Disability

I was Denise’s supervisor for her final practicum in a health policy position. Denise is deaf with a speech impairment caused by a spasm in her face. She was hardest to understand when nervous, a constant state for the first weeks of her placement. The team conscious of not wanting to offend, kept away from her, opting instead to engage with the other student who was attractive and bubbly. Denise became isolated. Our supervisory relationship was difficult until we worked out that we could replace ‘talking ‘supervision with email supervision. That’s when we both began to learn.

Her non-relationship with co-workers remained until we worked out how by using her strengths to her advantage. She was fluent in lip reading, which came in handy when we needed to know what the other teams were going to do to win office Christmas decorating competition! When people were seeing past her in the tearoom she would sit and read their lips; reporting back the conversations so we could do one better. So for the first time ever – our normally non-creative social work team won the $200 prize! That’s when we all saw her brilliance not her disability. She came to placement keen learn about policy but her real learning was in managing hearing people and their prejudices, mine included.

Key Considerations

  • Denise needed to be welcome as a student.
  • Be aware of facility accessibility – and if there is facilities barrier then see if you can change it. Her ability to follow the conversation in meetings by lip reading team was hard until we replaced the long thin table for a round one and she could see everyone’s faces front on.
  • Talk to the student and the University about any resources that you can borrow during placement. We were able to a computer program that recorded speech to text and access to and signer.
  • Agency policy and procedures
  • Relevant legislation and professional and community standards pertaining to inclusion and accessibility.

What went well?

  • Although rocky to begin with once own we started to trust each other in supervision. Denise was able to be clear about what she needed and the barriers to her doing her best in placement.
  • In supervision I was able to encourage Denise’s independence and creativity.
  • Denise was persistent.
  • Though supervision and team interaction we all learnt a lot.
  • Once her presence was acknowledge then the team rallied around and were inventive in finding ways to include her in the work and conversation.
  • Working with the field education to help us find what supports we could borrow for placement.

What didn’t go so well?

  • The communication difficulty took time to overcome and there was the risk that the student’s potential would go unnoticed.
  • The lack of briefing about her disability/ability before she came on placement. Plus my lack of awareness that I needed anything extra to support this student.
  • My own, management and the team’s bias, attitude and ignorance of disability.

What would we do differently next time?

  • Be real and identify where you bias might be and how it might impact on the student who is coming to placement with a disability.
  • Be upfront with the student the nature and the impact of the disability on placement. Don’t hind behind not wanting to offend. Denise taught us that not asking is offensive because you are assuming that she doesn’t have needs and expectations.
  • Talk to your student about what they are want to do and how best to safety stretch and challenge them to go a bit further in their learning.
  • Work with the student to undertake an environmental scan – physical and emotional layout of the placement environment. Ease of getting around, people to touch base with.
  • Disability awareness training to generally make the work environment inclusive.