Tenpin call for Advisory Group to Improve Access & Inclusion

Following on from Scope Australia’s Sports & Recreation for All eLearning opportunity, we’re calling for the tenpin community to help us create some supportive communication resources.

It’s as simple as completing the eLearning, then emailing [email protected] to express your interest, in a 2-hour workshop to assist Tenpin Bowling Australia discover the needs amongst our bowling community.

As mentioned in late October 2021, Tenpin Bowling Australia partnered with Scope Australia in providing a learning development opportunity to enable a more inclusive tenpin community for people who might experience communication difficulties. These may be people from non-English speaking backgrounds, have hearing, speech, or a range of other communication difficulties.

This development opportunity is perfect for anyone interested in developing their knowledge in several topics committed to access and inclusion in Tenpin Bowling. Specifically, tenpin centres and their staff, registered coaches and managers, Bowl Patrol and Bowl Abilities Lane Rangers would benefit from this program.

How would you communicate with a customer who didn’t speak English?
How does someone wanting to join a league, but can’t find the words, ask you how?
What might your centre look like with more diversity on the lanes?
Could you attract new bowlers to the sport if we provided communication tools and resources to help?

Scope Australia has offered to provide free access to a suite of eLearning content, for a limited time, covering essential information on the following topics:

Disability Awareness: giving you the confidence to understand the needs of your participants.

Communication Access: giving you the knowledge and tools you need to be accessible to participants with communication difficulties.

Accessible Information: promoting use of written information that is in an easy-to-read format for your participants who may have lower literacy, a cognitive difficulty or are perhaps from a CALD community – where English might not be the first language.

Each eLearning module is self-paced and will take approximately 45-minutes to one hour to complete. You might even spot someone in the training who loves tenpin bowling like you!

 “Some time we can sort of freeze or aren’t sure what to do if a customer (or new bowler) doesn’t initially communicate in a way that we’re used to,” said TBA’s Sport Programs and Development Manager, Emily Rennes who recently completed the training and highly recommends it.

 “There are many ways to communicate beyond verbal English, with a little patience, your ability to support people in a friendly, assuring way increases. For example, word boards, simple English, using images to ask/answer questions can help. It’s important we’re all doing better at including people in our sport; and this easy online course is one more step towards achieving that.”

TBA are calling for nominees to form an advisory group of 8-10 people for a 2-hour workshop in late February involving anyone who has completed the eLearning modules. This workshop will be facilitated by Scope Australia and help identify what resources TBA requires to develop and implement within the sport. Please email [email protected] if you’re interested.

If you are interested in registering for this wonderful development opportunity and gaining access to the eLearning modules, please click the below button, and fill out the quick registration form. Scope Australia will be in touch with a welcome email to kick-start your access to the eLearning.