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Description

Communication is especially important for people with visual impairments. Find out more in this team sorting challenge.

Source: https://www.scouts.org.uk/activities/sighted-sort-it/

Resources

10 minutes
Scarves
Disability fact sheet PDF

Safety
All activities must be safely managed. Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. Do a risk assessment and take appropriate steps to reduce risk. Always get approval for the activity and have suitable supervision and an InTouch process.
- Active games: The game area should be free of hazards. Explain the rules of the game clearly and have a clear way to communicate that the game must stop when needed.
- Contact games and activities: Make sure everyone understands what contact is acceptable, and monitor contact throughout the activity.


Change the level of challenge
- You can split into smaller groups if you have too many people to get into one line.
- It’s probably helpful to practice a line up without a blindfold first, so you get some clues about how to communicate.
- Make it trickier by taking another sense, such as touch, away.
- You may want to try other day-to-day tasks while blindfolded. Focus on things where the environment makes it easier or harder, for example, getting into your meeting place, finding your way to the toilet, or getting a glass of water.
- Many organisations support and advocate for disabled people—you could invite them along to talk to everyone, and even help with the activity. Some parents and carers may be able to help (or lend an expert opinion) too.

Instructions

Discuss disability
1. Everyone should sit in a circle.
2. The person leading the game should ask if anyone can describe what ‘disability’ means. If you’ve covered the topic recently, you might find it works best to recap what everyone learned.
3. The person leading the game should explain that sensory impairments are one type of disability. Everyone should try and name the five senses.
4. The person leading the game should explain that a visual impairment is when people don’t see well or at all, even when they wear glasses or contact lenses. People use different words to describe themselves—some people say they are blind, some people say they are visually impaired, or have a visual impairment.
5. Everyone should try and think of some of the ways people with visual impairments may use their other senses more. For example, to cross the road they may use the bumpy pavement to know when to stop, and a noise (or a moving part on a crossing box) to know when it’s safe to cross.
5. Everyone should think about how people with visual impairments communicate and do everyday tasks, even though they can’t see. With the right equipment and adaptations, people can still do things such as spending time with friends, going to work, and having a family. Some people may have a guide dog, others may read braille or use special equipment like a screen reader that reads what’s on a computer or phone out loud.

Play the game
1. Everyone should line up in height order, from smallest to tallest. They can talk, look, and move—and everyone should join in, including the grown ups! The person leading the game should time how long it takes everyone to get in the right order.
2. Everyone should talk about how they got into the right order, and how easy or difficult it was.
3. Everyone should jumble up, so they’re in a random order again.
4. Everyone should gently tie their scarves over their eyes. Neckers work perfectly for this, or you could use sleep masks or ask people to close their eyes without peeking.
5. Everyone should line up in height order again. This time, they’ve lost the use of one of their senses, so they’ll have to rely on other senses like talking, or (carefully!) touching each other’s heads. The person leading the game should time everyone to see how long it takes now. It doesn’t matter too much if anyone can see a little bit or peeks; it’s still tricky to get the whole group working together.
6. The person leading the game should reveal the two times. Everyone should think about how they found the second time. Was it easier or harder? How did they communicate? Playing a game like this doesn’t mean we understand what it’s like to be have a visual impairment. However, it can give us an idea of how we can communicate in a more inclusive way, and what makes an activity or environment inaccessible.
7. If they want to, everyone could play again with another order for the line, such as alphabetical order of first names (it’s much easier if you can see the person next to you and you know their name!).


Reflection
- This activity helped you to respect others. How can you communicate clearly if someone has a visual impairment? Was it more difficult to understand when one person talked at a time, or when lots of people talked at once? How did you know who to listen to, and whether someone was talking to you or not? What does this tell us about how we can communicate with people with visual impairments? It may help for one person to talk at once and to use someone’s name so they know you’re talking to them.
- This activity also gave you a chance to think about your actions and other people’s feelings. How do you think it feels if people don’t try to communicate with you? How do you think it would feel if you couldn’t enjoy things like watching films or joining in with a game? What other things would be tricky to do without sight? Fortunately, technology and adaptations can mean people with visual impairments can join in with everyone else. What can you to do make sure people are included?
- If anyone has any experience of visual impairments, they may like to share, but they don’t have to if they don’t want to.

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