Not "special" needs – different needs?
In making arrangements for your training courses or lessons what provision do you make to ensure equality of access for everyone? Do you do what you can to narrow the achievement gap,removing obstacles? Do you ask participants about any "SPECIFIC OR DIFFERENT" needs they might have -not "SPECIAL" needs. In my experience,people don’t want to be showcased,made to feel separate and special. Down this decade alone, I have witnessed the most awful elephant traps that could have been avoided had the course organiser just reflected and sought out some information from participants in a sensitive, confidential and convivial format . Elephant traps such as:-
- Boiled ham sandwiches cascading from the tray and touching all the other food-in a multi cultural community
- A young guy , colour blind (generally a male condition) struggling with green and red writing on the flipchart
- An examination candidate,dyslexic, facing reams and reams of bright white paper with multiple choice questions in tightly written sequence
- Timing a course without built in flexibility for those participants having to balance work and family responsibilities
- Ignoring learning styles relating to age,language and culture – attention spans and use of words being only a couple of the considerations
- Handouts and literature written in small type and sometimes with inappropriate images/words
- Hiring only one sign language interpreter for a day’s event – you try it after 15 minutes!
- Not casting an eye over something like the SHAP calendar of religious and non religious fesitivals to determine if different arrangements could be made for timings etc
- And greeting the Personal Assistant escorting the participant who is disabled with the question "Does she take sugar?"
Of course,sometimes(not often I suspect) it will be unreasonable, impractical and disproportionate to make changes.But it’s the fact that the channel for considering different needs is not there that causes the problems. What do you do to ensure equality of access?
