[OSList] Supporting the blind at an open space event

Niels Schuddeboom niels.schuddeboom at shakingtree.net
Thu Jan 24 13:54:39 PST 2013


Harold,
I would like to second Harrison's reply. I am not blind, but I do have a
physical disability and I recognize that it's most natural to have a
support structure emerging from the group itself. As a facilitator you can
have a positive influence in shaping a culture of what the Dutch started to
call 'Durf te vragen' = Dare to ask. In my experience: the more you take
special measures with the focus on people with a disability, the more you
have the risk of getting 'outsiders'. Good luck!

Niels
@shakingtree

PS. What I do in 2013, thanks to the facilitation world:
http://checkthis.com/qqnc

2013/1/22 Harold Shinsato <harold at shinsato.com>

>  Thank you Michael & Harrison,
>
> The need for the American Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 reflected a need
> for a change in consciousness to support those with disabilities. Despite a
> professional requirement to understand and look at Section 508 of the U.S.
> Rehabilitation Act when government contracts for software companies started
> to be directly impacted in 1998 because of the changes to that law to
> support digital accessibility, I still felt an inner "humbug" when I saw
> most of the best parking spaces left empty in public parking lots because
> they were reserved for the handicapped.
>
> The movie "Music Within" helped me understand. It's the true story of
> Richard Pimentel who lost his hearing in Vietnam and became an activist for
> the ADA. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_Within. This movie depicted
> directly something you said, Harrison, when they showed how someone with
> cerebral palsy became the center of attention in a restaurant because there
> were no facilities to make it possible for him to come into the restaurant
> himself, and he had to be personally carried up the stairs. What was worse
> was the depiction of how his disability made him a target of discrimination.
>
> I really appreciate both having the faith, as a facilitator, that those
> without eyesight will be able to get their needs met and the community will
> support them and work it out. Yet I do wonder if there is also a need as an
> event organizer to do something to make it possible for those with
> handicaps to navigate the event without the need for them to be highlighted
> or stand out. It might be a bit confrontational to hear this - but even our
> community has challenges supporting the handicapped. There were no
> elevators or ramps at WOSonOS 2011 in Berlin to over half of the session
> locations, which made those with mobility challenges unable to attend those
> sessions.
>
> Michael, several of your suggestions seemed like they would help support
> the sight impaired. It might be a little extra work, but having someone
> transcribe the session announcements and times would help the blind, but
> would have other benefits. I've heard reports at some of my open space
> events that accessibility to the schedule wall was an issue especially
> right after the morning sessions are announced and posted. I've been
> thinking getting a larger wall would support that, but I also specifically
> heard that the event was overwhelming to those with social anxiety. I can't
> help but think having a way to find sessions by going to a website could
> support that - and enable a lot of the technology that is available now for
> the sight impaired.
>
>     Harold
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On 1/21/13 2:56 PM, Harrison Owen wrote:
>
>  I have never done an Open Space for Blind People… but I have done many
> OS’s with some or many blind people. And as near as I could tell, they did
> just fine. Their own coping skills worked, and the community pitched in
> (with a nice subtlety) – so I never saw or heard of a problem. But I did
> get one comment from a person of challenged vision… who thanked me for not
> making him a special, stand out person… just one more people. Needless to
> say it was not me doing/not doing anything. But you get the drift. Unless
> somebody has suddenly gone blind, they do make it in the world, and with
> the light touch of a caring community (and what else do you have in OS?),
> everything seemed to work out just fine.****
>
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> Harrison****
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> *From:* oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org [
> mailto:oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org<oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org>]
> *On Behalf Of *Harold Shinsato
> *Sent:* Saturday, January 19, 2013 12:12 AM
> *To:* OSLIST
> *Subject:* [OSList] Supporting the blind at an open space event****
>
> ** **
>
> Some friends in Missoula Montana are holding an open space event about
> digital accessibility March 9 this year.
> http://accessibilitycampmissoula.org/
>
> Looking over the records I found fewer posts about this than I expected. I
> saw posts about supporting 1 blind person, but they will have at least
> seven and I don't think they'll have enough volunteers to support one
> helper each. So they are thinking about some kind of ipad readers around
> the session postings.
>
> How has the community here provided accessibility to the blind, especially
> for the schedule wall?
>
>     Thanks in Advance!
>     Harold****
>
> --
> Harold Shinsato
> harold at shinsato.com
> http://shinsato.com
> twitter: @hajush <http://twitter.com/hajush>****
>
>
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> --
> Harold Shinsato
> harold at shinsato.com
> http://shinsato.com
> twitter: @hajush <http://twitter.com/hajush>
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