Tactile pedagogies to engage disabled students

Manjula Patrick, (Inclusive Education Lead, Arena), demystifies the university experience for deaf year 12 students by offering practical guidance and fostering confidence.

In July 2024, the Discover UCL Summer School conducted a session utilising Lego® Serious Play® (LSP) with the cohort to delve into two key areas:

1. Their motivations for attending university and the anticipated challenges they might face as deaf individuals.
2. Their definitions of success and the paths they envisioned to achieve it. 

The Discover UCL Summer School 

The Discover UCL Summer School for deaf and hard-of-hearing Year 12 students, now in its 12th year, is a unique widening participation initiative at UCL, originally developed by Manjula Patrick. This programme aims to demystify the university experience for deaf students by offering practical guidance and fostering confidence, self-advocacy, and equitable support as they plan to transition to higher education. 

This year, we sought to help students reflect on their reasons for attending university and their definitions of success. The aim was to equip them to navigate the challenges they might encounter on their journey to achieving their goals. 

What sessions did we run?  

A July 2024 session prioritised accessibility with speech-to-text reporters providing captioning and British Sign Language (BSL) interpreters facilitating communication. The staff facilitators included both deaf and hearing individuals, some of whom were proficient in both BSL and English. Additionally, all staff members had completed deaf awareness training prior to the session. 

The session began with a brief introduction to LSP to structure the activity. The introduction alongside other instructions was delivered using Mentimeter (an interactive presentation software) as is the case for other LSP sessions on team building.  

This was the first time that the students had engaged with Mentimeter and Lego® in an academic setting. Each student was given a Lego® Serious Play® kit and they were tasked with creating a Lego® model representation in response to the first set of questions. At the end of the creation period, participants shared and explained their Lego® models to the group using a pointer to highlight areas of particular significance in their models.  

Students were encouraged to ask questions about each other’s Lego® creations rather than directly questioning the individual. For e.g., asking “What does that green block represent?” rather than “Why do you think X will be a challenge?”  

While some concerns were specifically related to deafness, such as the need for support arrangements, most concerns were like those of any student considering university—financial issues, leaving home, fitting in, and making new friends. 

The second set of questions followed a similar process. When asked about success, students largely associated it with financial stability (e.g., home ownership, car ownership) and achieving career success through hard work and progression. Interestingly, deafness was not seen as a barrier to achieving their defined success. 

Why is this approach helpful? 

Our focus was on creating a safe, engaging, and accessible session that encouraged openness. LSP is one technique currently being investigated by a small research group within the Arena team, and it aligned well with our objectives for the session. By using LSP, we created a tactile, visual, and interactive environment that enabled students to express their thoughts and emotions non-verbally, thus promoting more inclusive participation. 

The novelty of our approach lies in how we adapted LSP (a method traditionally employed in corporate and adult learning environments) for use with deaf and hard-of-hearing pre-university students. This marked a departure from conventional pedagogical methods that often rely heavily on verbal and written communication, which can be challenging for this audience. 

What was the outcome? 

Our approach empowered students to articulate their challenges and aspirations through creative expression, fostering deeper self-reflection and group discussion—outcomes that are seldom achieved through traditional educational methods.  

By integrating tactile pedagogy, and inclusivity, we introduced a new way of supporting deaf and hard-of-hearing students in their transition to higher education – an approach that is transferable to other marginalised groups as well as in discipline-related teaching.  

On the day, the students were highly engaged and having fun whilst exploring and reflecting on the questions posed - their Lego® models we 

The impact of this initiative has been significant, particularly in terms of student engagement and self-reflection. Feedback from the participants indicated that they thoroughly enjoyed the activity and found it to be a unique and enriching experience. Many students expressed that building their Lego models helped them to think deeply about their concerns and aspirations for university, in ways they hadn’t before. The activity also provided a sense of reassurance, as students realised that their peers shared similar concerns about transitioning to university life. 

This collective reflection not only deepened their understanding of their challenges and goals but also fostered a supportive community among the participants.  

So, what’s next?  

Building on the success of this session, we plan to expand the use of Lego® Serious Play® and other tactile and/or similar methodologies to other groups and contexts: 

• Marginalised Staff Development: We are designing sessions for early and mid-career marginalised staff, using LSP to explore their responses to similar questions about career challenges and aspirations. The insights gained will inform Arena’s professional development offerings. 

• Visually Impaired Braille Users: We are in the process of designing a session specifically for visually impaired participants, utilising Lego® Braille Bricks. This will offer a tactile and inclusive way for Braille users to engage with the activity. 

• Inclusive Teaching Workshops: We aim to develop workshops for UCL staff focused on using inclusive and tactile pedagogies in their teaching. These workshops will explore how such methods can be integrated into various educational settings to enhance engagement and accessibility for all students. 

By continuing to innovate and expand on these approaches, we hope to further contribute to the development of inclusive educational practices at UCL and beyond. 

The bigger picture: Implications for UCL/education 

The success of this initiative demonstrates the potential for using LSP and similar creative pedagogic approaches to facilitate deeper self-reflection and group dialogue in educational contexts. Our experience with the Discover UCL Summer School offers valuable insights into addressing several common challenges in educational settings, particularly around inclusivity, engagement, and accessibility. 

1. Enhancing Inclusivity in Teaching Practices: One of the biggest challenges in higher education is creating inclusive learning environments that accommodate diverse student needs. Our experience demonstrates that by thinking creatively and integrating tools like LSP, tutors can design sessions that cater to different learning styles and abilities, making learning accessible and engaging for all students. 

2. Promoting Active Participation: Another challenge is ensuring that all students, regardless of their background or abilities, can actively participate in learning activities. Our approach, which included extensive preparation and tailored accessibility provisions, ensured that each student could engage fully, thereby promoting a more equitable learning experience. This can serve as a model for other departments at UCL looking to improve student engagement. 

3. Addressing Pre-University Concerns: The transition from secondary education to university is a significant hurdle for many students, especially students with disabilities. By encouraging students to reflect on their concerns and aspirations in a supportive environment, we helped them build the confidence and self-advocacy skills necessary for navigating university life. This approach can be applied in other outreach programs aimed at easing transitions for prospective students. 

4. Scalable and Transferable Methodology: The methodologies we employed, such as running test sessions and tailoring activities based on feedback, are scalable and can be adapted to different groups within UCL. This experience underscores the importance of iterative design and testing, which can help other educators refine their approaches to inclusive teaching. 

By sharing these insights, we hope to encourage other departments at UCL to adopt similar inclusive practices, thereby improving the overall student experience and ensuring that all students have the opportunity to thrive.