Changing Our Lives
How to include young people with disabilities in meetings
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Introduction
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Meetings for Young People
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Young People What Does First! an accessible meeting look like?
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How to What does support good support young people look like? with a disability to chair a meeting
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How can young people participate in meetings if they find attending them stressful?
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Introduction This guide has been written by young people with disabilities. It tells professionals how to include young people with disabilities in big meetings. This could be, for example a partnership board meeting, a strategy or planning meeting or a self advocacy meeting. We believe that if a meeting is about young people, young people should be active members of the meeting, rather than just being asked their views in a small part of the meeting. The ideas in this guide are relevant when working with young people with any disabilities including young people with learning difficulties and disabilities, autism, physical disabilities, sensory impairments and mental health needs.
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Young People First! Young people with disabilities should be seen as young people first. We have a disability but this should not define or limit our lives.
Working with us as young people first is about working with us as equals. We call this co-production.
Co-production is about working with us to design new projects or areas of work or write new policies.
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It’s also about working with us as equals to deliver pieces of work, for example working with us to deliver training to professionals or training to our peers across schools.
Working in co-production is NOT the same as consultation. It is also not about asking our opinion on something after a decision has alread been made or asking us then not taking our views into account.
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What should an accessible meeting look like?
Every meeting should have rules and all papers easy read Remind people what the meeting is about Some young people with disabilities go to lots of meetings with professionals. These young people might not always remember what the meeting is about, so its good to remind everyone at the beginning of the meeting what its about and what the meeting hopes to achieve.
Rules Every meeting should have rules. These should be decided by the young people. It is the chair person’s responsibility to make sure group members stick to the rules. An example of group rules is included in the end of this book.
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Accessible papers, agendas and minutes Young people should be prepared in advance for the meeting. The agenda, minutes and any papers should be sent out at least a week the before the meeting to young people.
The person supporting the young person should go through the minutes, agenda and any papers with the young person to make sure they understand the information fully before the meeting takes place. This can also help to make the young person feel more confident if they are anxious about attending the meeting.
The agenda, minutes and any papers must be in easy read and should not include abbreviations or complicated words. For more information on how to produce easy read information, please see “Making Written Things Easier to Understand� on our website. http://www.changingourlives.org/index.php/download/usefulinformation/item/279-making-written-things-easier-to-understand
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This information should be written, taking into account how that individual communicates. For example, If the young person is visually impaired they may need information to be written in a way that they use, maybe large font or an audio recording. If a young person has dyslexia, they may prefer information to be written onto yellow paper, for example, to stop the glare from white paper. People with disabilities may benefit from using pictures to accompany words.
Things to think about when arranging the meeting The place you are meeting needs to be somewhere in the local community that young people know. It also needs to be somewhere that you can get to on public transport.
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The time of the meeting should suit young people. If the young people coming to the meeting are in school or college, the meeting should be after school or college. A young person’s physical needs should be considered. For example, is the room on the ground floor? If not can a large wheelchair get into the lift? You also need to think about a young person’s sensory needs. For example, a person with autism may find certain noises, lights, temperatures and even smells distracting, sometimes to such an extent that they would feel extremely anxious or uncomfortable. Make sure that you are aware of any sensory issues and plan the meeting taking these into account. You may want to, for example, make sure the meeting is held in a room without fluorescent lights if this is a sensitivity, or ensure that it is in a quiet part of the building. The person organising the meeting needs to think about how the room is set up. Sometimes young people can find meetings scary. Ask the young people how they want the room set up. For example, think about whether they want to sit around one table or have smaller tables. Or you might want a meeting with no tables.
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During the meeting It is difficult to remember everyone’s names, so names should be on the table. Or names could be on badges. If children are coming to the meeting, you might get them to design their own name sticker for each meeting. At the beginning of each meeting it’s a good idea for the chair person to tell people what the meeting is about. Some young people might not remember what the meeting is about after the meeting has taken place so they may need reminding.
The words people use People in the meeting should use easy words. People should not use hard words and initials or abreviations as some young people do not understand them.
Stopping the meeting There should be a way to stop the meetings if people don’t understand. You could use red cards. Or you could use buzzers, as young people with some physical disabilities or profound and multiple learning disabilities may find these easier to use.
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Making sure the meeting is held at the right pace It is important to make sure that the meeting goes at the right pace for the young person to participate fully. Some young people, for example those who are on the autism spectrum, may take longer to process information and should be given extra time to do this. Traffic light cards may be a way to ensure that a person is in control of the pace of the meeting. A traffic light card is easy to make and is a set of cards joined together by string or a fastener. There is a red, amber and green card. The red card could be a plain red card or have a stop symbol on it. This will be used if a young person would like to stop the meeting because, for example, it is going too fast or if a word is used that the young person doesn’t understand. The amber card is coloured orange and may have a picture of a question mark. This card is used if a person wants to ask a question. The green card is used if a person agrees with something another person is saying or if members of a meeting vote on a particular issue. This card is coloured green and may have a symbol on it. The traffic light cards can be adapted to the individual and may use the symbols that are most familiar to them.
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Making decisions in meetings Some people find it hard to make decisions ‘on the spot’. If young people need additional time, make sure that a time is arranged, within a comfortable timescale for them, to feed back on their decision. This may be after the meeting.
Yes No
If you need to ask a young person’s opinion on something, for some people it is easier to ask a closed question rather than an open ended question. For example, if you were asking someone ‘What do you think our transport policy should include?’, this may be difficult to answer. However, if you have a set of more specific things to ask, some young people will find this easier as they will understand “yes”, “no” and “not sure”. They may struggle with an open question.
Regular breaks There should be regular breaks to make sure that the meeting is broken down into manageable chunks.
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Making the meeting fun! Making the meeting fun will appeal to adults and professionals who attend the meeting as well as to young people. There are many ways that this can be done. Some examples: New technology can be used to make the meeting more interesting and fun. An example of this is using touch screen iPads. The agenda and minutes can be downloaded for a young person to follow. They can also be used to gain a young person’s views and are useful if they are unable to communicate using words. If a person has a particular interest or skill, this can be used to ensure that they take ownership of the meeting. For example, if a person liked to sing and use a microphone, they could be supported to record their views using a microphone and computer. This could then feed into a powerpoint presentation which the person could present. Filming the actions from the meeting and playing this at the beginning of the next meeting. This is not only fun for some of the young people; it also helps keep the meeting on track.
The meeting should be fun to allow Meetings for people to own the meeting 14young Young People
How to support young people with a disability to chair or co-chair a meeting We believe that young people should co-chair or chair meetings with professionals. If a young person with a disability chairs or co-chairs a meeting these things are important: The young person is as important as professionals in the meeting and their opinions should be valued equally. The young person as chair or co-chair needs to take an active role in planning the agenda for the meeting. After the meeting the young person should be supported to talk about any issues and see what went well in the meeting and what did not. If there is a co-chair who is a professional, they should work at a pace good for the young person. For some young people, they will be able to co-chair for a few hours. For other young people, they may only be able to chair for an hour. So the agenda must be planned around this. Meetings for Young People
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What does good support look like? Some young people need support to understand the meeting. Also young people may need support travelling to and from the meeting. The person supporting must: • See the young person first, and not their disability. • Be reliable and have good listening skills. • Understand their role and value the benefits of the young people taking the lead. • Understand what the meeting is about. If they don’t understand they can’t support the young person properly. • Always remember that if young people can answer themselves, they should. • Show respect to the young person and treat the young person as an equal .
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How can young people participate in meetings if they find attending them stressful? There may be times when attending a meeting would cause a young person stress and anxiety. Initially, you may want to talk about this with the person concerned to try to find out why this is the case.
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There may be strategies such as the ones discussed above that can reduce or alleviate anxiety. For example, by holding the meeting in a quieter room and ensuring that a person is well prepared for the meeting. However, if a person feels too anxious to attend meetings, but wants to be involved in the work, support should be given to ensure that they can participate without being present. They should still see an accessible agenda before the meeting and have support to read through this. Their views can be given in more creative ways such as producing a short film or powerpoint for the meeting outlining their views. After the meeting, they should be told about what was said or decided at the meeting.
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Changing Our Lives Changing Our Lives 22-24 Hagley Mews, Hall Drive Hagley, West Midlands DY9 9LQ Tel: 0300 302 0770 Email: ask@changingourlives.org Web: www.changingourlives.org Meetings for Young People
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