CSIE’s popular disability awareness workshops, recently adapted for younger pupils, took place in Walker Road Primary School in Aberdeen on Friday 15 January. A whole-school assembly invited all children to see how disabled people do things differently and five workshops, delivered throughout the rest of the day for groups of up to 25 pupils at a time, enabled children to explore disability from a range of perspectives.

Pupils engaged in role play and in lively conversations about how disability is understood. They also heard from numerous disabled people, through short video clips, and considered what disability is and how it arises, the difference between impairment and disability, and the relative importance of similarities and differences between people. Through various real life examples, pupils considered how disabled people do things in different ways.

At the end of each workshop pupils were invited to complete a feedback slip, to say whether they found the workshop helpful or not and why, and offering them a chance to ask a question anonymously. CSIE has collated this information and written to the school including responses to all questions pupils asked.

CSIE has developed these workshops 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).

Our disability awareness workshops have been consistently rated very highly by pupils and staff. On this occasion 101 out 103 participants said that they found the workshop helpful. One did not respond and another said that the workshop did not add to what they already knew. Some of the reasons pupils gave for finding the workshops helpful were:

“It helps people know that disabled people are equal to us.”
“It helped me understand that you shouldn’t judge people by the way they look.”
“Now I know that people can do different things in a different way.”
“It helps people understand disabled still means person and that no one is different.”
“I learnt a lot more about disability.”
“It was nice to see what people could do without feet.”
“I can see what people do the same but different.”
“I like seeing what disabled people could do with different techniques.”
“I learned what people can do.”
“It was interesting because it was fun.”
“I didn’t know that somebody with no arms can do so lots of things.”
“I learned things about disabled people that are really important.”
“I didn’t know that much about disabled people and now I have more respect for them.”
“You’ve made me realise that disabled aren’t any different and I liked watching the videos.”