Useful Tools

XR Principles of Inclusivity

Disablity Access Training | Disabled Rebels Network | June 2023

In order to build an inclusive approach towards involving all sections of society in the struggle to highlight the Climate Emergence, it is necessary for XR to pay particular attention to five activity areas:

Please also read Diversity and Inclusivity at XR Actions when planning an action.

Dyslexia Friendly Style Guide

What is inclusivity?

An inclusive product, service or environment does not exclude any section of society. Inclusive solutions consider all users and participants, including disabled people, and is a positive step towards a holistic, universal system.

The Principles of Inclusivity
Organisation and running of meetings or activities

When considering an accessible and inclusive meeting, there are three aspects you need to think about:

  1. Planning and preparation
  2. The equipment and information
  3. The conduct of the meeting.
1. Planning - Choosing a Venue

When considering whether a venue is accessible, the first thought may be to avoid entrances with steps. There are many other aspects to consider or options that you can provide to make the venue accessible. The information below covers a variety of suggestions however it doesn't cover every aspect. You will also need to think about different religions / faiths, backgrounds and cultures, e.g. different faiths have specific approaches to alcohol, as well as considering if attendees might be in recovery and possibly won't attend if alcohol is being served on the premises - the best practice is to consider your potential attendees / rebels and if after reading this guide you're unsure of their needs, please search the internet for information:

2. Providing Information and Equipment
3. Conduct - During the meeting
The Production of Documentation – Including Leaflets

Here are some tips on good practice:

When considering lay-out and design for posters and leaflets (as well as the points above):

Take care to avoid, where possible:

General Good Practice in Communication and Information

Written Communication:

Audio information:

Audio information is especially important for people with a visual impairment, dyslexia, learning difficulties, non-English speakers and people who struggle to understand maps; non-disabled people may also find it reassuring and helpful.

Etiquette for producing your own audio CD: use people with clear speaking voices. Give an introduction and a summary e.g. this is an annual report of 20 pages. Have gaps between sections; state page number at appropriate points so that people can retrieve information; give contact details at the end; if pictures are important to the text describe them. Allow time for taping to be done in stages so that the reader does not sound bored.

Accessibility of the XR websites: Accessible website design

Text:

Use a sans serif typeface, like Karla as it is easier to read. A large font equivalent to Karla 14 is a good size – the alternative is to have a Large Print button at the top of the home page.

The text should be colour-contrasted with its surroundings – like black/white, yellow/blue, green/white. Many visually impaired people find it easier to read reverse coloured text – e.g. white characters (#FFFFFF), on racing green (#006600) background

Images:

Pictures/pictograms/icons help many people with learning disabilities, but can be a hindrance to people using voice software like Hal/Supernova (text-reader software). Where pictures are included, make sure the alt tags say what they are or what they do (e.g.: click here for Toyota cars)

Frames:

Do not use them!.

Tables:

Tables are inaccessible for many with visual impairments and some screen readers. If tables are necessary, provide both a caption and a summary of its contents.

Forms:

Web-based forms can usually be read by text readers, but it’s worthwhile including a “print” button, for people who can’t use the online version.

Document downloads:

Ensure documents are available as both a Word document and as a PDF.

Structure:

Make sure website pages have a clear and logical structure.

Accessibility of demonstrations and other activities

There have always been disabled people engaged in political activities but never to the extent that they are today. It is not possible or practical for organisers of demonstrations or certain other political activities to consider the access needs of all the disabled individuals who may want to take part. Disabled people for their part equally need to understand that with rights come responsibilities and this includes their own safety. Nevertheless in order to be able to make informed choices as to whether or not they can participate, disabled people require as much information as is possible to give.

Disabled people would find it useful to know for example:

Grounding Exercises

Explain fight, flight or freeze - adrenaline and its impact - e.g. can lead to panic attacks.

Explain Diaphragmatic Breathing:

Diaphragmatic breathing is a type of a breathing exercise that helps strengthen your diaphragm, an important muscle that helps you breathe. This breathing exercise is also sometimes called belly breathing or abdominal breathing.

It has a number of benefits that affect your entire body. It’s the basis for almost all meditation or relaxation techniques, which can lower your stress levels, reduce your blood pressure, and regulate other important bodily processes.

The most basic type of diaphragmatic breathing is done by inhaling through your nose and breathing out through your mouth.

Diaphragm breathing basics:

Rib-stretch breathing (use diaphragmatic breathing into your stomach):

Numbered breathing (use diaphragmatic breathing into your stomach). Numbered breathing is a good exercise for gaining control over your breathing patterns. Here’s how you can do it:

Anchoring or can be used as a check-in or check-out:

This might be something like, “I’m Full Name. I’m X years old. I live in….. Today is Friday, June 3. It’s 10:04 in the morning. I’m sitting at my desk. There’s no one else in the room.” You can expand on the phrase by adding details until you feel calm, such as, “It’s raining lightly, but I can still see the sun. I need a break. I’m thirsty, so I’m going to make a cup of tea.”

Short grounding:

Lower your gaze, hands in lap or on diaphragm and take 3 breaths in and out (using diaphragmatic breathing). Feel your feet on the floor, and then starting with your toes, press them to the floor, then the balls of your feet, your arches and the heels. Make a whole foot connection! Then imagine roots growing out of your feet into the earth. Imagine those roots growing longer and combining with all the root systems underground. Feel connected to our earth. Then in your mind, take yourself to a place in nature, somewhere you love or maybe visited recently. Remember what it felt like. How warm or chilly, dry or drizzly, still or windy. Stay with those feelings for a few moments. Then bring yourself slowly back into the space with everyone. And when you’re ready, open your eyes or clear your gaze and then if you can, stretch or shake yourself in whatever way you feel comfortable.

Longer grounding:

Cognitive Behavioural Technique (CBT) - The 5 senses.

Longest grounding:

Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT): I’d like to invite you to close your eyes, focus on your breath - in and out. And then to just feel into your body, scanning up and down looking for some tension. Do you have tightness, stress or pain anywhere? Is it in your neck, shoulders, lower back or somewhere else? If you can’t find anything in your body, then look outside for whatever is causing you tension at the moment. Then tap the side of your hand with the other hand and repeat after me, “Even though I have this tension (or you can name the specific tension, e.g. this headache/back pain/frustration) in my body and life, I deeply and completely accept myself.” Repeat this x 3.

Then tap gently and repeatedly:

Check outs:

List favorites - List three favorite things in several different categories, such as foods, trees, songs, movies, books, places, and so on.

Plan an activity - This might be something you do alone or with a friend or loved one. Think of what you’ll do and when. Maybe you’ll make your favourite dinner, take a walk somewhere you love, watch a film you’ve been looking forward to, call a friend. Focus on the details, describing as much as possible.

List positive things - Write or mentally list four or five things in your life that bring you joy, visualising each of them briefly.

De-escalation Process

We welcome everyone and every part of everyone but not all behaviours. For clarity around this: here is a link to XR's Principles and Values found on the Rebel Toolkit.

If there is a disruption to the meeting which can't be handled immediately and promptly we have a process which we have devised.

Expected disruption:

Within the meeting, a rebel has been designated de-escalator / calm-enabler. If someone is feeling triggered they can privately or publicly ask to go to a break out room with them and actively calm down so as to better join the room again later, or not as the case may be. The designated calm-enabler is in the meeting to decide for the benefit of both the person struggling and for the whole group what will happen after the breakout-room session. The breakout-room is confidential but not secret and if the outcomes affect the team in charge of the meeting they will be informed accordingly while keeping any personal details shared confidential.

Unexpected disruption.

We will quickly assess the gravity and potential longevity of the disruption.

Serious disruptions which are obviously there to cause harm will be dealt with immediately and the person will be removed from the main meeting as swiftly as possible by the facilitation team.

Serious disruptions which are caused by triggered human beings participating in the meeting which can not obviously be dealt with in the main meeting will be dealt with in this manner:

The offer of a breakout room is made. If not accepted within 'x' seconds then they will be sent to the waiting room. In the waiting room, an offer to return is made so as to discuss the issue further in a breakout room. The intention is to enable the person to participate in the meeting. The person in the waiting room must accept the offer to join the breakout room before being allowed back in. If they then refuse* to join the breakout room once returned they will not be allowed back into the meeting.

The breakout-room is confidential but not secret and if the outcomes affect the team in charge of the meeting they will be informed accordingly while keeping any personal details shared confidential.

How to Hold a Listening Space

Introduction

A Circle is a wonderfully versatile held-space which allows us to communicate with others in a way that is non-hierarchical, equal, respectful and connecting. The Circle as a symbol appears in cave paintings dating back 35000 years. Jung discovered that the circle, often in the form of a sun-wheel, appeared in cultures that developed in complete isolation from one another.

When we pull the chairs away from a table and out of linear rows and into a ring where we face one another, we are turning ourselves into a sun-wheel. We assume the shape of the symbol ourselves and the synergy comes with us.

As part of Extinction Rebellion’s Regenerative Culture, a talking circle can offer a space for people involved to mutually support, share and process a multitude of thoughts & feelings that emerge through their relationship to climate emergency and associated actions.

We come in connection with our feelings/ Grief as they are arising in our daily lived experiences:

We are driven to online connections - a shadowy substitute for the comfort of solid physical presence - and for now, it is all many of us have access to.

How we hold the space can deeply inform and influence how people share what is alive within them and how people bear witness to that. We have put the following suggestions together to support those who are stepping forwards to hold spaces at this time for others to speak and be heard.

Host/Facilitator

Preparation - Welcoming

Give yourself 15 minutes or so to create a sense of welcome before the call begins.

If you are pairing with another to help facilitate, connect in with your partner at this point and share how you are preparing for the call.

Turn off all other distractions and devices. The quality of attention you bring to the call has an impact on those who join the room.

Ground yourself into calm with breathing practice and any other techniques which you know support you.

Have fresh water and comfy seating. Check the Zoom link is working and have all you need to hand.

Timings & Technicalities
Process

The circle has a beginning, a middle and an end. The host can offer a simple ritual to signify these shifts:

Beginning

Group Agreements

The success of a circle rests on the ability of the participants to understand, contribute to and abide by rules of respectful engagement. Agreements provide trust and an interpersonal safety net for participating. Agreements are the circle’s self-governance and create a way for each member to hold both self and each other accountable for the quality of interaction.

Suggested initial agreements would include:

Our agreements are what ‘carry us through stormy seas’.

Welcoming all of us and every part of all of us:

Numbness is also welcome in these spaces and we encourage facilitators to acknowledge and be with the numbness that may be appearing in participants as equally as valuable as grief or any other emotional state. This may also be recognised as “not knowing” how I feel about something.

Creating the container (energetically):

  1. A grounding meditation, a quote or poem could be an effective means of connecting participants to create a container for the talking circle. It offers a clear transition from whatever was happening before.
  2. Asking participants to follow this with a go around of their names, pronouns and very briefly stating something that they are grateful for - for example from nature, or their day so far.
  3. When they have finished, ask them to pass on to another person by name, and then mute themselves.

Middle

Model a little of what it might be like to reflect back some understanding of what was said - track meaning for some or most of what is shared. How might others offer reflections or curiosities - is this invited? Think about how you might feel steady in the space you are holding and offer this - there is no ‘right’ way...it is a gift to bear witness to what is and not many places to sit with things. Share if you feel uncertain or unsure and if you would welcome people to ask for a pause etc.

Pay attention to the conversation, and also, have some attention to others either waiting to speak or who are very quiet. If you see people being moved to tears you can call a restorative pause. You might want to invite people to return to some breaths together in honour and validation. In this pause, remember to people that tears are normal and needed. They are a sign of life and emotions shifting and flowing and are a very human communion with the element of water.

As facilitators we could wonder out loud, allowing people to start bringing up feelings.

These kinds of courageous conversations almost sustain themselves. As people start to engage with the dialogue, the facilitator can step back, thanking people when they have finished speaking and calling in the next person.

Closing

Around half way through the call, I begin to listen out for a moment to connect with what's next. Perhaps it is an invite for people to share the type of self care they are finding that supports them, or perhaps it is to invite people to connect to what matters to them most in these times - something they might wish to maintain when the immediate restrictions of this crisis are lifted.

If the group has split into break out groups, we suggest bringing the group back together towards the end, so that we may express all together what it is that resources us. E.g. walking in nature, having a hot bath, speaking to a loved one - an invitation to remember these things and resort to them when we are emotionally/energetically challenged.

We do this to give time for participants to integrate some of their experience of sharing and of witnessing, as well as to tune in to what we might need now. We have stepped into openness and vulnerability, and potentially pain, and rather than step out of the circle and close ourselves down for protection, we can step out and into self-care and compassion.

Ending

Make sure you have made sufficient time for the ending.

Group check out: A time to briefly share final feelings at the end of the call. It is the facilitator’s role to frame the amount of time remaining. The check-out is passed from one participant to the next - i.e. the person who goes first will choose someone to go next, etc. For the facilitators this is an opportunity to be at least a little sighted of how each participant is doing, so that additional support might be offered after and outside of the session.

If you can be available for 15 mins after the ending, then any one who is struggling or needs some other support can be heard in a boundaried way. This may be necessary for you and your co-faciliator to offer.

What next after attending this training session and reading this document?

You might find some or all of the following helpful in supporting yourself as you step into holding a listening space. Do offer that which feels right for you and do include within this what you offer to yourself in the way of support. There is not a strict wrong or right of this, only some suggestions born of experience. And no hierarchy of expertise that you have just entered onto the bottom rung of. That is a concept born of a disempowering system. But there is wisdom and support for you as you step in (“in”, not “up”).

Supporting information around Trauma:

These are initial notes around awareness of how trauma can affect people and suggested resources for self educating.

The conditions for psychological trauma are rife at the moment, so underlying traumatic events may break through much more easily. Many have lost access to their normal support networks, resources etc.

One person expressing anger/rage, triggering another person’s trauma history of being raged at. A person triggered into primal screams of pain/anguish triggering other people’s early experiences of terror by, for example, witnessing domestic abuse as a powerless child.

Here is a chart about the stages of hyper-arousal in the nervous system that happen when one is in trauma and the dangers associated with it.

Please make sure you have lists of national helplines that you can put in the chat, and any other XR Grief/ Sharing circle offerings, including:

It is really useful to be familiar with using Zoom so online tutorials are available including : https://embodiedfacilitator.com/resources-for-embodiment/.

Summary

A suggested circle might run like this:

Making Documents Accessible

Making-documents-accessible-pg1.jpg Alt text: 1. Use styles to identify headings

Using heading and styles throughout a document automatically creates a searchable document with easy navigation. Screen readers used by the Blind and partially-sighted use these headings to create chaptered sound files, which are much easier to search and edit. Making-documents-accessible-pg2.jpg[

Alt text: 2. Choose an accessible font.

Text clarity is important for all users. However, if you have a learning difficulty or disability it is vital to accessing the resource. When deciding on a fint style, choose a clear font with space around each character letter with no flicks or tails on the letters. These are much easier to read for many people, but particularly those with sight problems.

There are mant accessible sans serif fonts that can be used. Below are a few examples: Calibri, Arial, Verdana.

Below are a few examples of inaccessible serif fonts which should be avoided: Bradlet Hand ITC, Algerian, Times New Roman. Making-documents-accessible-pg3.jpg](https://rebeltoolkit.extinctionrebellion.uk/uploads/images/gallery/2022-08/Making-documents-accessible-pg3.jpg) [Making-documents-accessible-pg4.jpg (https://rebeltoolkit.extinctionrebellion.uk/uploads/images/gallery/2022-08/scaled-1680-/Making-documents-accessible-pg4.jpg) Alt text: 3. Use left alignment and bigger spaces between lines of text.

Left aligning text reduces eye movements and enables you to read the text easily. It is particularly helpful for those with partial sight or those who use a keyboard (rather than a keyboard and mouse) to navigate the text.

1.5 spacing or higher increases the space around text, making it much easier for those with sight problems to view. Breaking up dense blocks of text in this way can also make information less overwhelming and easier to read for those with learning differences affecting reading and writing, such as dyslexia.

Making-documents-accessible-pg5.jpg

Alt text: 4. Use accessible ways of highlighting text.

Embolden text: Yes, this is the best way to empathize text. The text remains clear but still stands out to the user.

Underline text: Underlined text can interfere with the clarity of the text, particularly if there is a movement of the text due to dyslexia or scotopic sight conditions.

Italicise text: Italicised text reduces the space between words, affects the clarity of each character, and changes the shape of the words.

Use of colours: Colours can be use but be careful with your choices. Avoid using red and green together.

Use of all of the above: This would be difficult for most users to read with comfort and is inaccessible for many users with a specific learning difficulty or disability.

Dyslexia Friendly Style Guide

Written and compiled by Nicki - External Coordinator Disabled Rebels Network

If you're producing a written document with fancy backgrounds and tonnes of images, it's good practise to link a plain text version near the beginning of the document for visually impaired and dyslexic rebels.

Readable fonts

Headings and structure

Use headings and styles to create consistent structure to help people navigate through your content. In Word, you’ll find these tools in the ‘Home’ tab:

Headings

Colour

Layout

Writing Style

Dyslexia and Colour Blindness Friendly Style Guide

Readable fonts

Headings and structure

Use headings and styles to create consistent structure to help people navigate through your content. In Word, you’ll find these tools in the ‘Home’ tab:

Headings

Colour

Colour blindness and web design info here

Layout

Writing Style