Workshop: Overcoming communication barriers between PwVI and the society

Communication plays an important role in our lives. It is the bridge between people. It connects individuals to create a civilized and developed society. However, to have a perfect communication process, each person should have certain skills.

In the era of industrialization and modernization, people are pursuing a new aim - the aim to gain equality and freedom in society. Everyone wants to be inclusive, to prove their abilities and to join the workforce.

Among those, we cannot exclude people with disabilities, or, to be more specific, people with visual impairment. Like other people with no disabilities, they have very high needs for communication, but they have some barriers, such as the misunderstanding from the society, and the lack of communication skills.

Considering that fact, a group of students from the Ho Chi Minh University of Social Sciences and Humanities (HCMUSSH) was pleased to organize a workshop on "Overcoming the communication barriers between people with visual impairment and the society". The workshop aimed to equipped the visually impaired with basic skills to help them be more confident in communication. This also created a chance for PwVI and sighted people to exchange ideas and further understand each other.

At 2.00 p.m, January 22, 2018, the workshop was hold at Sao Mai Center for the Blind. A group of students majored in Psychology from the HCMUSSH and the Ho Chi Minh University of Pedagogy was in charge of planning, designing content and organizing this event.

The workshop also welcomed Mr. Nguyen Manh Hung - M.A in Psychology, and a lot of visually impaired students as well as other sighted students. 

The topics mainly discussed were:

- Definition of communication 

- Features of communication 

- Factors affecting communication process 

- Methods to apply skills and communicate effectively 

Moreover, the workshop focused on the difficulties in communication between the visually impaired and the sighted, then discovered the causes and found solutions to those problems together.

After each topic discussion session, there were activities and games to help apply skills in certain situations and create a friendly atmosphere for the workshop.

At the end of the workshop, the host group raised some practical questions about common communication situations to challenge the students.

The workshop ended successfully thanks to the skillful organizing of the students from the Psychology Department and the enthusiasm of all attending students.