HOW I

how i involve students

With services under financial
and staffing pressure (RCSLT, HOW I (1):
Access-ability
2007) and a need to ensure
undergraduate students have
sufficient quantity and quality
of placement experience,
imaginative schemes are called Alison Matthews, Emma Sims, Katie Cowburn, Amy
for. These recognise students as Erwin, Amy Sadowski, Nicola Derbyshire, Lizanne
an additional resource – rather Carter and Linda Collier give managerial, student and
than an additional burden - university perspectives on a service centred accessible
with a positive contribution information project for adults with learning
to make to service provision. disabilities.
Our authors show why this L-R Katie, Nicola, Amy S., Amy E., Emma
benefits clients, carers, students,
therapists, universities and 1. The Team Manager’s view I was aware that Linda Collier from the Univer-
services, at the same time playing The Oldham Communication Therapy Team takes sity of Manchester is always looking to explore
a part in turning policy such as a very proactive approach to introducing service cen- alternative opportunities for student placements.
tred and person centred accessible information (Mat- At the same time, as a therapist and Team Man-
accessibility, user involvement thews & Samuels, 2006). ager of an already over-stretched service, I've been
and interprofessional working We recently piloted a project with six speech and lan- keen to design placements where it feels like the
into reality. guage therapy students from the University of Man- service has some kind of return. This could be a
chester on placement with us one day a week for 6 particular piece of work or a reduction in waiting
Reference weeks. The first session involved them attending our lists for individuals or for accessible information.
RCSLT (2007) ‘Money and commissioners: managers
speak out’, Bulletin of the Royal College of Speech &
accessible information training day. They were then As well as the benefits to the service, the accessi-
Language Therapists 667 (November), p.7. given an accessible information referral* and asked to ble information has had an impact for the people
complete the piece of work. The Learning Disability with learning disabilities who are working on the
Involving students (1) Service Community Projects supported by the stu- Community Projects. Feedback has been positive
dents included woodwork, gardening and recycling. to the extent that, the afternoon the students fin-
Access-ABILITY This type of work benefits several service users in ished, the manager of the projects asked when he
one go and falls into the category of service centred could have the next group!
nvolving students (2) work as opposed to person centred (Matthews &
A safe context Samuels, 2006). The students were supported by our 2. The students’ view
Communication Development Workers (Matthews This project has been beneficial for both our pro-
& Baynham, 2006) with some input from me as fessional / clinical development and the speech and
Involving students (3) Team Manager. They visited the project sites and language therapy team. They were able to delegate
Everybody can communicate worked with the service users and staff to develop work to us, taking pressure off them by decreasing
something the resources required. their time on projects that would have taken many
weeks. With minimal input our projects were un-
dertaken independently. This is of particular value
for all therapists with large caseloads and little time
PRACTICAL POINTS: involving students to do this kind of work themselves. We benefited
from the opportunity to develop skills we did not
1. Think out of the box – what can students add? previously have and welcomed the opportunity to
2. Consider service centred as well as person centred schemes work with students from other years.
3. Find useful ways to accommodate larger groups Project 1: Gardening Centre
4. Structure meaningful, holistic learning contexts Our project was to show the process of making a
5. Carers may welcome the chance to be influential hanging basket in an accessible format for service
users (figure 1). We also developed the idea of a
6. Exploit and develop multi-media skills pocket sized laminated ‘flick-book’ to make the
7. Support interprofessional understanding equipment and tools used at the centre more ac-
8. Choose projects that raise awareness of impact cessible for staff and service users (figure 2).

9. Expose students to clients’ strengths and personalities Project 2: Recycling Centre

10. Recognise wider benefits for the profile of the profession We produced accessible information for the service
users at the recycling centre by making a variety of
vital information sheets. Our pieces included what

24 SPEECH & LANGUAGE THERAPY IN PRACTICE Winter 2007


ents
to wear when out in the van, how to use scissors
safely (figure 3), how to use the small shredders
and how to report an accident.
Project 3: Woodwork
Amy S. and Lizanne say:
“Our task was to make information accessible
for the woodwork project that runs in Oldham.
When we first visited we looked around and saw
what they did with the adults with learning dis-
abilities, and we met the service users. We were
then given the different information they would
like to be made accessible; this included taking all
the different screw sizes and making it so that the
service users could find a certain size easily, giving
them just a little bit more independence. For this
we took each screw size and length and developed
a symbol system with a corresponding colour for
each length and a corresponding shape for each
size. We also developed a wallet-sized booklet so
the project worker could show a service user which
screw they want, and then they would be able to
find the same symbol on the box that holds the
screws and find the right amount of screws. We
were also asked to make step-by-step health and
safety check posters for each machine they use, so
at the beginning of each day a service user could
check the machine was safe and working prop-
erly. Furthermore we made posters to show that
eye and/or ear protection was necessary and must
be worn when using the machine.”
The skills we have learnt during this placement
will definitely be useful for future projects, as the
process of making information accessible is ap-
plicable to other populations. We believe it was a
good experience for us to meet the service users,
as this helped us make the information more rel-
evant to the users at the various sites. This project
was useful for all parties as we gained practical ex-
perience in working with adults with learning dis-
abilities, and the service users got involved with
the project as well as benefiting from it.
3. The University’s view
Over the past few years we have been developing
a series of clinical ‘taster’ sessions which will give
the students valuable clinical experience in their
1st year of studies. These sessions have included
visits to Sure Start schemes, meeting people with
dysphasia in their local Communication Support
Groups and making Communication Passports
for service users in conjunction with the Com-
munication Therapy Team in Oldham.
The Accessible Information project - offered
initially to 8 students - was evaluated very highly
by the students and gave them skills that can be
used with a whole range of client groups. The
students were able to meet adults with learning
difficulties; even if they never work with this cli-
HOW I
Figure 1
ent group again during their undergraduate years
this experience will stay with them and may help
them consider working with this client group
once qualified.
Building on the success of the pilot project the
Figure 2
whole year group attended an Accessible Informa-
tion Day in Oldham in November 2007 and will
now be sent on a variety of placements. There has Using Scissors Safely
been a huge amount of interest from other services
• When carrying the scissors make sure the
who realise there is potential in using students to scissors are shut
make accessible information for their clients. Apart
from adults with learning disabilities services, we
are also sending students into several schools in the
local area to make Communication Passports and
information accessible for the children.
Speech and language therapy students need to
be reminded in their 1st year why they have cho-
sen the profession and it is really important to • Always put the scissors back on the table when
they are not being used
include clinical experiences alongside their aca-
demic studies. The Accessible Information and
Communication Passport work helps to focus
them on the clinical aspects of the profession,
work with a variety of clients, build their con-
fidence in their own ability and develop clinical • At the end of the day, put all the scissors back
skills. into the jug
Students do not need to be extra work for clini-
cal educators; they can be a benefit to the service
while gaining skills that will help them through-
out their careers.
Figure 3
Alison Matthews is Team Manager of the Communi-
cation Therapy Team, Rock Street Centre, Oldham,
e-mail Alison.Matthews@oldham.gov.uk. Emma Acknowledgements
Sims, Katie Cowburn, Amy Erwin, Amy Sadowski, Thanks to Christine Marsland and Mark Booth,
Nicola Derbyshire and Lizanne Carter are student Communication Development Workers, and
speech and language therapists at the University Eric Armitage.
of Manchester. Linda Collier is a Senior Clinical
Teaching Fellow at the University of Manchester, e-
mail linda.collier@manchester.ac.uk. References
Matthews, A. & Baynham, T. (2006) ‘Photo opportunities’,
Speech & Language Therapy in Practice Spring, pp.7-9.
*The Accessible Information Referral Form is Matthews, A. & Samuels, R. (2006) ‘Conference calls: Show
available via the Mag Extras group in the mem- and Tell’, Speech & Language Therapy in Practice Summer,
bers’ area of www.speechmag.com. pp.20-22. SLTP
SPEECH & LANGUAGE THERAPY IN PRACTICE Winter 2007 25
 reprinted from www.speechmag.com

Accessible Information Referral Form

Name………………………………
Address………………………………………
………………………………………………
………………………………………………
…………...
Postcode…………………...

Telephone Number:………………

Who the information is aimed at……………………………

………………………………………………………………

Please give as many details as you can about the work you
require:…………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………………….
Approx. number of hours required…….…Deadline if appropriate……..………
Do you require this information in any language other than English? If so, state which
language(s)………………………………………………………………..

Signed..…………………………...Date………………..…….

Office use: Priority____________________

Date received________________ Actual time spent________________

Contact_____________________ Date completed__________________
 reprinted from www.speechmag.com

Guidelines for Referrals for accessible information

1. Referrals should be made on the accessible information

referral form. The TC Support workers will ask to discuss
priorities at the locality meeting.
2. Please give as much information as you can about who the
information is to be aimed at. For example, is it a specific
individual or a group? Consider the different needs of that
group, eg. sensory impairment, English as a second
language.
3. Please give as much information as you can about the type of
work required. For instance, if you have a document which
you would like have made more accessible for a specific
group consider the following points, do you require:
€ Format– a booklet, leaflet, poster, document. What size?
What are your requirements in terms of layout?
€ A video or audiotape?
€ A set of symbols or photographs– please list the pictures
required.
€ Have you broken the information down into it’s essential
points?
€ Does your original document contain complex vocabulary or
jargon? Can this be omitted or do certain words need to be
retained, with an appropriate explanation? For example you
may need to keep the word ‘assessment’ in a health needs
assessment but the person being assessed might not
understand the word.
€ Please list the number of hours you would estimate the work
to take.

Please return the form to:

Alison Matthews
Co-ordinator, Communication Therapy
Communication Therapy Team
Rock Street Centre
Rock Street
Oldham