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Key issues : Communication, accessibility, networking
This one-day workshop was held immediately prior to the International Special Education Congress (ISEC) in Manchester. Priority was given to participants from the South who already had a connection with EENET. There were 25 participants altogether. The need for a pre-congress workshop was identified at the International Disability and Development Consortium (IDDC)'s inclusive education seminar in Agra, India, 1998. Many participants in Agra had very valuable experience of implementing inclusive education, but lacked the necessary skills to organise and deliver a lively, clear and accessible presentation.
In March 2000 Save the Children-UK held a two-day communication skills workshop in Swaziland as preparation for a week's seminar on Community Based Rehabilitation. The emphasis was upon a variety of communication skills, not only formal presentation skills. This ensured that each participant was able to make a contribution using a variety of media, such as dance, drama, music and art to supplement spoken presentations. The importance of communicating with other participants in tea breaks was emphasised. There are many opportunities at seminars and conferences to communicate the essence of your work, not only in formal presentations.
Most progress was made in Swaziland when groups of presenters from different countries came together to listen to each other's presentations and provide feedback and encouragement. Through this group process, everybody learned something new, including the facilitators. The lessons learned in the pre-seminar workshop were applied throughout the following week and a set of guidelines about how to ensure accessibility and participation at meetings and seminars was drawn up.
The lessons learned in India and Swaziland were applied at this pre-congress workshop in Manchester. The key principle was: "The medium is the message". Participatory methods were used to make the presentations more accessible and participatory. It would have served little purpose to lecture participants about how to make a good presentation. It was essential that they had the opportunity to practice their presentations in an inclusive environment. The opening question for the participants was:
"What do you need from us today to make your presentation more lively, clear and accessible, and to increase your confidence?"
In order to answer this fundamental question, participants were divided into small groups and asked to brainstorm their needs and their skills. Interestingly some groups only focused on their needs, or perceived problems, and didn't move on to explore the skills they had as a group. In the plenary session, however, we began with the skills, rather than the needs. Below is a summary of the 'skills' brainstorm.
When we went on to look at the needs that participants had identified, it became apparent that the skills were a mirror image of the needs. This meant that, as a group, we had the capacity to meet everyone's needs, as between us we had all the skills necessary to produce a good presentation. There were a few points which differed slightly from the list of skills, and these were as follows:
There was insufficient time and specific expertise to provide information and tips on all the needs identified. However there was a short input about producing clear and accessible overhead projector slides which was accompanied by a hand-out. This was adapted from a report on accessibility from the Swaziland seminar. There was also a specific input about the needs of deaf and blind participants and those with a range of visual and hearing impairments. This was led by a blind person, Mr B Venkatesh, also known as Venky.
Venky asked everyone to close their eyes and to listen carefully to a short presentation given by Sue Stubbs. Sue was drawing and simultaneously describing a diagram about project analysis. The diagram contained different shapes and had arrows leading from one to the other. When she had finished, the participants were asked to open their eyes and to say how they had felt about the experience and what they had understood about the presentation.
It should be made clear that this was not a simulation exercise to help non-disabled people 'feel' what it is like to be disabled. We acknowledge that such simulation exercises can be counter-productive in engendering feelings of pity. This exercise was designed to make participants think carefully about the accessibility of their presentation. How inclusive is their presentation style? Does it consider the needs of all learners, as in an inclusive classroom? And, in considering the needs of participants with sensory-impairments, have you prepared a presentation that will be more inclusive of all learners?
Participants shared their feelings of confusion and lack of concentration caused by Sue's lack of clarity and precision in explaining the diagram. The group then brainstormed the ways in which presentations can be made accessible to blind and visually impaired people. The results were as follows:
Points to remember:
The second exercise involved the participants putting their fingers in their ears and listening to Susie as she moved about the room talking rather informally. Once again the group brainstormed their feelings and suggestions about the needs of deaf and hearing-impaired participants.
All the participants said that they felt isolated and frustrated and that communication was impossible.
Solutions
The participants were divided into groups of four to five people. Each presenter was allocated 10 minutes to present their paper and 5 minutes to receive feedback. Most papers at the ISEC congress were allocated 15 minutes for presentation and 15 minutes for questions and discussion. Participants were asked to focus on clarity and accessibility and to leave liveliness to later on in the day.
Observation of group work revealed that some speakers were taking much longer over their presentations than had been allocated. The listeners were not being assertive enough about chairing and time-keeping. These issues were discussed in the plenary and the following advice given about active and respectful listening:
When giving feedback:
When receiving feedback
LISTEN - Do not get involved in a debate.
Good chairing skills, good time-keeping and assertiveness are all essential ingredients for successful presentations and feedback sessions.
Group work continued for most of the afternoon session, but this time the groups were bigger as two groups formed one. There was some improvement in the chairing and time-keeping in this second session and participants were grateful of a second opportunity to rehearse their presentation and to be advised about possible changes to be made.
In the final session of the workshop participants were asked to reflect upon the usefulness of the workshop. Some of the responses are as follows:
Group work
General
Room for improvement
There was general agreement that the workshop had been successful in meeting the needs of individuals and in creating a group identity which would serve as a reference point throughout the international congress. Each individual ensured that they had a 'buddy' who would help them with their continued preparation, any translation issues, and with word-processing and OHPs. Ideally the buddy would also accompany them to their presentation to provide moral support and feedback.
Work continued on the presentations throughout the congress. Papers were re-structured and re-typed, and new OHP slides were made. All participants were encouraged to consider editing their papers for EENET's next newsletter or for EENET's web site.
Towards the end of the congress, having experienced several inaccessible and unclear presentations, one of the participants remarked: "In future it should be compulsory for all congress participants to attend a pre-congress presentation skills workshop."
Key issues : Communication, accessibility, networking
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07/06/2001