Out and In

Aims of the tool

To raise awareness in relation to disabilities and achieve higher level of integration and inclusion.

Objectives:
- To break the barriers between disabled and non-disabled people.
- To provide good practices for youth workers, trainers, volunteers
- To use creativity as a tool for raising awareness on disability.

Description of the tool

The session starts with an energizer (5-7 minutes).
Half of the group is sitting on chairs in a circle and the other half is sitting behind them. The participants in the inner circle have to exchange chairs by eye contact while the participants of the outer circle (behind) are trying to catch them from the shoulders in order to prevent the seat change.

Then we go to the introductory activity (5-7 minutes).
Participants are standing in a line and they receive one paper with their roles. Papers are having 3 different colors which later will also divide the teams. 3 of the participants (one in each color group) will have the role of the deaf, the blind and the handicap (wheel chair).
The facilitator is making the questions (attached document: Introductory_line_activity). If the participant is having a positive answer is moving one step forward. If not stays at the same position. The facilitator is giving 5 questions (or more) and after the end he is asking the participants to remember and reflect on the "mapping" of the group.

Main Activity (20 minutes):
The facilitator is asking the participants to group according the color of the paper given during the introductory activity. Each group has a person with the role of the disabled who is actually the main actor.

Group 1: Blind person
The facilitator is blindfolding her/him and gives clear instructions to the others that they can only give directions orally and without guiding with any other way. They all seat around the table. On the table is only the glue, the scissors and the printed A4 paper with the outlines of the cube (attachment: paper_model_cube). The blind person has to cut and create the cube with the instructions of the other. The group has 15 minutes to complete the task.
Group 2: Deaf person
The group moves to another room with the instruction not to speak, write or draw. The facilitator is giving to the participants a story (attachment: The_story) and keeps the deaf person out of the room for a couple of minutes. The others are reading the story and then, they have to explain it in 10 minutes to the deaf person.
Group 3:
This group is preferable to stay at the main plenary as they need the sound equipment. The handicap role is sitting on the wheelchair (or if you don't have a wheel chair, use an office chair with wheels). The group has to create a choreography (dance) with all members involved (you can choose any music you like).

Presentation (10 minutess):
The groups are gathering in the plenary and presenting the results of their work to the rest of the participants.

Debriefing (20 minutes):
Group reflection and discussion on the entire activity. Through the reflection we need to bring out feelings, main concerns during the activity, understanding of the subject and connection with reality.