GRASPABLE

The Rotary Club of Panjim Riviera annually organises a 4-day camp for the visually challenged. The schedule includes learning of employability skills, fun activities and showcasing the talent of the campers. Upon being invited to conduct a session, I knew my greatest challenge was to ensure that my communication was graspable to my participants.

The experience of work with physically challenged, hearing impaired teams and ‘special’ persons taught me sensitivity, patience and the effective use of body language. But here the additional challenge was to use language that is unambiguous. The following choices helped keep unintelligibility at bay:

• Always identify yourself as well as others by name.
• Do not presume comprehension, confirm it at all times.
• Talk about how and what you are doing so that they can truly see.
• Give clear directions and avoid ambiguous ‘here’ and ‘there’
• Ask if help is needed, do not take for granted.
• Declare that activity is over instead of just moving away.

Amusingly, the above tips help to be better at clear communication with not just sight-impaired persons, but all others as well. Surely, the ability to grasp is greatly dependent on the clarity of graspable communication. And the primary onus rests with the communicator to convey what emerges from the out-of-sight confines of the individual mind.

Let’s BE BETTER at graspable communication
So that our listeners can grasp a clear vision!

- Pravin K. Sabnis