See, hear, feel with the heart.

Aims of the tool

training empathy and understanding inclusion

Description of the tool

1. Split participants in groups of 4, where each person has one of the 4 roles: 1 can not see, 1 can not hear, 1 can not talk, 1 can not use the hands. For this You have to provide the blindfolds, scarfs, ropes, ear plugs, tape etc.
2. Place the teams in front of some barriers, obstacles, e.g. stairs and ask them to find a strategy to get through the difficult route.
3. You may add some more challenges on the way (e.g. to blow a balloon, to make an origami etc.).
4. After the obstacles, still in the same roles and with the same accessories the participants have to end up in a totally dark room, where all together they have to taste some unusual food (at least 2-3 small dishes, better not very common ones).
5. Invite the participants without any accessories into the usual activity room for a discussion. Reveal the food they were tasting.
6. Debriefing. Hold a discussion, using as example, the following questions:
a)what has happened to you during the activity, how did you feel and why;
b)what did you notice about other people around? How much did You care about others?
c) what do you know about people with fewer opportunities, which kind of groups of fewer opportunities do you know theoretically and you met in real life? how noticable are these groups of people?
d) how your attitude to the topic of inclusion has changed after the activity?
e) what could be improved in your own behaviour and the community around you to foster inclusion?

The groups with fewer opportunities You might discuss:
1)with social obstacles, 2)with economic obstacles, 3)with disability, 4)with educational difficulties, 5)with cultural differences, 6)with health problems, 7)with geographical difficulties; see more detailed here:
https://www.salto-youth.net/rc/inclusion/archive/archive-resources/inclusiongroups/inclusionoffenders/InclusionOffendersWho/

You may use also a poster attached to discuss the meaning of equal opportunities.

Pay attention, that there are potential risks to happen during the activity. E.g. practically, as participants are not used to moving and acting with limited senses, there might be injuries. So, make sure, there is always a close attendance by facilitators provided. There should definitely be several facilitators for a simultaneous actions of several groups, or arrange the actions of groups in turns. Another potential risk is that there is actually already a participant in the group who has difficulties with hearing, vision etc. This might cause extra tension. Discuss with the participant in advance if he or she is ready and willing to participate. If You feel there might be a crisis in some group, You can add a "stop" right, so that a person can say it loudly and exit the activity, if it is really inconvenient. Besides, during the debriefing be ready, that some people may share tough stories from their own lives or from a close person's life. It is just normal as an evidence, that the people with fewer opportunities are all around, but usually not noticable. Let them speak out and share, invite the rest of the group to listen with full respect and not comment or ask inappropriate questions. Ask the speaking person is he or she wants a supportive hug, but do not insist.