IDF 2019 Pitch Competition Winner: Mochamad Nur Ramadhani, a Dentist with Disability Developed DiFer, an app to Promote Inclusive Opportunities

Mochamad Nur Ramadhani

As a person with a disability, Mochamad Nur Ramadhani, the winner of the IDF 2019 Pitch Competition, was motivated to create and develop an app called Diffable Leaders (DiFer) which can provide information services for persons with disabilities. His presentation in this competition was entitled “Diffable Leader, A Digital Platform for Persons with Disabilities to Develop".

"So, Diffable Leader does not only provide information on job vacancies, but also other opportunities including to start a small business, to apply for scholarship to pursue higher education, to become athletes, and many others related to various interests, talents, educational background, gender, and location," said Dhani, his nickname.

Dhani is a Dentist at CV, Wijaya Medika. He graduated from the Faculty of Dentistry, Padjadjaran University. He suffered from bone cancer and had his right leg removed while he was still in high school. After that, Dhani focused on developing his academic skills, participating in various scientific activities, and had a chance to train as a paralympic swimmer.

DiFer will be available to every diffable on Google Play and the Apple App Store. It is expected to help persons with disabilities to gain the necessary information, both regarding employment opportunities or other general matters so that they can be independent and productive.

"Yes, we want to provide information for those with disabilities and their families so they can be productive," he added.

More than that, Dhani wants DiFer to help develop leadership for persons with disabilities.  

An Application which Provides Various Disability-Related Information

To be able to achieve the above objectives, DiFer had been designed in such a way so that it can provide a wide range of information. He added, currently several platforms have been providing job search assistance for persons with disabilities. 

"Like kerjabillitas.com or difabel.id, we might try to work as collaborators of this application," Dhani said.

The information displayed will be adjusted to the disability degree of the user, related to age, gender, interests, talents, and domicile.  Dhani wants to accurately align data with its PwD users, to make it optimally effective.

"This is also to help the government develop policies on education and training for those with disabilities," he added.

For example, for school-age children, DiFer will encourage them to at least complete high school or vocational school. They do it by providing information about schools that implement the inclusive system, including that about the facilities they provide. 

Besides information about jobs, DiFer also provides information about vocational and entrepreneurial education. Included in the apps also information about health insurance, transportation, mobility aids, and other inclusive facilities.

"For example, there is information about which hospitals have inclusive facilities. Or buildings or shopping malls that have disability-friendly facilities," Dhani mentioned as an example.

This application will also provide a special column to accommodate the emotional and spiritual needs of the users. This feature is connected directly with the main administrator at the national level.

"The diffable-leaders can share about their everyday problems and they will be given motivational feedback so they don't give up easily in all matters," he added.

According to him, all this information will boost the productivity of persons with disabilities. Detailed personal information that is provided by each user on their cell phone will help match them with the information that they need.

In IDF 2019, Dhani admitted that he received a lot of input. Dhani also met with representatives of the Ministry of Social Affairs. According to him, the Ministry of Social Affairs has indicated their support to help supply data.

"I met a lot of people who could help further refine the application. They are from the sports, baristas community, and they provide input on what should be provided in the application," he added.

Building Collaboration with Various Parties

Dhani admitted that making an application requires a very long process and requires collaboration with various parties.

 "This application is still under construction, and I am still looking for investors because of funding limitations," he said.

Dhani insists that DiFer is an application that is entirely to support social purposes.

"I want this to be purely social. I want the government to take over so that the social objectives can be fully achieved. I don't want to make any commercial profit from here," he emphasized.

This brief presentation delivered by a dentist who's a person with a disability was related to Sub-Theme 7, Developing Local Talents and Local Markets. At IDF 2019, Ramadhani appeared at the Ideas and Innovation Marketplace Session, Co-creating and Collaboration, on July 22. Dhani's efforts to develop DiFer to help persons with disabilities are in line with the main theme of IDF 2019: "Mission Possible: Seizing the Opportunities of Future Work to Drive Inclusive Growth."

Congratulations for Dhani and hopefully the development of DiFer can be completed soon! Does anyone want to collaborate?