<html><head></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">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. <div><br></div><div>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.</div><div><br></div><div>So…there you go.</div><div><br></div><div>C</div><div><br><div><div>On 2013-01-24, at 1:54 PM, Niels Schuddeboom wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite">Harold,<div>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!</div>
<div><br></div><div>Niels</div><div>@shakingtree</div><div><br></div><div>PS. What I do in 2013, thanks to the facilitation world: <a href="http://checkthis.com/qqnc">http://checkthis.com/qqnc</a><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">
2013/1/22 Harold Shinsato <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:harold@shinsato.com" target="_blank">harold@shinsato.com</a>></span><br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000">
<div>Thank you Michael & Harrison,<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
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. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_Within" target="_blank">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_Within</a>.
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.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
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.<span class="HOEnZb"><font color="#888888"><br>
<br>
Harold</font></span><div><div class="h5"><br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
On 1/21/13 2:56 PM, Harrison Owen wrote:<br>
</div></div></div>
<blockquote type="cite"><div><div class="h5">
<div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1f497d">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.<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1f497d"><u></u> <u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1f497d">Harrison<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1f497d"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1f497d">Harrison
Owen<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1f497d">7808
River Falls Dr.<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1f497d">Potomac,
MD 20854<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1f497d">USA<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1f497d"><u></u> <u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1f497d">189
Beaucaire Ave. (summer)<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1f497d">Camden,
Maine 04843<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1f497d"><u></u> <u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1f497d">Phone
<a href="tel:301-365-2093" value="+13013652093" target="_blank">301-365-2093</a><u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1f497d">(summer)
<a href="tel:207-763-3261" value="+12077633261" target="_blank">207-763-3261</a><u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1f497d"><u></u> <u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1f497d"><a href="http://www.openspaceworld.com%20/" target="_blank"><span style="color:blue">www.openspaceworld.com</span></a> <u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1f497d"><a href="http://www.ho-image.com%20/" target="_blank"><span style="color:blue">www.ho-image.com</span></a>
(Personal Website)<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Consolas;color:#1f497d">To
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</div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1f497d"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<div>
<div style="border:none;border-top:solid #b5c4df 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in 0in 0in"><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif";color:windowtext">From:</span></b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif";color:windowtext">
<a href="mailto:oslist-bounces@lists.openspacetech.org" target="_blank">oslist-bounces@lists.openspacetech.org</a>
[<a href="mailto:oslist-bounces@lists.openspacetech.org" target="_blank">mailto:oslist-bounces@lists.openspacetech.org</a>] <b>On
Behalf Of </b>Harold Shinsato<br>
<b>Sent:</b> Saturday, January 19, 2013 12:12 AM<br>
<b>To:</b> OSLIST<br>
<b>Subject:</b> [OSList] Supporting the blind at an open
space event<u></u><u></u></span></p>
</div>
</div><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt">Some friends
in Missoula Montana are holding an open space event about
digital accessibility March 9 this year. <a href="http://accessibilitycampmissoula.org/" target="_blank">http://accessibilitycampmissoula.org/</a><br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
How has the community here provided accessibility to the
blind, especially for the schedule wall?<br>
<br>
Thanks in Advance!<br>
Harold<u></u><u></u></p>
<div><p class="MsoNormal">-- <br>
Harold Shinsato<br>
<a href="mailto:harold@shinsato.com" target="_blank">harold@shinsato.com</a><br>
<a href="http://shinsato.com/" target="_blank">http://shinsato.com</a><br>
twitter: <a href="http://twitter.com/hajush" target="_blank">@hajush</a><u></u><u></u></p>
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<div>-- <br>
Harold Shinsato<br>
<a href="mailto:harold@shinsato.com" target="_blank">harold@shinsato.com</a><br>
<a href="http://shinsato.com/" target="_blank">http://shinsato.com</a><br>
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