Advices & queries Photo: 18
How do we grow acceptance?
Alan Johnson and Chris Love consider an important question
We tell ourselves that we are an inclusive Religious Society. But how well do we support and help those Friends who, because of increasing age, have difficulties with hearing or seeing, or for some other reason cannot participate in the Meeting as they once did?
Both of us have met or heard of Friends whose deteriorating vision presents increasingly huge barriers, to the extent that some have withdrawn from active involvement in their Meetings. Adjusting to a diagnosis of progressive sight loss is one element they must deal with. How we help them stay involved is another for which we should all take responsibility. Newsletters and agendas may be produced in large print. Equipment and resources are available for computer users who are visually impaired, which may help them to read documents and gain access to websites. But we must not forget that there are Friends who are unable to use computers and who have been dependent on print. There are still obstacles we may not think of. At meetings items are often tabled at the last minute, not necessarily presented in large format; some people may be unable to read these, and are thus prevented from participating fully in the proceedings. PowerPoint is used increasingly for formal presentations and, unless accompanied by audio description, it will be very difficult for some visually impaired Friends to keep up.
As you read this, you may give little thought to those who are unable to do so. But how would you feel if you could not read the Friend each week?
You may be unaware that there is a small, committed group of volunteers in the Midlands who record the Friend regularly in their own homes. The recordings are put onto memory sticks by staff in Friends House in London and distributed to Friends and attenders. Talking Friends has been operating since 1988. There’s a subscription for which listeners also receive the quarterly Quaker News. Additional items, such as some titles in the series Twelve Quakers and… and some Swarthmore Lectures, are also available on memory sticks. Talking Friends will provide the equipment to play memory sticks. A recording is also available of Advices & queries, which is playable on an ordinary CD player.
A digital recording of Quaker faith & practice (fifth edition) is available on two CDs from the Quaker Centre Bookshop in Friends House. We are aware that some Meetings have arrangements to record, either on CD or memory sticks, their local newsletters/minutes. How widespread is this practice? We would be interested to hear if your Meeting does this.
Our main plea, Friends, is that we take these sensory losses seriously and think about how we, both individually and collectively, can help.
If you know someone whose sight is deteriorating and who would like to have the Friend each week in audio form, please get in touch with us at Talking Friends.
Further information: info@talkingfriends.org.uk or 0121 476 0217.
