Zara, who is blind and has a guide dog, enrolled on a yoga course with her friend Tanya. She disclosed her disability in a telephone call to the instructor and requested to meet with him in advance of the first session. They arranged to meet at the hall 30 minutes before the first session was due to start.  

At the meeting, Zara explained that she had done a little yoga before when she lived in London. Her guide dog didn’t pose a problem as she was well trained and would simply lie in a corner during the session; however Zara did ask the instructor to ask the other members of the yoga class to be aware that this was a working dog, and so they should not distract or make a fuss of her. They should always ask Zara’s permission before talking to or stroking the dog.

In relation to the poses during the yoga class, Zara explained that in her previous class the instructor would name the pose and give detailed descriptions of what they were physically doing in addition to giving demonstrations. As the class were working, he would then give some individual tuition to Zara by placing her body in the correct poses and also allowing her to touch his own body so that she could envisage the pose. This had worked really well and Zara thoroughly enjoyed the sessions and made good progress.

Though the instructor had never taught someone who was blind before, he could easily see how this might work once Zara explained how she’d participated in the previous course. Not only did the approach work really well again for Zara, the others in the yoga class also benefited from the additional descriptions and demonstrations given (some had previously been to shy to ask for more help) and as a result the instructor modified his teaching approach permanently.

Two people with the same disability can experience different effects. Furthermore, the effects of one disability can be similar to the effects of another (for example, deaf learners and learners who have autistic spectrum disorders may both experience difficulties in using abstract language).