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Asking Questions
Asking questions is an important skill. To ensure your service is accessible and inclusive, you might need to know certain things about participants but you also need to be cautious of asking rude or invasive questions.
When you’re asking questions of disabled young people, think about the things below. You already think about these things when talking with anyone else, but these considerations are much more important when engaging with disabled young people:
- the context
- your relationship with the person
- how important the question is
- how their answer will change things
- how the person’s day was
- how you preface the question
- how you give the person power in their response
- how much you really need to know
- if you offer an out to them answering
Disabled young people have told us:
- You don’t necessarily have to have the solution
- Be open to learning and listening
- Follow through with what you said you would do
- There’s not a solution to every problem
- Trust us
- We have bad days just like you
- Every disabled person has a different idea of what they’re comfortable talking about and doing
- Disabled people are the experts on their own disability and their own access needs
- Don’t assume anything
- Acceptance is a journey and everyone’s on their own journey
- We just want to be treated like everyone else
Appropriate Questions activity
You’ve read a bit about appropriate questions, now have a look at an example scenario and think about how it relates to the considerations above. Can you come up with three questions that help you get the following information?
You are inviting people to an in-person activity your organisation is running. One of the participants is a 15-year-old with cerebral palsy (CP). You have only worked with this person previously on Zoom. You know that their CP affects their speech, and that they have mentioned using a wheelchair.
What three questions would you ask in order to learn:
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The disabled young person’s access needs.
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What the disabled young person needs from you.
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Whether the disabled young person can do the same activity as everyone else.