[OSList] Supporting the blind at an open space event

Thu Jan 24 14:50:06 PST 2013

Hello Thank you for sharing this experiences with us.
Adriana

2013/1/24 Chris Corrigan <chris.corrigan at gmail.com>

> I have done an Open Space for an indigenous organization on disability.
>  We had about 20 people in the room with all kinds of abilities and
> limitations ranging from mobility issues to deafness to blindness to
> cognitive impairment, to various degrees of paralysis or complete lacking
> of limbs altogether.
>
> There was no way I could meet every need, but the group itself was
> completely capable of meeting every need.  We operated by Christina
> Baldwin's principle of "ask for what you need and offer what you can"  The
> deaf woman read out the posters for the blind man.  The quadriplegic
> offered to zoom around the inside of the circle in her wheelchair with
> paper and markers on her tray offering them to those who couldn't get up.
> Those who couldn't write spoke their topics to those who could.  It worked
> great and everyone loved it.  All the sessions met and they made it work.
>
> So…there you go.
>
> C
>
> On 2013-01-24, at 1:54 PM, Niels Schuddeboom wrote:
>
> 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.****
>>
>> ** **
>>
>> Harrison****
>>
>> ** **
>>
>> Harrison Owen****
>>
>> 7808 River Falls Dr.****
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>> Potomac, MD 20854****
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>> USA****
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>> ** **
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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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-- 

Adriana Díaz-Berrio Ph.D. CRHA
(514) 739 2268
www.diazberrio.com
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