OST with handicapped persons

Sun Nov 19 10:37:16 PST 2006

Hello everybody,

I'm glad to telll you about the OST with handicapped people I've recently done with a collegue Marianne Gerber. A successful experience !

On Saturday, November 11th 2006, 24 persons from the French and the German speaking part of Switzerland representing 17 different handicaps met in an OST meeting in Bern from am 09.30 to pm. 05.00. Among them there were one deaf person, 3 visual handicaped, and 5 persons with heavy handicaps in an electric wheelchair. The others had other handicaps, illness or brain injuries.

Some of the 24 active participants were assisted by 8 persons : translation into sign language for the deaf person, accompanying visual handicapped persons, additional help for handwriting, eating and drinking during brakes for lunch and coffee, going to toilet, and so on. We were two facilitators, Catherine French speaking and Marianne German speaking. 

The Meeting design was the following:

09.30 am                  Welcome coffee

10.00 am                  Introduction in 2 languages, agenda and marketplace

11.45 am    1st workshop session until 01.00 pm

                  Coffee available between 11.15 and 11.45

02.30 pm   2nd workshop session until 03.45 pm

                  Lunch buffet from 12.30 - 02.30 pm

04.00 pm                  Closing circle

05.00 pm   End

The design may appear to be relatively short. We started only at 10.00 am because participants were coming from different part of Switzerland. We had only two sessions because they get easily tired and for some of them, the way back home was long.

After a French- and German introduction, the collection of subjects started. The market place was very nice, not that much chaotic. There was a lot of respect and patience among the participants.

11 subjects were proposed and 9 workshops took place.

The theme was:

Do we want a quota for handicapped people on the labour market?

-         Is it the instrument we wish to have?

-         Shall the Organization AGILE (the sponsor of the OST-meeting) commit itself for the theme on the political field?

Amazingly a women, who had to leave earlier, managed to shorten the break lunch and then motivated the group to finish earlier. The 2nd workshop session started at 02.00 pm. The closing circle at 03.15 pm. The meeting was over at 03.45 pm

In the closing circle people told that the main preoccupations of the participants, regarding the theme, were relatively the same. It seems that 4 main preoccupations were discussed in the groups.

The whole OST meeting went on very smoothly. However the preparation was much more difficult, as we didn't know how many people would come and what their handicap would be. On the meeting day, there were finally no blind participants. This was one of our big worry. (How would they react to the absence of table, etc.?) The registered person with hardness of hearing did not come. For hard of hearing participants we would have needed a magnetic loop as assistance materiel. However the participant with visual handicap said that the assistance was very good. That's certainly the main point to guarantee the success of such an event. One of our big sorrow was also the room, which was already booked, when the sponsor decided to organize an OST. This one was not really adequate. However, as not all expected participants were present, things worked out pretty well. (who ever comes is the right person !)

Now we look forward to the debrief meeting on November 20, 2006. The follow up of this OST meeting will be very important for the sponsor, who will have to decide, how to go on with the Theme as it is discussed on the political stage, often without listening the affected people.

Some of the statements in the closing circle:

"the introduction was a bit long"

"yes, it may have been long, but it helped me to overcome my scruple"

"we could all discuss on a same level, the handicaps were no issues - the assistance was extraordinary well done"

"the fact that every body participated is remarkable"

For us, as facilitators, this OST meeting is a confirmation, that as soon as you have the right assistance (we mean human and technical assistance) handicaps do not bother or hinder the work to do. On our meeting, there were human beings at work, not handicapped people. Catherine made this same conclusion in a program, in which she and her colleagues adapted the instrument "Balance of Competence in groups".

So what seemed impossible, appears to be possible with the adequate assistance. We hope that the participants will talk about OST in their associations in order to work with more efficiency. The members of their associations have one same handicap. 

It remains true, that it will still be easier to organize an OST meeting when we have to organize assistance for only one handicap and not many different ones. 

Catherine Corbaz and Marianne Gerber

Bern, November 12, 2006

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