A Pro-Active Approach

One way to ensure you are delivering an inclusive course is to guarantee that your group reflects a variety of leaders. As described on the Qualifications That Change Lives CD-ROM Tutor Resource, it is important to think about who you will recruit and how. Sometimes, providing equal opportunities requires an unequal amount of effort.

Below are some ideas about actively promoting your course and identifying disabled leaders:

• Invite a group of less dominant individuals and people with a disability to have a taster session.
• Invite learners with disabilities to run their own sports club where they teach disability games that are not usually offered.
• Positively target people within your organisation that might not be confident enough to opt to take part in a leadership course.
• Run a combined course with a special school, a special needs unit within a school, or a disability sports group.
• Deliver leadership through a sports or multi-sport club that a disabled person might already be involved with.

It is important to remember that for a large number of disabled leaders there won't be a need to establish different strategies from those already presented in the CD-Rom Tutor Resource. Being a tutor of a disabled learner is no different to delivering to any other. All of the leadership strategies tutors will employ are relevant to disabled learners - in fact, an inclusive approach is really nothing to do with 'disability'. If an inclusive approach is implemented, then it will enhance everyone's participation.

A good way of embedding this value to your learners is by demonstrating the value of teamwork within the group.

View the video clip discussion about the importance of teamwork.