Designing a Legacy

Starting with her batik tulis clothes business, Dea Valencia has created a place where di!able people can have the same chances as others.

- Marella Putri

Lately, the term “diffable” (a portmanteau of “differently-abled”) has been often used instead of “disabled” to engender a positive connotation showing that people labeled with disabilities or physical challenges can actually do things, only differently. Yet for diffables, the current job market remains tough. According to the National Workforce Survey (Sakernas) in 2017, more than 414,000 people with disabilities were unemployed. Unlike in other businesses, however, Dea Valencia (26) employs 60 diffables at her Semarang-based batik clothing business Batik Kultur, which represents half of the total workforce.

Dea Valencia first studiously learned about batik in 2011, at the age of 17, when she was helping her mother sell her rare collection of antique batik fabrics online. Every time there was an inquiry about a certain product, Dea had to ask her mother for the answers. Over time she felt she needed to start learning about batik—by reading books, consulting about its history with people more senior than her, learning how to make, differentiate, and see the quality of batik itself—until eventually she fell in love with batik.