Throughout the month of July, disability pride month is celebrated in the UK. How can relationship and sexual health educators ensure their teaching and content is inclusive of young people with disabilities?
Disability pride month is celebrated every July and is an opportunity to have positive conversations about disability, celebrate diversity and raise awareness of the challenges people with disabilities still face every day.
Our mission at acet UK is deeply rooted in empowering young lives through education and promoting healthy self-esteem, positive relationships and good sexual health. To truly empower all young people, it is important that content we teach is inclusive of young people with disabilities. This month, relationships and sexual health educators working with young people could reflect and have conversations about how to make their content and delivery more inclusive of young people with disabilities.
In the UK, disability is a protected characteristic under the Equality Act (2010). This means it is against the law to discriminate against people with disabilities. But simply not discriminating against people with disabilities does not go far enough. How can we actively include them in content? This blog provides some questions and discussion points to encourage educators to think about the content and the materials they use, and how they could make them more inclusive.
Representation in resources and content
Using content with imagery that represents people from a range of backgrounds, including those of people with disabilities, is important so that young people see themselves in content shared.
Today, many educators are aware that their resources should show a diverse range of people, however diversity is often demonstrated in race, age, weight and gender – but not disability. Lack of representation of people with disabilities in relationship and sexual health resources might mean that young people with disabilities might believe that sex and relationships are not for them. It might also perpetuate the notion that able-bodied pupils should not, or cannot, have a sexual relationship with disabled person.
Do the resources and content you use show people with disabilities? If not, how and where could you include them?
Collaboration with young people and experts
Educators should not under-value the contribution of young people in lessons on sex and relationships. Creating a safe environment for young people to share what they think and ask questions on topics, might aid in discussions around disability. Young people might also provide educators with insight and ideas that can help shape future lessons. Collecting feedback from young people can be done in multiple ways including feedback forms, an anonymous question box, or a Q&A/open discussion during a session.
If educators do not feel equipped or feel they could have more knowledge on the topic of sex, relationships and disability, then speaking with experts (such as charities or organisations that specialise in supporting people with disabilities) who are able provide them with or direct them to information and resources might be beneficial.
Do you provide young people an opportunity to contribute to lessons? If you do not feel equipped to discuss disability, is there an organisation, charity or individual you could speak to, to help shape your content and increase confidence in the information you share?
Accessible resources and learning styles
It is important that educators use resources are accessible to all young people. Not all disabilities are visible, so considering resources that are accessible for young people who may need different adjustments is good practice. Adjustments do not need to be elaborate and could include subtitles on videos, providing larger than usual resources (e.g. dice, cards), or having alternative written resources with larger font. Accounting for all possible disabilities might not be possible, so it might be helpful to contact schools ahead of working with students and ask if any adjustments might be necessary.
Additionally, including activities that appeal to a range of learning styles might help engage students. It not only means students have the opportunity to learn in the way that works best for them, but also may support students who have disabilities. For example, including image-based activities works better for students who are visual learners but also might aid the learning of students with disabilities who struggle with reading or writing.
Do you include a range of activities suitable for different learning styles in your lessons? When developing resources, do you consider how accessible they are to students who might have a disability?