Whole Earth Curriculum WEC

Lesson 07 — Designing Practices for Every Body

Learners apply the social model by designing mind-body practices that adapt to many bodies: the same breathing, movement, or attention practice offered standing, seated, wheeling, lying, or with different sensory channels, so that no body is the "default" and no one is left out.

D03 P2: Physical & Somatic Awareness D03.S1 55 minutes Draft

Objectives

Essential question

How do I adapt a mind-body practice — breathing, movement, or attention — so it honors a wide range of bodies, abilities, and needs?

adaptationuniversal designflexible practiceaccessdignity

Materials

Standard materials

Low-tech / no-cost

Enriched / lab & device

Works in different contexts

Three figures doing the same slow-breathing practice in three ways — standing, seated in a chair, and using a wheelchair — showing that one practice adapts to every body without anyone being left out
Three figures doing the same slow-breathing practice in three ways — standing, seated in a chair, and using a wheelchair — showing that one practice adapts to every body without anyone being left out

Lesson 7 — Designing Practices for Every Body

Summary

Learners turn the social model into design: they take one mind-body practice and produce three or more adaptations so it honors a wide range of bodies — standing, seated, wheeling, lying, low-energy, and different sensory needs. The result is the strand’s second portfolio artifact and a direct answer to the essential question of inclusion.

Objectives

  • Design mind-body practices that honor a wide range of bodies, abilities, and needs. (D03.S1.11.02)

Connection

A breathing exercise that can only be done standing on two legs quietly leaves out a person who cannot stand. A “mindful listening” task that relies on hearing leaves out a Deaf person. But the same practice, offered three ways, welcomes everyone. Design is not a luxury or an afterthought — it is where dignity is either built in or quietly withheld.

Materials

  • One-practice-many-bodies chart
  • Practice log
  • Paper for a design sketch

Preparation

  • Prepare the chart and, if available, the universal-design principles.

Facilitator note

This is a design-and-production lesson, and it is the summative for the strand. Give learners the seven Principles of Universal Design as a concrete checklist — Equitable Use, Flexibility in Use, Simple and Intuitive Use, Perceptible Information, Tolerance for Error, Low Physical Effort, and Size and Space for Approach and Use (S-369) — then let them design. Model one adaptation first (worked example): take the 4-4-6-2 breath and show it standing, seated in a chair, and while wheeling, and note that the “hold” step is optional for anyone who finds it uncomfortable.

No able-bodied default. The chart deliberately shows no single “normal” body; the seated and wheeling versions are not “special cases” but equal ways of doing the same practice. Encourage learners to design for low energy (a lying-down version), pain or fatigue (shorter, gentler), and sensory difference (a visual or tactile anchor instead of an auditory one).

Dignity and agency. Let learners choose which practice to adapt and how many versions to produce. Never grade a design by “how hard” the practice is; grade it by how well it widens access. Avoid language that ranks bodies (“even someone in a wheelchair can do it” is patronizing; “this version works while wheeling” is neutral).

The ethics lens: designing for the widest range is a form of respect. The egalitarian lens: who is included by default, and who has to ask for a “special” version? The global lens: adapted and seated practices exist in movement traditions worldwide — inclusivity is not new. The technology lens: consider whether a device (app, audio, video, screen reader) widens access or depends on resources not everyone has.

Procedure

  1. Retrieve (5 min). In one sentence each: what is the social model? What is a barrier? Check your log.
  2. Study the worked example (10 min). Look at the chart: the same breathing practice, three ways. Notice what changes (posture, position, effort) and what stays the same (the slow exhale). List two other ways the same breath could be adapted — lying down? shorter? with a hand on the belly instead of counting?
  3. Choose and design (15 min). Pick one practice — breath, movement, or attention. Design at least three versions that welcome different bodies and needs. For each, write: who it fits, what changes, what stays the same. Sketch it if drawing helps.
  4. Check against the principles (10 min). Against the seven universal-design principles, mark which of your versions is most flexible and which could be more flexible. Revise one version to widen access further.
  5. Peer review (10 min). Exchange designs. Ask: Is there a body or need still left out? What is one way to widen it? Revise if you agree.
  6. Close (5 min). One sentence: “A practice is truly mine when it can be everyone’s.” What does that mean to you now?

Differentiation

  • Support: Provide a fill-in adaptation card (“___ position, ___ length, ___ anchor”); design two versions instead of three.
  • Extension: Ask learners to design an adaptation for a specific environmental constraint (small space, loud room, no equipment, outdoors).

Assessment

  • Summative (portfolio): A practice adapted three or more ways, each with a “who it fits / what changes / what stays the same” note and a universal-design check.
  • Peer: A partner’s check that the design widens access without ranking bodies.

Home connection

Teach your adapted practice to one other person this week — a family member, a friend, a younger learner. Notice what they need to change to make it theirs. Teaching an adaptation is how it becomes real.

Resources