Before the first shift on a temp assignment, a card in the jacket tells the supervisor that one instruction at a time changes everything
A card slipped into a pocket on the first day of work, and the team supervisor understands he needs to give one instruction at a time, with time to rephrase it, rather than a string of instructions that stops the person before they've even begun.
This case involves a 35 year old adult with a mild intellectual disability, supported by a family guardian, starting a temp assignment or handling an administrative process where several instructions arrive at once, with no time to rephrase them.
The instruction that comes all at once
"Scan the barcode, put the pallet away on the left, clock in before the break": the instruction comes all at once, on a trial day at a logistics warehouse on the outskirts of town. Karim, 35, stands still, scanner in hand, unresponsive, staring at the label on the first crate.
The supervisor first assumes he's refusing to work and raises his voice. A colleague, more used to the warehouse's rotating team, shows him the card slipped into the inside pocket of Karim's jacket, prepared by his family guardian before he arrived on site. The supervisor scans the QR code with his phone and reads that he needs to give one instruction at a time, with a moment of silence to let it be rephrased. He repeats just the first step, on its own, and waits for the action before moving to the next.
Karim scans the barcode, puts the pallet away, clocks in on time. No incident report is written up that morning, no panicked call to the family guardian at the end of the day to report behaviour seen as odd. The temp assignment continues the following week, with the same method picked up from the very first shift by the rest of the team.
- You write it
- The QR is in place
- The reader scans
- Understood, without explaining again
Where to place the QR code for this case
Karim sometimes changes assignment or supervisor from one week to the next, so the information needs to travel with him rather than rely on a verbal handover that no one remembers to repeat.
- Laminated card in his wallet, slipped next to his ID card, for any new assignment or administrative appointment.
- Label in the inside pocket of his work jacket, printed from a standard A4 label sheet, that stays in place from one employer to the next.
- Link shared with the temp agency or HR department before he starts, so it's included in the file handed to the team supervisor.
- Stamp on the administrative summons, spotted by the staff member before the interview or appointment begins.
The rule of thumb: the card must be visible before the instructions start piling up, not pulled out after a first misunderstanding.
Ready to use text templates
The following sentences are a starting point for explaining to a team supervisor or administrative staff member how to address an adult with a mild intellectual disability. They can be copied onto the card or rephrased in your own words.
For the "About me" section
"My name is [first name], I'm [age] years old. I have a mild intellectual disability: I understand simple instructions very well and I work carefully, as long as they come one at a time, with time to go over them in my head before moving to the next step."
For the "How to help" section
"You can: give one instruction at a time, have it repeated back before moving on, show the action rather than only describing it out loud, write down the steps if the job allows it, and give time to answer without rushing the question."
For the "What to avoid" section
"To avoid: stringing several instructions together in the same sentence, speaking for me to a third party who's present, raising your voice thinking I'm not listening, changing instructions mid task without warning, or deciding not to give me a task out of caution."
Conditions involved in this case
This case involves a mild intellectual disability, which slows down the processing of complex instructions without preventing day to day independence. The linked page details this and the support that helps an employer or administrative staff member who is encountering the situation for the first time.
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Three texts (introduction, how to help, what to avoid), one shared QR code. When they scan it, the person reads what they need to know, in their own language.