Easy Read Manifestos

This months Mencap newsletter has a link to an article

Get my vote success as election draws nearer

The Easy Read versions of the Conservative,Labour and Liberal Democrat manifestos can be downloaded from the article and you can Listen to people with a learning disability talk about why voting is important.
See more on voting from my blog

Learning about the election

Symbol World has a symbol supported election resource suitable for students with a learning disability. It was prepared for the 2005 election but apart from the results page it is still relevant. It has short sections on Political Parties,Voting,The Election and Parliament.
For further resources see my other blog entries on Politics

How shall I vote?

The first thing of course is to register to vote by Tuesday 20th April. This is also the date to arrange a postal vote(if you have already registered), Tuesday 27th is the cut off date for Proxy votes.
Visit About my Vote for further details.

To find out about the prospective parliamentary candidates the following websites give useful background information:

Your next MP

VoteGeek

For understanding of the issues and how to vote Promote the Vote is a site designed for adults with a learning disability.




Maggie Harnew on her Skillsworkshop blog has also highlighted

A polling station walk through

Also see my other blog entries on politics and voting

Helping adults with a disability to vote

What do you do if you get to the polling station and you can't read the voting slip or write a cross ? This question came up and I wasn't sure of the answer so I wrote to Leonard Cheshire Disability who are running a My Vote My Say campaign and this was the reply I got :

'If you would like to vote in person but cannot read the ballot paper or make the cross on the ballot paper yourself you are entitled to be accompanied by a support worker to the polling station and your support worker, under your instruction, can read out the ballot paper to you and place the cross where you instruct them to do so. If you do not have a support worker you can also ask the polling station staff to do this for you.All polling station staff will have been instructed on how they can support people with an impairment at the polling stations on election day but if you want additional assurance, the electoral commission is producing a template letter that voters can take to the polling station that reminds polling station staff of the electoral commission guidance and the fact that you are entitled to have a support worker assist you or be assisted by polling station staff. This resource is not available' but will be in the near future.

The ability to remain fully impartial is obviously important and there is guidance from the Charities Commission Charities and Elections

Photograpy competition for people with a learning disability.

Image : Imagine symbols

Mencap has launched its film and photography competition SNAP ! The theme this year is what you do to be active: for example

- doing sports
- going for walks
- going to the park
- going swimming
- playing computer games

The competition is open to people with a learning disability and others but the photograph must be something to do with learning disability. Each photo or film should also have a story with it about why it was made .(about 100 words)

There is an easy read guide to finding the correct settings on the camera (fine)

Help with taking a good photograph /film can also be found at Oska Bright. The guidance is about making a film but I found it very useful for taking photos as well.

Assertiveness resource

It was easy to find clips on You Tube that showed aggressive behaviour.
Finding material to illustrate passive and assertive behaviour was less easy.
I used a resource from our college library:

Social communication Talkabout DVD by Alex Kelly .

It is age appropriate,it features adults and is suitable for entry level students

Also view my blog entry Social Communication

Gardener's delight

The Geranium plants arrived this week and what an amazing sight to see 72 healthy little plants tucked up safely in a box all the way from Jersey!

My Life skills group has planted them on into bigger pots which has bought colour and life to the greenhouse.
For our Enterprise module the 'Greenfingers Garden Company' will plant up and sell hanging baskets and patio pots. We have ordered plug plants of Geraniums,Petunias,Fuchsias and Busy Lizzie's and are also growing from seed (hopefully the warmer weather will speed these up now).

Also see my blog entries for Gardening and the award winning Centre for Autism enterprise project

Boccia.

We were introduced to Boccia today. Its a game which has many forms but one version is similar to boules .The good thing about it is its a sport that can be played by everyone with a disability and can be played as a leisure activity or followed through to Olympic level.(see the story about Chris Myers at the BBC)

If you would like to find out more about Boccia NGFL has a PowerPoint to download with all the rules and a series of lesson plans to take you through teaching the skills.


You can also look at Olympics 2012 site


Parasport which has information about clubs to join.

CP Sport England& Wales for training courses.

Easter

Makaton has a free download available

Easter Signs and Symbols

A voice heard

Now is a good time to raise student's awareness about the British election which must happen by early June. The most important thing at this stage is that any one who wants to vote and has not done so already registers to vote.Once the election is called anyone who has not already registered only has a week to do so.

You can find out about registering to vote at About my vote.

You could also order some easy read material to help students understand about voting such as Easy-Read Guide to Voting Booklet
from the Electoral commission Resource section ( I have tried ordering this twice with no luck!)



The student friendly Promote the Vote site is a useful resource.
It has a section Who to vote for .
It also has Easy Read material : Every Vote Counts (currently out of stock! but you can order and wait...)
Many organisations are working to ensure people with a disability have a say in this election. Mencap Get my Vote

'Almost one million people with a learning disability are eligible to vote in the UK - but just one in five chose to do so in the last general election.

Our political system has shown itself to be unable - and unwilling - to involve everyone in democracy, and as a result people with a learning disability are missing out on a key opportunity to get their voices heard' Mencap website

Leonard Cheshire Disability have a campaign My Vote My Say

Sense, the charity for Deaf Blind are running a campaign to make Parliamentary candidates aware of disability issues

Make deafblindness an election issue at the 2010 general election!

Check out my other blog entries on politics and voting
Pictures from Inspired Services