My Accessible Outdoor Workshop Experience

 I had the opportunity to attend the Medicinal Garden workshop at the Moberly Arts & Cultural Centre a few months back for a school project I was working on, and in addition to all the knowledge on plants and their medicinal benefits, I walked away with an understanding of how educational workshops can naturally be accessible for individuals who are blind or partially sighted.

My classmate and I arrived at the workshop space and were greeted by the very kind facilitator, who began our time together by describing how the medicinal garden is a community-based initiative to help local citizens, including wildlife and insects, take from the garden as needed and help care for this mutually beneficial space. We soon moved into a tour of each individual plant available in the garden, with encouragement to use all of our senses to interact with the plants we were learning about.

Initially, I was expecting that I would just sort of sit while my classmate helped describe the physical features of the plant to me; however, the facilitator took on the role of describing individual features of the plant as they relate to how they have historically and culturally been used for medicinal purposes. The multisensory experience, in combination with the in-depth description, really allowed me to feel as though I wasn’t missing out on any part of this educational workshop. I was able to acquire knowledge on how specific plants and herbs are used in traditional indigenous and Indian practices, while simultaneously gaining an understanding of what they look, feel, and smell like.

We ended the workshop by helping to harvest some of the plants; when I mentioned that I did not have a lot of experience with gardening and might not be able to visually see which areas to use necessary tools on, to my surprise, the facilitator had planned to demonstrate safe harvesting techniques through feel more than sight, since many of the areas were covered by dense sleeves and shrubs and were relatively difficult to locate visually. I was able to easily take part in this activity as well and took some sunflowers home to give to my mom.

I think the biggest thing that I took away from this experience was how many traditional teaching practices allow for inherent accessibility for everyone. If we think outside the box and away from Western teaching ideologies, educational spaces and activities can be incredibly enriching for blind and partially sighted individuals. If the opportunity arises, I highly recommend checking out the Moberly Arts & Cultural Centre to learn and experience something new.

by Ishita