Preparation was of particular importance for establishing mutual trust among participating artists and students. In the early stage, three artists were invited to lead the teaching of the six SEN students who joined the programme.

The team first visited the school to get an understanding of the students’ learning environment. A professional psychiatric nurse was invited by the school to share experience with the team.

Inclusion is not to make the other the same as oneself, but to understand each other’s different needs. Katie pointed out that SEN children’s general understanding of language is different and we should not expect their way of communication to be the same as ours.

“A teacher once suggested using other phrases instead of ‘add oil’ as an encouragement to the students as some may think that the phrase means ‘not doing well enough’. We are also learning to understand others’ expressions and emotions,” Katie said.

Katie Yeung, a member of Wheel Thing Makers Creative Society (Photo by Cafe Tong)

The artists conducted online teaching for SEN students, enabling them to explore their creativity in visual arts and design even though they had to stay at home. (Photo provided by the interviewee)

“They were very engaged in making their own ‘visual diary’, recording their daily lives with images. They usually woke up early in the morning and, instead of ‘threw a tantrum’, drew immediately and stayed focused for several hours, then shared pictures to our online group,” Katie said.

The artists conducted six online sessions, covering various materials such as wood blocks, acrylic, charcoal crayons, and oil pastels. The team realised that integration of hardware was very important. In many cases, the students lowered their heads to focus on their work and the camera could only capture the heads. Then, it was necessary to adjust the camera angle or ask the students more questions in order to track everyone’s progress. The students had a keen sense of the characteristics of different creative media. Some refused to use water-based paints, and some liked to draw with their fingers. “Let them try and they will know,” Katie remarked.

We Draw We Talk – Us in Epidemic provides arts education activities for SEN students. (Photo by Cafe Tong)

From online to offline and in accordance to the latest epidemic prevention measures, Wheel Thing Makers Creative Society organised four face-to-face activities, including artist-led outdoor sketching in West Kowloon Cultural District and a day visit to the Hong Kong Museum of Art. Different environments promoted creativity and helped students develop their unique perspectives.

Katie recalled, “On the day of sketching in West Kowloon Cultural District, most students drew similar compositions – the sky, skyscrapers, and the harbour. A student instead drew a big bird in the middle of the painting as the ‘protagonist’. This unique and different perspective reminded me that we could see the world like this.”

More importantly, arts allow students to express their unspeakable feelings. One of the students in the group had difficulty in speaking after undergoing an operation and for whom the conventional communication method of words and languages was not the best one. The student used visual arts elements as an initial relief, then explained to the carer. It turned out to be a more effective communication and the organisational skills of the student was trained up at the same time.

Hong Kong Open Printshop (HKOP) is another arts group going digital to cater the needs of different groups of people. Similar to other visual arts organisations, they explored the possibility of online teaching during the epidemic. However, they found out that many online activities were not supported by arts accessibility services. Hence HKOP joined the “Arts Go Digital Platform Scheme” and looked into all possibilities of integrating arts accessibility services.

In cooperation with Arts with the Disabled Association Hong Kong and Chinese YMCA of Hong Kong-Y’s Men’s Centre for the Deaf, HKOP first launched the “Graphic Art Archive” with audio description.

Chung Sin-wa, Production Officer of HKOP, said that museums and arts organisations around the world had been actively moving towards open access to their resources in recent years. They digitised their collections, even opened access rights for the images, and promoted information and educational exchanges.

Established in 2000, HKOP has over the years accumulated a rich collection of more than a thousand items, including works donated by artists, artworks in HKOP Award in Printmaking, etc. The first batch of more than 100 sets of artworks had been uploaded to the online archive, with audio description to be applied in phases. At present, 20 sets of works are attached with text content of audio description. Visually impaired people can comprehend the collection with the use of screen readers.

“One of the challenges of doing an online workshop with sign language interpretation is that printmaking involves many technical terms. Some of which have never been translated into sign language hence the interpreters cannot sign at once. For example, how should ‘ferric chloride’ used in copper engraving be translated into sign language?” Sin-wa said.

Y’s Men’s Centre for the Deaf provided sign language interpreters for the workshops and HKOP offered some printmaking workshop quotas to hearing impaired members of the Centre in exchange. Collaboration provided solutions to all kinds of difficulties.

“What we learnt from the collaboration was that rehearsal was very important for the smooth running of the demonstrations and workshops. When interpreters have gone through the whole process and known the words that are difficult to sign in the rehearsal, they could discuss and research more to solve the problems. Sometimes they showed a whiteboard with specific terms so that participants can easily understand. We were like crossing the river by feeling the stones,” Sin-wa concluded.

As the workshops were conducted online, the size of the sign language interpreter shown on the screen had to be taken into consideration. Making prints needed a lot of tools and that would take up a lot of space on the screen. If the size of the sign language interpreter on the screen was too small, it would be difficult for users to see the signs clearly. In addition, the artists had to ensure the sign language interpreters were able to follow the speaking speed. Complicated steps should be broken down and explained clearly. Sin-wa said that HKOP did not take the lead in arts accessibility, but rather walked shoulder-to-shoulder with service users.