CSIE’s successful workshops were recently delivered in schools in Kent and Sunderland. Pupils aged 13-16 took part in disability awareness workshops, engaging in conversation and exploring disability from alternative perspectives. These workshops have been developed in direct response to the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s recommendation that schools should do more to help pupils understand disabled people, the social model of disability and the prejudices disabled people face (“Out in the open”, EHRC, 2012).

During these workshops pupils were encouraged to explore the literal and acquired meanings of particular words, including notions of “normality” and “disability”. Participants heard from numerous disabled people, through video clips or short extracts of selected writings, and were encouraged to consider what disability is and how it arises, the difference between disability and impairment, and to reflect on what similarities and differences exist between people and what weight these are given. Through various real life examples, pupils were helped to recognize common assumptions about disability and to understand how disabled people do things differently.

These workshops have been consistently rated very highly by pupils and staff: feedback has once again been overwhelmingly positive. 88% of participants (pupils and staff) in Kent and 98% in Sunderland said that they found the workshop helpful. Some of the reasons they gave for this were:
“It made me think of disability in a different way”;
“It changes your own perspective on everyone. On humanity and equality”;
“I have learnt that even if people have differences you should not judge their ability to do things”;
“It has showed me to not take pity just because people are different”;
“I now know that not all physically disabled people are mentally affected and that some are able to learn at the rate able people are”;
“It made me think.”;
“It made me look at disabled people differently”;
“It opened my mind to different points of view”;
“I now see disability in a different light”;
“It made me think more about disabled people ”;
“It was inspiring to me and others”;
“It has made me feel that I should not judge people from their appearance”;
“It made me think differently and outside of the box”;