As a follow up to part one of session accessibility,

I use a process similar to doing a Risk Assesment at work. Look at your session, what will people be doing in this session? What risks to access does this present? What can you do to reduce the risk/inaccessibility?

1. Listening to you. To minimise the exclusion risk you should, talk facing the group, talk slowly and clearly, avoid jargon or explain it when you use it, avoid long periods of you talking (break it up with other activities),

2. Talking. Some people don't like talking to large groups of people for various reasons, Don't put pressure on people to have to say something. You could break the group into smaller groups and then get one person in each group to report back. Give people time to talk, some people want to speak but have difficulty getting it out. Give them time so they are included in the discussion too.

3. Reading. If you are writing things on a flip chart remember to write large and clearly. This can be hard to do while talking facing the room, it helps to have a co-facilitator to write while you talk. This can be a good way to explain any unusual terms used in the discussion.

4. Writing. If your session involves writing things on postit notes etc, this could be a barrier to access. Try breaking the group into smaller groups for exercises like this, that way they can have a nominated writer.

5. Moving around. If your session involves people moving around, either to form sub groups for discussion or to put postits up on a poster, make sure you give people enough time. Or, you could divide the group into people sitting closest to each other to minimise movement, and collect postits yourself, or get one person from each sub group to take the postits.

 

This list is not exhaustive, it is just an example of how to think about barriers to access.