Experience for a day how a blind, handicapped or deaf person feels - the children of the fourth grade of the Pöcking elementary school were able to do this on Friday at the inclusion day in the Beccult.
According to the organizer Simone Berger, the campaign is also planned in other communities.
Pöcking
- Fourth grader Emma gropes her way through the great hall of the Pöckinger Beccult with short typing steps. She swings the white cane in her hand with wide movements from left to right. Suddenly she stops, takes the blue face mask from her eyes and says: “A strange feeling.” Claus Angerbauer, who is only a few meters away, laughs. For the chairman of the working group for disability issues in the district, the white cane has been part of everyday life for 30 years.
For the first time, the Coordination Center for Civic Engagement (KoBE), in cooperation with the Open Work for the Disabled (OBA), organized an inclusion day to raise awareness among schoolchildren in the district. “The children should become familiar with the fact that there are people who are different but who still belong”, says organizer Simone Berger from KoBE, “What we have in common is important. We want to sensitize society and break down inhibitions. ”At four stations for physical limitations, visual impairments, hearing impairments and learning difficulties, the around 50 pupils of the fourth grade of the Pöckinger elementary school, divided into small groups, gained an insight into the everyday life of a disabled person on Friday in the Beccult.
Coordination Center for Civic Engagement (KoBE) organizes four stations on Inclusion Day
Claus Angerbauer tells the children how he simplifies life as a blind man with the help of little tricks.
"If I want to read something, for example, I scan the sheet of paper into my computer and a program reads the printed matter out to me," says the Wesslingen municipal council.
He also knows how to help himself in the supermarket.
"I feel the grooves on the coin pieces so I know how much money I have and can go shopping myself," says Angerbauer, who has lost his eyesight due to a retinal disease.
Afterwards, the students can choose a white cane and slip into the role of a visually impaired for a moment.
Just a few meters away, the Gilchinger Ohrmuschel self-help group shows the children the sign alphabet and the numbers from one to a million.
"We'll stick our thumbs out for the A," said Martin Langscheid.
“For the L thumb and forefinger.” With a game of cards, the pupils learn to express words such as winning, super or boring in the language of the hearing impaired.
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“What time is it?”: Anna Krott (3rd from right) and Martin Langscheid (right) from the Gilchinger Ohrmuschel self-help group explain gestures in the language of the deaf to the children.
© Andrea Jaksch
At the easy language station, employees of the open work with the handicapped showed how simple linguistic expression works by means of printed out texts and books and explain to children for whom it is particularly important. "With easy language, information can be passed on to everyone," says OBA employee Veronika Seidl. “Also to people who cannot read or speak German very well. This is why the function is very important, for example on the websites of government agencies. "
In the Beccult foyer, the students can meanwhile complete a wheelchair course - with a ramp, seesaw and gravel floor.
"The children should get a feeling for what it is like to sit in a wheelchair and the challenges that physically handicapped people often face," says Simone Berger.
The inclusion day in Pöcking should not have been the last - the organizer is sure of that.
"We would like to offer such a day in every community."
