Division Division for disabled people

MARTIAL ARTS FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES

Disable people benefits are just the same as for their able-bodied contemporaries but I believe those benefits are even more important to this particular sector of the community as, sadly, even in this day and age they are still marginalised.

APPENDIX (1): COACHING ISSUES

The most important aspect of any disabled person's being is that, like non-disabled people they are all individuals and none of them are alike including aspects pertaining to their disability/ies. Thus work with their ability level i.e. take in to account their disability but work with it and not at it.

Another way of looking at it is this: A fellow instructor once said to me that basically anyone who comes to his club for the first time is in effect disabled as they do not have any knowledge or skill level to undertake any martial arts training. As instructors, we just go ahead and train our students anyway and deliver the skill and knowledge to them so that they can develop in to martial artists. This applies to everyone whether they are disabled or not.

In terms of coaching I do not feel that there is much that is different to teaching non-disabled people. The possible exception I would say might be teaching those with a learning difficulty whereby you need to keep aspects of teaching simple and maybe, where necessary, adapt your syllabus to suit an individual's needs. I would certainly recommend undertaking some specialised training for this although, again, it does depend on the degree of the learning difficulty - if it is very mild it should not be too difficult but those with moderate or severe learning difficulties will (a) need more attention and (b) I would suggest consideration be given to running a separate class for this group so that they do benefit from closer coaching.

For those with physical disabilities potentially it potentially will be easier. For example, with someone who has a visual impairment (we'll assume for now s/he is totally blind) (also this is the area with which I have the greatest expertise):

• you will need to give detailed verbal instructions e.g. where to place hands, feet etc.;
• also I have found one-to-one manoeuvring is also helpful but it does depend on the individual's acceptance of this - or not;
• also drawing plans/whatever on the student's hand has also proved to be useful;
  For those with hearing loss:
• I would suggest that the most important aspect is that you face them throughout the time you are speaking so that reading of lips is easier for the student(s);
• Possibly learning sign language might be appropriate, however please bear in mind that not all deaf people use sign language (typically sign language users are what is termed as 'culturally Deaf' i.e. they have been born in to a world of limited/no hearing and their distinct preferred method of communication is through sign language i.e. THIS is their first language and not English/any other speech-based language. With this also comes a different grammar structure);

For those who are deafblind:

• Assuming again we are thinking in terms of total hearing and visual loss, there are various forms of communication of which the Deafblind Manual Alphabet is a very useful skill to have. Indeed if you are a signer to culturally Deaf people you will find learning this quite easy;
• For my deafblind student I use a mixture of hands-on signing using a system known as Block Alphabet which is basically signing on his hand using block capitals. We also use his very sophisticated laptop which has something called Zoomtext (magnification software) on it i.e. I write in a large font. Typically the advice given in the visual impairment sector is to use Arial font as opposed to, say, Times New Roman but again please bear in mind my opening comments at the top of this appendix - my deafblind student does use Times New Roman!

For those in wheelchairs:

• You will almost certainly need to adapt the syllabus e.g. how kata's etc. are performed but, based on a fellow instructor's experiences, I would suggest fairly minimally;
• You would perhaps need to explain that in an integrated environment some teaching of leg techniques will be taught during which time wheelchair students could perhaps be asked to do something else.

In broad terms as far as any disabled student is concerned you adapt as you go and only where/when you need to. For example, one of my former blind students I arranged for him to do his kata separately from everyone else at his grading so that he does not get injured in possible clashes with other fellow (sighted) students, also, equally important that he did not injure others.

Also do not feel afraid of accepting advice from the student him/herself e.g. when teaching kihon kata I broke the three-quarter turn at the top and bottom of the movements in to three separate moves so that the student's orientation and direction was maintained as best as possible (by doing it as three separate quarter turns). It turns out that this is a variation on a mobility skill that blind people sometimes use including for Guide Dog users.

 

APPENDIX (2): SOCIAL MODEL ON DISABILITY

There is plenty on this on the Internet. However in simple terms it is making life easier for disabled people to access everything else that we, as non-disabled people take for granted. That includes in martial arts terms (amongst other issues):

• Having accessible premises whether this be a wheelchair ramp or disabled toilets or whatever;

• Making the service you are providing accessible in a way that best suits their needs e.g. reading out your Newsletters to a visually impaired person, or even if you have the equipment available, transcribing it in to Braille or providing it in large print format;

• Try undertaking what you're trying to teach by putting yourself in their position e.g. trying out a kata in a wheelchair or teaching the same to someone with no sight - explain, as I said earlier, the techniques in a non-visual way;

For further reading on the social model of disability I would recommend you search on the Internet. However as I have already said it is the way in which we, as non-disabled people conduct ourselves in setting up an environment that best suits us and does not take in to account the need to be inclusive of all including those with a disability e.g. when designing access to a building and/or making reasonable alternative opportunities for said client group to access buildings. Another way of looking at it is that we as non-disabled people disenable those with a disability because we have centred our needs around purely ourselves and have not taken an all-inclusive approach. For no building should be built with just disabled people in mind. For we are then restricting access for all which, from a legal viewpoint, has been the cornerstone of the implementation of the final part of the Disability Discrimination Act i.e. access to anywhere for anyone, not just some of us.

APPENDIX (3): REHABILITATION WORK

The aim and essence of a Rehabilitation Officer (RO) is to make his/her (visually impaired [VI]) client's environment as safe and independent as possible through teaching life skills. A RO will cover such areas as (amongst others):

• Mobility: teaching a VI person, for example, how to use a white cane and to generally get out and about to do the shopping, go to work/college/other friends or family members' homes or whatever;
• Independent Living Skills (ILS): anything from how to make a hot drink (if necessary with adaptive equipment) to making a meal to keeping home clean, also issues pertaining to personal care, use of adaptive equipment in the home (e.g. talking watches/clocks, large button phones, etc.);
• Communications: providing alternative ways of accessing the printed word e.g. talking books/newspapers, reading through large print documents and/or use of adaptive equipment to enlarge what's on screen, learning Braille/Moon, adaptive computer technology, etc.;
• Providing information/advice about all other areas of life e.g. employment, volunteering opportunities, leisure, benefits, other social services' services, sources of information, etc. In general terms acting as a referral point for as much/little as a visually impaired person needs, again, with safety and independence in mind (and in that order too).

 

UNDER CONSTRUCTION !