Tips for inclusive project with deaf young people

Comunic

REPORT COMUNICART

ART

Introduction This publication is a final report of the Youth Exchange ComunicArt which involved groups of hearing and deaf participants from four countries (Italy, Armenia, Poland and Macedonia) with the aim of break language barriers between deaf and hearing people through artistic expression and to foster cultural sharing and experiment different tools of communication.

This publication is dedicated to all youth organizations and individuals which would like to implement similar project involving deaf and hearing participants. It contains description of project, program, main activities and methodologies, practical advises but also difficulties which we faced and solution which we found.

This project was supported by the Erasmus Plus Programme under the Key Action 1.

Description of the Project ComunicART is a project that aimed to promote social inclusion of deaf people. This Youth exchange was planned in collaboration with a group of deaf youngsters which, after being involved in another international project, showed interest in extending the opportunity to other young people.

The YE took place from 12 to 23 of August, 2015 in Siciliy, Italy.

Participants of this Youth Exchange were from 4 countries: Italy, Poland, Macedonia and Armenia. The project involved 28 participants. Each group was composed by 2 deaf and 2 hearing people, 2 group leaders and 1 interpreter that facilitated communication.

Through visual art and activities based on the use of non-formal education methodology such as games, workshops, International Sign lab, this project aimed to break language barriers between deaf and hearing people and to foster cultural sharing.

Specifically the YE objectives were: - to emphasize personal and social skills of young people; - to foster the sharing of experiences and competences between deaf and hearing people, putting into contact hearing people with the deaf world; - to develop new knowledge and skills in the field of art, to use art as a tool to express ideas, thoughts and feelings; -to communicate in different ways especially using International Sign; -to go through themselves in an intercultural environment; -to promote active participation; -to increase knowledge on the opportunities that Erasmus Plus offers to young people.

The YE had impact in any young people by increasing their perception about needs of deaf young people in their own country and by getting closer to sign language and became as well promoters of a social message. As well impact on local community, by enhancing inclusion of deaf young people to the public through news about the project. Project partners shared the results of the project with their network and motivated other young people to be active in the local community. What is more, during the YE participants created a video which were shared by partner associations.

Further objective is also to produce potential longer term benefits, trying to increase the number of international projects that include deaf people, we would like to contribute at the same aim through this publication.

1.

PREPARATION OF THE GROUP The preparation of people involved in project like this is a fundamental moment that need to be followed and supported since the very beginning. It require a preparation for all, the contact person of the organisation, the leader, participants and the interpreter. As organisation, the best way to prepare the group is to have earlier a meeting with interpreter of national sign language, expert in work with deaf, hard-hearing and as well deaf young people, in order to provide the contact person which will support the preparation of participants, with basic knowledge about the rule of communication which have to be known.

Meet all participants - In order to build the group and break stereotypes of disability plan several meetings with the whole group including the interpreter. Organise activities to make youngsters lose their fears concerning communication. You can organise simple and interactive name games and as well ask participants to bring a short visual and creative introduction of themselves, or objects, pictures to describe who they are and what they do.

Prefer activities based on body language, mimics, and short exercise of improvisation, it will help to create an inclusive environment and a nice atmosphere.

It would be a good help to introduce the rules of communication to hearing people with the help of deaf participants – they are usually very motivated to do it! - to make clear that is important to speak face to face and to have eye contact while speaking with deaf, never cover the mouth or do striking gesture to catch their attention, rather is better to ask someone closer the person to call him. As well, never cross between deaf people signing, is considered impolite. Ask deaf participants to teach some signs or prepare an introductory sign language course for the following meetings for the rest of participants.

Introduce intercultural learning by practicing games or a simulation, this will help also to see how the time, pause, are managing during the conversation in group.

Balance ice-breaking activities with moment of information supported by visual materials. Information about the agenda of the YE, travel itinerary, and other important issue concerning the project is better to give in plenary and ask translators to interpret them. Prepare information on a flipchart, document, info-pack. Share the same document by email as well. Be sure that all the information about the project and the travel are clear and have been shared with all the participants. Prepare the group for the travel if a long trip is expected!

Keep a communication with all participants and especially with deaf during the pre-departure phase by email and text messages.

While selecting the leader, choose someone with experiences in YE and with a good leading skills that have been already involved in activities of your organisation. Take in mind that plan and implement activities based on non-verbal communication is might be challenging and for this reason is recommended to provide tools and support to his/her preparation and possibly, to practice methods with him/her before. Is going to be a challenge that he/she will enjoy! It is as well important to prepare the leader to support the communication and the integration of participants within their own national group and with the whole group, and to work together with the team of leaders, for adapting activities to the needs of participants before and during the youth exchange.

1.2 PREPARATION OF INTERPRETERS The preparation of interpreter is focused more on the introduction of Non formal Education and methods that will be used during the Youth Exchange, and as well about Erasmus Plus and the Youth Exchange itself, if this will represent for him/her the first experience. Is also suggested to provide interpreters with material in advance to let them prepare as they prefer. Share with them the programme of the YE, the methods you plan to use during the activities, the workshops and other important information. Have a meeting with him/her before in order to get closer to the world of deaf, ask questions and clarify doubts. If possible, is preferable to select an interpreter which knows and understands English in order to optimize time during the activities and for a better dynamic of the group.

2. Programme and activities Program of the Youth Exchange was based on creative and artistic workshop, which allowed all participants to express freely. Every group had responsibility for one artistic workshop (theatre, comics, photography and video). The theatrical methodologies and exercises where used a lot at the beginning of the project as teambuilding, to help to create the group but also to improve capacity of participants to express themselves through body language and improve competencies to perform in public. This was necessary especially for hearing participants which had difficulties to express themselves non-verbally. During artistic workshops (theatre, comics, video, photography) verbal communication was just secondary, this allow deaf young people to fully participate only with introduction and small support of interpreters. Workshops were evaluated very positively by deaf participants since they could let them express and interact freely.

Drawing and performing during activities, made participants feel more comfortable in use those in their free time too, this became very fast a spontaneous way of communication. Many of participants were always walking with their notebook for drawing things whenever they felt difficulties with expression.

Program of Youth Exchange was build on step-by-step approach which allowed both groups of participants to improve their communicative skills and interact more independently between each others day after day. In the first days of youth exchange, interpreters were present during all the activities and more emphasis was addressed to correct translation and facilitation of communication between participants. Important information and rules were introduced and wrote in visible places in order to ensure that everybody got all important information and be able to act independently. During reflection time in national groups this topic was discussed and evaluated.

To break barriers in communication and arouse curiosity in Sign Language, every morning was organized a short Course of International Signs. Aim of this Course was of course not to learn International Sign - as it was not possible because of lack of time -, but to make participants feel more comfortable to use signs for communication and to introduce International Signs which could help them to communicate with deaf people in international environment.

When the group was set and we have seen participants started to help each other with communication, we decided to interpreter less and ask their support in case of need. This approach was very successful and after the first 4 days, we reduced the interpreting more and more till when in the last days participants could work together without the help of interpreters.

The last days were dedicated to the creation of final product of the project which would have expressed the experience of participants during the Youth Exchange. Participants could choose comics, theatre, video or photography according to own preference and by working in groups without the help of interpreters, they created their own final product. Group decided to create also one common product, which was musical video translated to national sign language and International Signs, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpImjkHtijs. This idea was inspired by the works presented by the polish group which have created video clips of popular songs using the Polish Sign language.

When designing the program of Youth Exchange is important to take in account that interpretation will take a lot of time. In many cases we had to translate not just from English to national Sign language and vice versa but also from native language to English and after to sign language. This fact made not only more difficult to translate contents correctly, but also to double-triple the time of the activities. For this reason, the programme should leave enough space for translation and offer to participants a variety of dynamic and non-verbal activities where they can relax.

We can just highly recommend energizers, icebreakers and teambuilding activities during which is forbidden to speak. Those activities made everybody interact in equal way and erase differences between participants. To increase ability to express through body language, we tried to introduce some simple activities just with mimic and gestures, this approach was very effective and participants enjoy it a lot. In the last days we were using them whenever was possible.

Importance of teambuilding. In this Youth Exchange we dedicated also more time to teambuilding. At the beginning participants created spontaneously groups of hearing and of deaf, but thanks to teambuilding activities which were very important part of the programme since the very first days, we could see how groups started to mix and already in the second part of the project, participants gathered in mixed groups also during the free time. It is important do not make pressure on the group, it is normal that participants deaf or hearing want to relax and to communicate with other participants to whom they feel comfortable to communicate, and keep creating activities in which they can communicate and naturally know each other better.

Very effective were also mixed groups. Participants were from the beginning mingled (different nationalities, deaf and hearing) in order to help them to know each other better. This approach was positively evaluated also by many participants which said that it helped them to know better all participants and work not just with whom they felt more comfortable or were from the same country. For activities in mixed group is important to be sure there is an interpreter or a facilitator in each group to make all participants be active and work together If you decide for similar strategy of interpretation, we would recommend to avoid discussions in plenary. If the discussion is necessary it is better to divide group in smaller groups or even better in national groups. For reflection we would recommend painting.

Important part of every YE is reflection time during which participants have possibility to speak about day, activities, own feelings and understand better own learning outcomes. We decided to make reflection in national groups which allowed participants to express better but also helped to create good atmosphere in the national group. Trust between members in the national group we evaluated as a crucial elements which helped to support inclusion of all participants. Participants deaf or hearing had very important role during all activities and free time as many times they were helping with translation and communication in both ways: hearing participants to deaf participants but also deaf participants to hearing.

3. Difficulties and challenges in inclusion “The time to speak and the time to let others speak�

One of the biggest challenges we experienced was to learn to discuss. Hearing participants - as it is part of our way of communication - very often were speaking at the same time, this for interpreters of Sign Language is not possible to translate, they were as well reacting immediately after listening and not leaving time for translation either reaction of deaf participants. Therefore we had to create a system which allowed us to discuss. Basically, anybody who wanted to speak had to raise a hand and just one person at time could speak. We had an object used to give the word to person and special facilitators of discussion which was giving the word to participants when they wanted to speak, as well with special gesture was reminding participants to speak slow and with breaks. Learn those small rules was more difficult for some participants but during the project we have seen a big progress.

Another challenge for inclusion was the free time during the evenings. Venue of the project was a very nice place surrounded by nature but unfortunately with just very little light outside. Many hearing participants liked to sit outside in the evening to chat, but unfortunately the light condition was not good for deaf participants. We adjust light condition by adding some more external lights and also after some days participants started to use more lighted spaces during the night. Light for evening activities is very important issue to remind while selecting and preparing the venue.

Participants of one group were half hard hearing and half deaf people, this make longer the socialization among hearing of other countries during informal moments. All other national group were balanced having two deaf and two hearing. This composition made hearing help deaf in the process of interaction with participants of other nationalities.

3.1 Difficulties and challenges in translation Choose the right style of interpreting is not always easy to do since the reality of this job is different in all the countries. While writing the project we get to know which is the reality concerning the sign language in each country involved and as well that the profession of sign interpreters is quite different. At the beginning we were thinking to use international signs (IS) as common language for all the deaf participants, and to interpret from English to IS, but this could not be possible for two reasons: we found out that international signs is not so spread among deaf as we thought, and neither among interpreters. Not even English is so known among deaf and interpreters as we were imagined. We decided than to involve one interpreter and two leaders for each country, imagine already that one of the leader would have helped to facilitate communication of the interpreter from/to English.

In this way, we were always able to make information available for all, by translating from English to national language for those interpreters not familiar with English and, after translating into English what deaf participants have signed to interpreters.

4. Practicalities - Enough light: it's important to check the condition of light where you implement the activities and think that deaf need to see while signing. So be careful that the place is lighted enough and if not, provide additional lights.

- Keep important information visible and available all the time (timetable, meeting time, break time, emergency and contact number, etc‌) - Give important information in plenary and with interpreters, supported by poster, flipchart and any other visual material - Avoid small room and with no light: it’s very important to think about the space and the light inside the room, interpreters need to be visible all the time and not stand too far from deaf. As well is important to consider the space needed for each group of deaf and his interpreter and facilitator while the interpreting is ongoing, cause the sound produced by the interpreting can disturb simultaneous interpretations and translations.

- Good acoustic in inside spaces: is important in order to avoid to disturb other simultaneous interpretations while the interpreting is ongoing.

- At the beginning all the activities were interpreted but after some days, when the group was already close and open up to each other, interpreted moments were reduced while working in groups. This make participants to develop alternative way of communication, support each other and get more closer.

5. To sum up: a List of things to avoid and things to do Do not -Undervalue the preparatory phase of national groups (help participants to know each others, break barriers)

- Plan too many activities in the programme. Every activity will take double time.

- Blindfold deaf participant – they will lose the ability to communicate and will feel uncomfortable -Organize discussions in big groups, it takes too much time. Better in smaller groups Do -For inclusion project, balance the number of participants with special needs and without in the national group. This composition will enhance the interaction among hearing and deaf in the whole group.

-Make activities with mixed group: balance the number of interpreter and facilitator in each working group to make all participants be active and work together -When choosing the venue or at least during APV check the venue with interpreter of Sign Language -Check there is enough light in the rooms for working activity and in the space for chilling out -Check the acoustic in inside spaces to avoid that sound produced during the interpreting could disturb simultaneous interpretation and conversation -Give interpreters all materials which you have available in advance in order to help them to prepare -The interpreter should know and understand English in order to optimize time during activities and for a better dynamic of the group - Introduce since the beginning rules of communication with deaf people and Sing Language to participants -Support all important information with poster, flipchart and any other visual material and keep them visible and available all the time -Support non-verbal communication between participants through ice-breakers, energizers, teambuilding activity -Use visual art, tools, materials and media as drawing, photography, video for communication and self- expression -When the group starts to feel free to communicate organize activities in which is not necessary interpretation and facilitators -Ensure that all participants have received correct information and understood tasks - Ask for feedback regularly and let participants evaluate also interpretation - Make regular evaluation among interpreters

6. Feedback from participants and interpreters "I liked the workshops we had because they connected us in a way that didn't require words, the final event that we organized together because we felt that we have accomplished something together and the video We are the world, because it is like a memorable postcard of our stay" "I learnt a bit of International Signs, and that is possible to communicate through comics, music, photography and drawing with other cultures and languages. I learnt how to express myself better" "In my own opinion the most noteworthy skill each participant acquired during that activity was magical skill to communicate with hearing disabled people. It was fantastic feeling, originally for me, to get a chance to understand a deaf girl or guy, who is from another country and who even doesn't know English" " I tried to break the barriers between me and the deaf community. I have never been in contact with deaf people before, and for me this was my greatest achievement" "Intensively spending time with three other different cultures makes me practice how to be open for different everyday habits. Above all, I am thankful for opportunity to learn more about sign language and its concept" "I had no previous experience with deaf people so this project was a considerable and useful learning experience I became more ready to express and share emotions, thoughts and experiences with gesticulations and body motions" " Time spend working with disabled youth has given me closer picture about everyday life of this people. Having opportunity to compare Macedonian deaf participants with others countries participants made me realize how deep problem my country have and maybe motivated me to speak out loud in name of those who cannot, in Macedonia" "The experience has been amazing! It has been one of the best experiences in my career. 5 spoken languages, 4 sign languages and the International Sign shared between deaf and hearing people. The hardest part has been the management between different ways to organize the job by different ages and cultures, deaf and hearing. It could be helpful to plan and share before the activities, finding common solutions. In order to prepare interpreters to the activities and methods of the Youth exchange, It could be necessary to involve the interpreters in the step before starting, sharing the past experiences with deaf guys in Youth Exchanges" (by Italian interpreter)

This publication gathers consideration from leaders and interpreters involved in the Youth Exchange "ComunicART" a project implemented by Associazione InformaGiovani, Krik, Polski Zwiazek Gluchych and World Independent Youth Union, under ErasmusPlus Programme - KA1. This project was supported by the European Commission. This publication reflects the view only of the authors and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therin.