Over the last few months I have been working with Brian to put together some accessible ‘Keeping Safe on the Internet’ guidelines. We have shared the knowledge that we both have about the topic and worked really hard together to think of the right words and pictures to use in the guidelines so that other people can use them and learn something new. To ensure we got things right we even had a meeting with MacIntyre's IT manager, who was very impressed with the work we had done and said the guidelines might be really helpful for staff too.
Together we decided to visit a computer group in Milton Keynes to get some feedback on whether the guidelines were easy to understand and useful. I picked Brian up from his house on the day of the meeting and on the drive to Milton Keynes he was telling me all about the things he had been doing since we last met, but something was not quite right. . .
I'd like to think that over the last few months I have got to know Brian quite well and I noticed during our drive he seemed a little quieter than usual. I asked Brian if he was ok and he told me he was a bit nervous about meeting the computer group. I thought about this for a second and explained to Brian that it was ok to be a bit nervous. I told him that I am always really nervous when I meet new people, but sometimes it helps to just pretend that you aren't nervous. Our chat seemed to help a bit but just to make sure, as we continued to talk during the journey, I kept dropping in little reminders about what we were going to do at the meeting and the questions we had decided to ask the group.
When we got to the meeting Brian was offered a drink and a seat at the "head of the table", I could see he was still nervous so I asked if he wanted me to sit next to him, he said ‘yes’, so we both settled ourselves in our seats and everyone introduced themselves. Brian explained to the group we were there to find out what they thought about the ‘Keeping Safe on the Internet’ guidelines and then he went on to read the first few pages of the document to the group.
Whilst he was reading I could see that Brian was still a bit nervous as he was speaking very quietly and had his head down, when he got to the end of the page he didn't seem quite sure of what to do next. I realised Brian had forgotten the questions we had talked about in the car journey, I stepped in and helped, asking the group a couple of questions about what he had read, to remind him of our questions. Brian read on and then paused at the end of the next page for questions. This time I whispered to him and asked if he wanted to ask the questions, he said ‘yes’, and with a little bit of subtle prompting Brian asked questions and got some good feedback from the group. After this Brian really found his stride, he sat a little straighter, spoke a little louder and really took the lead throughout the rest of the meeting.
After many weeks of hard work the guidelines are nearly finished and will hopefully be a great tool to help people learn about how to use the internet safely. This is a really great outcome for the project but the best bit of all for me was when we came out of the meeting and Brian turned to me beaming and said:
"I was well chuffed with that!"
Tina Fairholm,
Accessible Communication Facilitator