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Safety training usually focuses on content, and making sure people "go through" the training at the prescribed intervals. Unfortunately, there are trainee issues that are often overlooked: vision and hearing impairments, literacy and language issues, developmental and learning disabilities, and learning styles. Identify That There Is a Problem The biggest problem is that many trainees either are in denial about their communication difficulties, or are unaware of them. There are techniques safety trainers can use to make sure that all the information is accessible to trainee without making an issue of hearing or visual problems. Hearing Loss Hearing loss is a particularly severe problem for safety professionals, as so many people are in denial about their problem. Much of this is psychological, but it is also impossible to tell what sounds you aren't hearing. We know for sure that hearing loss is increasing, and one survey by the Education and Auditory Research Foundation found that fully half of the 76 million -- that makes over 38 million -- baby boomers are having difficulty with hearing loss. Only one third have had their hearing tested. You should assume that some of your audience members cannot hear well. Never offer anything verbally that isn't also available simultaneously visually. If you use a video, insist that either it be open-captioned or that, if it is close-captioned, the captioning be turned on every time it is shown. If you get a request from people to do something to help them hear, then do it! Even if it "cramps your style," as some speakers have complained to me when I asked them to wear an assistive listening microphone or stay at the stationary microphone, remember that if you refuse you have told that person that you don't deem them worth the bother of training or communicating with. Trust me, that person will return the favor and pay no attention to you, either! And never, ever, under any circumstances, decide to speak over some "soft" background music! It takes very little to make what you say completely incomprehensible to a hard of hearing audience member. There is one exception to this: if your presentation is real-time captioned. This is an importantoption to consider if you have more than 100 people in the audience, and if the training is really crucial. (Yes, all safety training is crucial, but where life, limb, the environment and public safety can be involved, you have a greater burden.) A specially-trained court reporter will type up what you say and either project it on a screen or let the one or two people who admit needing it read off their laptop screen.
Most people assume that when someone is described as "disabled" they are un-able: unable to hold a paying job, especially. The very word, "disabled" is actually repugnant to many people, as the unfortunate connotation is "inferior." This is a near-universal attitude, although many people with disabilities (PWDs) are actually holding jobs worldwide. Safety professionals who think they don't have any PWDs in the workforce (who will need some additional consideration) are almost certainly mistaken. Additionally, there are worldwide movements to get more people with disabilities in the workforce. PWDs themselves are pushing for inclusion in all of society, including the workplace. Governments are finding that they have two reasons for disability inclusion: simple human rights issues, and economics. It costs more to pay people to stay home when they could work with some reasonable accommodations. In the unlikely event that you really don't have any PWDs in your workplace, you most likely will at some time in the near future. How many PWDs are there? From my research, nobody really knows, in part because the definitions of disability vary greatly. For example, people in the U.S. can be declared "disabled" by the Social Security system and thus be entitled to disability benefits, while simultaneously eligible to file suit under the Americans with Disabilities Act against an employer or potential employer. This isn't as contradictory as it seems, as the Social Security system doesn't consider the possibility of reasonable accommodations in the workplace, and is more realistic about the discrimination that PWDs actually face when trying to get and keep jobs. No doubt other countries have different definitions of "disabled" in different branches and agencies of their governments. To some extent, disability is in the eye of the individual and the beholder. People who actually do need disability accommodations are not requesting them because they don't think that their arthritis, for example, is "disabling." Different conditions are defined as "disabling" based on people's prejudices and understanding (or lack of it) of the actual impact of the condition. Conditions change, too, and a condition may be disabling at some times and not at others for the same individual. There are also people who are temporarily disabled, and that number varies hourly. Conditions in the same individual may not be disabling in some situations, profoundly disabling in others and an actual safety asset in still others. So how many people with disabilities are there? It doesn't really matter. There are lots of us, and the number is growing rapidly because most countries have an aging population and we are saving the lives of an increasing number of trauma victims who would have died before. Most of these people will survive with residual disabilities.
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