How ‘doing differently’ instead of ‘doing more’ defined the journey of an inclusive gathering

Tania G on making events inclusive; recruiting for inclusion; reporters’ toolkit on mpox and elections, an exhibition by deaf artists, and plenty of media recommendations

Guten Tag, and welcome new subscribers! I’m Priti Salian, an independent journalist, researcher, trainer and the creator of Reframing Disability, which drops into your inbox every other Friday with useful disability-inclusive approaches for your content. 

On October 4th, I’ll be speaking about disability inclusion at Bonn Institute’s b° future festival. I’d love to catch up if you’re around! Hit reply, text, or email me at pritisalian[at]gmail[dot]com.

I recently attended Change the Script, an experiential gathering by Dream a Dream, an organisation that empowers vulnerable children and young people to thrive in a fast-changing world. What struck me most as an inclusion enthusiast is how much work was put in and how careful the planning was to make the event enjoyable for all. 

Pranjal Patil, additional director of education with the Delhi government, was one of the participants at the gathering. While chatting with her, I learned that Pranjal, who happens to be blind, was pretty impressed by the steps taken towards the inclusion of the event. 

For one, she got a buddy from the Dream a Dream team to assist her with activities and navigate the venue.

“When I arrived, the team welcomed me with visual descriptions of themselves. I liked that they thought about something like that, and cared to be inclusive,” Pranjal told Reframing Disability.

She also appreciated the slow pace of the event and that it was “humanised” with discussions about failures, stereotypes and biases. “That’s something which gave me the courage to talk about my vulnerability and failures as a participant,” she said.

I reached out to the event’s co-facilitator, Tania G, a trauma-informed mental health practitioner and a creative arts facilitator at Dream a Dream who wrote for Reframing Disability about how her team prepared to make Change the Script inclusive for all.

Photo credit: Abhishek Scariya

Image Description: Tania is an Indian woman with long black hair pulled back. She is dressed in a beige saree with kantha embroidery and is signing with a few other participants at the Change the Script event. A blue and a black bean bag can be seen in the background.

The journey of making Change the Script Inclusive

By Tania G   

At Dream a Dream, we have always been skilled at the "art of gathering": creating spaces where everyone feels seen, heard, and empowered to take creative risks in a safe, non-hierarchical environment. We have consistently achieved this by thoughtfully designing the physical space to feel welcoming, incorporating creative check-ins, and utilising various art forms, such as movement, music, art, and theatre. We craft experiences that include pauses and interactive activities, allowing participants to process, share, and exercise their agency. Even small choices, like selecting a colour or choosing a partner for discussion, contribute to this intentional design. 

When the journey of hosting Change the Script (CTS) 2024 started, we were very confident about holding the space with the core value of care, supported by our facilitative approach. We began with a two-day residential meeting internally, and called it "Pre-Change the Script". Our agenda was clear: we needed to put our design into practice with our internal team first.

This meant confronting our own stories and changing our scripts about privilege, oppression and power. We recognised that this inner work was crucial for us to effectively hold space at CTS. During these intense discussions, we had a realisation. If we wanted to hear stories from the marginalised sections of society, we needed to ensure their safety wasn't compromised. We also understood that to create a sense of safety and solidarity, we needed more diverse participants. This led us to intentionally curate our guest list, focusing on bringing in voices of people with marginalised identities from historically disadvantaged castes, religious minorities, non-binary genders, socio-economic class, and with visible and invisible disabilities, who hold positions of power or influence, even in small ways. 

As we began expanding our guest list, new names emerged, including some d/Deaf and visually impaired individuals—groups we hadn't previously worked with. It wasn't due to a lack of intention but rather because we thought we lacked the necessary expertise. 

To be honest, I initially felt nervous. However, as we progressed in designing the event, we clarified our intention: this was not an inclusivity workshop. These individuals are just like all our other guests and we are committed to accommodating them as anyone else. This journey was about "doing differently" than merely "doing more." Instead of viewing this as a hurdle, we saw it as an opportunity to deepen our commitment to inclusion and ensure everyone is included and we are taking everyone along.

The shift began with a mindset change - moving from feeling nervous to confident that we could make it work. This required letting go of any guilt, shame or preconceptions which are often used as reasons to opt out or leave a few behind, and instead approaching it with compassion and a willingness to learn. The team recognised that true inclusion doesn't require reinventing the wheel, but rather a thoughtful adaptation of existing practices to remove barriers. 

The questions we began to explore were: How can we sign with deaf participants? How can a visually impaired person engage with art? This is when we started to focus on the intention of ensuring accessible engagement, approaching it with the mindset of "doing differently."

For instance, we thought, “Let’s sign and sing along together.” 

“Let’s use clay so that a blind person can experience the art through touch.” 

“Let’s all use pronouns to normalise and welcome nonbinary genders.” 

“Let’s ensure we have prayer rooms for namaz.” 

“Let’s have unisex restrooms.”  

“Let’s create an art village with diverse activities and materials like braille board games and tactile painting boards for everyone’s access.” 

Our goal was to make everyone feel included. We also acknowledged that we might make mistakes and we accepted that learning from these experiences was part of the process. 

The key was shifting from a mindset of "convenience over belonging" to one where making everyone feel genuinely included and able to participate fully took precedence, without highlighting their differences. 

 We used simple measures such as providing the agenda, a welcome note, notebook titles, and the inclusion guidelines in braille. We asked all participants to download Cardzilla, an app that helps to facilitate communication with deaf attendees by displaying messages in large text. 

We also integrated sign language interpretation into the entire event’s agenda, including the activities that were art-based, movement-based, music-based, or had speaking engagements, to help the team seamlessly incorporate accessibility. With the help of Indian Sign Language (ISL) interpreters we even had a Deaf participant teaching us how to sign the lyrics of a song, as the audience followed along.  Rather than treating these accommodations as separate elements, they were embedded into the event’s structure. 

In the design phase, we collaborated with ISL interpreters to address the needs of d/Deaf participants. We reviewed each activity, brainstorming potential challenges and exploring ways to include everyone. Our ISL interpreters, Renuka, Saurav and Rajesh were rather excited to support how all the games unfolded particularly, for example, the “anti-name-game”, where each participant went around the room to do a magic handshake with a new person and exchange their identity with them, without speaking, only typing on Cardzilla. With this, we invited everyone to step out of their hearing culture and experience something different.

 While planning these activities, we had an important realisation: Making simple adjustments, like describing oneself for blind and low vision persons, didn't require additional funds but rather a commitment to slowing down and being mindful.

By taking the time to slow down, welcome interruptions, remain attentive and adjust based on feedback, we delivered an inclusive experience that maintained the core spirit and design of Change the Script. Investing time in understanding the community's needs—through one-on-one interactions with persons with disabilities, asking questions about what would make their participation easy, conducting research, and sourcing braille games like snakes and ladders, word builder and accessible arts like tactile geometry, braille abacus, was a saviour.

Our interactions with persons with disabilities were heartwarming. They were kind to us, by allowing us to try, make mistakes, and learn. Our confidence was boosted because of their faith in us.

This journey helped us understand that true inclusion is not about doing more, but about doing things differently - with intention, empathy and a willingness to learn and make mistakes. It's about creating spaces where everyone can show up as their authentic selves and contribute in meaningful ways.

 

Yes, I completely agree, Tania, and so do the participants at CTS! Deaf activist, Dr. Alim Chandani, appreciated the accessibility of music by the sign language interpreters. “I hope this encourages more accessible concerts for Deaf people to attend,” he said on LinkedIn.

ISL interpreter, Saurav Roychaudhury, who played an important role in making the event accessible mentioned how rare, (and yet critical) it is to ensure that people are patient when interpretation is in progress. “When the SLI requested [a] couple of minutes to skim through the verses - everyone agreed and waited - no questions asked,” he wrote on LinkedIn.

Saurav also noted that sign language was such an important and seamless part of the event that “numerous times participants approached the SLI team mentioning how beautifully we signed. We were absolutely delighted to have the chance to make sign language aspirational (borrowing somebody’s words).”

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Resources

Inclusion Guidelines for Change the Script

I love how these guidelines were shared weeks in advance and are replicable across cultures and events. 

Recruiting for Inclusion

I highly recommend this handy guide by Inclusive Journalism Cymru, Recruiting For Inclusion, which has a checklist for employers to consider before, during and after recruitment. I love how simple and actionable the steps are, such as changing the language of job adverts, making application forms accessible, reframe the job interview not as a test, but as a process to give candidates the best opportunities to express their skills, perspective and knowledge.

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Journalists’ guide to disability for the elections

Community-based organisation, The Arc has published guidelines to report on the US elections. It covers universal issues persons with disabilities face, such as victimisation and criminalisation, lack of dignified employment, and living in a community and not institutions, so it should be helpful worldwide.

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Mpox toolkit for journalists

The mpox reporting toolkit by Internews is a valuable resource with new stories to tell, themes to explore, interpret scientific terms, find resources, and accurate language to use, among other things. 

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Freedom to Sign exhibition in Bengaluru

A very fitting exhibition preceding the International Week of the Deaf celebrates eight Deaf artists’ work. Events run from today till 22nd September at the Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath, Museum of Art and Photography and Malleshwaram. Join in for an ISL jam, photography workshop, panel discussions, gully tours and a photo walk, all with ISL accessibility.

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Read 

Vaishali Kannan’s award-winning memoir, Homeless: Growing Up Lesbian and Dyslexic in India. “Though it’s about my experiences as a queer disabled individual, it delves into universal themes of loneliness, acceptance, and finding one’s place in the world that any adult can relate to,” Vaishali said in an interview. 

Listen 

The Documentary Podcast by the BBC published an episode on Paralympic bronze medalist and India’s first athlete with an intellectual disability to compete in the Games. The story is a deep dive into the athlete’s life, minus the “inspiration porn”. 

Watch

Two films on the rights of persons with psychosocial disabilities. Both films have been officially selected for the 7th This Is My Brave Australia International Mental Health Film Festival.

“I feel like an outsider” by Kinanty Andini, Indonesia

Breaking Chains by Sanjaya Raj Neupane, Nepal (Trigger Warning: this video covers the subjects of suicide and violence)

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That’s all for today, folx! Thank you for reading this issue of Reframing Disability! Keep writing to share your thoughts. Your messages warm my heart and I always write back. Let’s also connect on LinkedIn and Twitter!

Warmly,

Priti