padi for disabled divers?

[sarasen]

hello friends, is padi has any certifications for disabled divers?
i know cmas and a few other has it.
Disabled Diver: Open Water Diving Environment Level I Training Programme
i want to learn if padi has similar training programs.
thanks

 

[oly5050user]

A disabled person can participate in a PADI ow course and be certified. BUT finding an instructor to accept a disabled person is another issue. Many instructors may not accept a handicapped person if they do not feel comfortable doing so.

 

[Scuba Scott]

Knowing where you are located may help someone point you in the right direction.
As said before, a disabled diver does not need a disabled cert and most people I know would probably prefer a regular PADI cert rather than one that calls them a "disabled diver".
PADI does have an adaptive cert but it is for the pro or the buddy. Every PADI Instructor should have had at least some training dealing with special populations to know how to modify training even without the adaptive specialty.
I would be happy to help you out and I also know several other instructors in my local area who would as well. I think finding someone local should not be that difficult.

 

[Marie13]

OP mentions CMAS, so I would expect he's in Europe.

 

[Bubblesong]

Have you looked into Diveheart? They have specially trained instructors available to work with an astonishing variety of dis-abilities.

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

There are a number of organizations: DDI (http://ddivers.org), SDI has the scubility program (SDI Scubility Diver Program | SDI | TDI | ERDI), SSI has their classified program (Classified Diving School). This list is obviously not complete, but hopefully this will help. SSI's program is based on DDI's (I'm a DDI instructor). I'm crossing over to SSI in January, and will take the training to become a classified instructor as well. Hope this helps. I know you mentioned PADI, and while I did not attend the 3 hour training at DEMA, I did attend the 1 hour overview, and my interpretation (if you attended the 3-hour training and I am wrong, please correct me), that the adaptive diver program is more for buddies of disabled divers. However, different disabilities require different adaptation, so I do not see how there can be a generic training, as you cannot cover everything.

 

[sarasen]

hello again and thanks for replys. i am from Turkey. i am PADI owsi. sorry my english no good and i think i didnt explain the situation. in this summer i did voluntary work in disabled humans.for a few office jobs. and when i speaks to with them i saw they really interested in about underwater. so i did a mini tour for them. and they did discovery dives. for each one we use 2 instructor and one dm. they was great. we dip 4 blind divers, and 8 various physical divers with zero trouble to max 6mt. and they really very liked it.
now the problems:
-i trained lot of people. but i didnt have any experience dive with special humans. i really want to learn it. -we watched most of videos from Ddivers, Diverheart and others. and read everything we found about it.
-some of them wants to be certificate divers. i dont think PADI has any certification levels for special humans-for example blind divers- i wrote to my office and still waiting their answer the following.
-in my country Turkey, if you are disabled diver and dont have disabled cert. you cant dive. you just only try discovery dives. and only disabled instructors can dive with them. so i want to be disabled diver instructor too. do you know any agency -like DDI, Diveheart or etc. for crossover ins. courses? -i dont want leave PADI. i just want to be disabled divers instructor too. with any org. -i wrote them and waiting reply too-

so i hope i can clarify for this time thanks for replys and advices too.

 

[Carl_F]

If a student can perform the skills, then they can be certified regardless of what disability they may have. This is true for any agency. Some of the skills may need to be adapted a little within the standards and that may take a little innovation (nothing says the inflator/deflator needs to be on the left hand side or the regulator on the right hand side.) Some amputees can accomplish the skills with the adaptation and within standards and can be OW certified. Nothing says that performing the swim test has to be done using the legs if the student can accomplish the swim and tread/float with the arms only.

Other disabilities are a bit more challenging (e.g. quadriplegic.) In that case, other certifications (e.g. SSI Classified Diver ... Classified Diving School is just a couple of the SSI instructors that offer the course ... there are many other; RAIDaptive program is another ... not sure if this is for RAID International or just RAID USA.)

You can contact the SSI Service Center for Turkey to see if there is an instructor in Turkey that can teach the classified diving certifications.

SSI Service Center Turkey
İOSB Giyim Sanatkarları Sit.476 Ada (2 Ada)
No:604/3
34490 BAŞAKŞEHİR - ISTANBUL
TURKEY
Phone: +90 (0) 212 - 670 50 15
Email: turkey@divessi.com

 

[mmerriman]

A disabled person can participate in a PADI ow course and be certified. BUT finding an instructor to accept a disabled person is another issue. Many instructors may not accept a handicapped person if they do not feel comfortable doing so.

or feel they are qualified...

 

[ABCdivepro]

sad to see so little about this subject here or elsewhere, good to see the support from DDI and Diveheart though. A lot of focus on physical disabilities out there, but there is another big untouched disabled community out there that are really well adapted to diving. Cognitive disabilities, and particularly those with severe dyslexia, dysphasia etc are mostly not well supported by education, so end up with few qualifications and have a difficult time establishing a career, or experiencing the calm weightless pleasure of the underwater world. e-learning systems of the dive agencies are well adapted. However these people often have higher functioning right-brain with above average outside-the-box logical thinking, visual memory, sense of direction and position, making them excellent divers. The best disabled instructors are surely those who are disabled as they don't need teaching to adapt, they already know the experiences and issues. Clearly a problem with some physical disabilities but not for these cognitive disabilities. My son is a cognitively disabled diveguide, divemaster and dive instructor, we are looking to connect with other disabled dive instructors, and happy to consider training cognitively disabled divers.