGHT

Know Yourself

Explore your strengths, behaviour, limiting beliefs and internalised beliefs about disability, and how these shape the way you show up.

SESSION 2 · ADVOCACY SKILLS

Find Your Voice

Strengthen self-advocacy, communication and confidence. Explore how to express your needs and perspectives, navigate difficult conversations and contribute to mobilising for change.

SESSION 3 · DISABILITY KNOWLEDGE

Know Your Disability Rights

Strengthen practical understanding of disability, disability language, rights and the systems you navigate — to become a more informed and confident advocate and resource within your environment.

SESSION 4 · PUBLIC SPEAKING

Use Your Voice

Develop confidence in communicating about disability, influencing others and speaking publicly.

SESSION 5 · ACTION PLANNING

Put Your Voice to Work

The final session brings the learning together. Each person identifies how they want to use their strengthened voice during Disability Rights Awareness Month and beyond — speaking at an event, contributing to an internal conversation, advocating for an accessibility change, joining a panel, writing, supporting peers, or another action that is meaningful to them. The choice remains theirs.

What each sponsored person receives

• Five individual, one-hour virtual coaching sessions.

• Five Coaching Reflection Reports. After each session, a 2–3 page report summarising the highlights of the conversation, agreed development areas, progress and next steps. These are developmental documents — they do not disclose confidential personal information shared during coaching.

• Curated reading and reflection material to support thinking and development between sessions.

• Small, practical assignments that help translate each conversation into action before the next session.

• Individual preparation for Disability Rights Awareness Month. The final session helps each person identify a meaningful way to contribute during the month, along with a practical plan for doing so.

Why invest in people with disabilities?

Disability inclusion is not only about changing policies, systems and environments. It is also about investing in the people those systems are intended to include.

When people with disabilities have greater self-insight, disability knowledge, advocacy skills, and confidence, they are better equipped to participate in conversations, communicate their needs, challenge assumptions, and contribute to change.

This is an investment in people's strengths and capacities, not a deficit-based intervention. It is also an opportunity to look beyond a repeated reliance on the same established disability voices and to begin developing new voices within your organisation, institution or programme.

Who can be sponsored?

You do not need to be a disability organisation to make this investment.

Companies

Sponsor employees with disabilities, including those in learnerships or development programmes.

Universities and colleges

Sponsor students with disabilities to strengthen their confidence, advocacy and participation.

Schools and Learnerships

Sponsor learners with disabilities as they develop their voice and confidence.

Organisations and programmes

Sponsor beneficiaries, emerging advocates or members whose development you want to support.

About the coach

Lidia Pretorius has worked alongside persons with disabilities for 37 years, since 1989. Over the past six years as a coach, she has coached more than 50 individuals with disabilities and has designed and delivered group leadership coaching programmes for more than 100 young people across Africa.

Lidia brings nearly four decades of experience working alongside persons with disabilities, including extensive work in disability rights, advocacy, leadership development and systems change. Her coaching creates space for people to see themselves more clearly, recognise their strengths, question limiting beliefs and make more confident choices about how they want to contribute. Clients describe her as someone who creates safe, thoughtful spaces, challenges constructively, and helps people move from uncertainty towards clarity, confidence and action.

Her coaching brings together deep disability-sector experience with a strong focus on self-insight, agency, advocacy, and purposeful participation.

Investment

R10,000

per person

Organisations can sponsor one, two or three people. A maximum of 15 people will be enrolled in this offer.

Enrolment closes 30 September 2026, or earlier if all places are filled.

Coaching is scheduled between enrolment and the start of Disability Rights Awareness Month, so people can develop and practise their skills before November.

Is this right for your organisation?

It may be particularly relevant if you:

• already have employees, students, learners or beneficiaries with disabilities whose strengths you want to develop

• recognise the importance of lived experience but want to create stronger opportunities for people with disabilities to contribute

• want to support people with disabilities to become more confident self-advocates

• want to develop new voices within your organisation or programme

• want people with disabilities to participate more confidently during Disability Rights Awareness Month

• are looking for an individual development opportunity rather than another awareness session

Ready to invest in a voice?

Sponsor one, two or three people with disabilities.

Email Lidia to discuss sponsorship or nominate someone.

lidia@disabilitymojocoach.co.za

Maximum 15 people · R10,000 per person · Enrolment closes 30 September 2026

Lidia Pretorius · Disability Empowerment Coach · lidia@disabilitymojocoach.co.za