Breaking The Barrier

Charles Pias

My name is Charles and I am a social work trainee interning at WinVinaya Foundation.

Akila ma’am, the co-founder of WinVinaya Foundation assigned me a group of eight people with hearing and speech impairment. I was very sceptical at first as I had never worked with a group like this before, let alone a group of people with hearing and speech impairment.

First Session – Ice Breaker

I knew only the alphabets of sign language. I was nervous. I got the support of WinVinaya’s sign language interpreter.  I walked in and started presenting my slides which I had prepared a day prior. The response was overwhelming. The students were very receptive and welcoming, and I never felt like an outsider. The first session broke the ice between the candidate and me. I realized that ‘Show and Tell’ works beautifully with Persons with Hearing and Speech Impairment.

 Second Session – Mixed Bag

The next session was on self-image building, and the group had to create a superhero in their likeness with their strengths and weaknesses as traits of the superhero. Initially, it was tough to put forth the idea without an interpreter still I managed somehow. I could not achieve the session’s objective entirely but the students came up with self-portraits, and some even took the liberty to sketch their favourite superheroes.

Third Session – Group Dynamics

The next session was a photo walk, wherein the students were asked to capture images of anything that caught their attention, followed by a narration detailing their thought process behind the particular shot. The photos were very mesmerizing, and their explanations were equally beautiful. The students even toned down their sign language to a level where I could understand what they were saying. By this point, I shared a good bond with the group, and they looked forward to my sessions, and so did I.

Over the span of these sessions, I noticed a shift in the group dynamics. The students realized that their ideas and opinions matter and started to actively engage in conversations.

Fourth Session –  The Perfect Mix

In this session, they had to create an artwork as a group yet only one person from the group took the initiative and the rest followed his idea which was never the motive. This was made clear to them in the discussion and in the following session I gave them clay to make an artwork. All the members in the group pitched in this time, learning from the previous discussions, and understanding the importance of voicing their opinions. The resultant artworks were fascinating as one team came up with a butterfly and the other team came up with a flower vase complete with flowers and water for them! Their explanation was much better than what they created, and it did complete justice to what they made.

Conclusion

Through these group work sessions, I learnt a lot not just as a social worker but as a human being as well. It is something everyone should understand, that even though the students are persons with disabilities, they are not any different from people without disabilities, it’s just that they have a different way of communicating. The students visually communicate through sign language so effortlessly with each other that you will miss the conversation if you blink your eyes in between. They do not need anyone to help them play the game but rather need help in only levelling the playing field.