Ways Schools Foster Disability Awareness
article by Nancy Swanson | January 31, 2012
As schools, students and parents become more aware of issues surrounding bullying, schools are finding different ways for students to understand differences. Specifically, many schools are organizing events and workshops for students to feel what it is like to live with a disability, in the hopes that they will gain an understanding, and ultimately be more inclusive of those with disabilities.
Some of the events that schools have planned have ranged from bringing seeing eye dogs into the schools, organizing wheelchair basketball games, or having students simulate disabilities while trying to do school work and other activities.
Students at Albert P. Terhune Elementary School in Wayne, N.J. participated in what they called a “diSABILITY Week.” During this week they participated in many different activities that helped simulate what students with disabilities deal with on a daily basis.
“It’s so important for these mainstreamed kids to understand what their classmates are going through on a daily basis,” Traci Tulipano, one of the parents who helped organize the event said to Wayne Patch. “They need to know how they feel and what they struggle with on a daily basis because you don’t realize how these kids live until they are in their shoes.”
Some of the activities that students participated in included spreading butter on a piece of bread with their non-dominant hand, communicating only using sign language, catching basketballs with socks on their hands, and navigating obstacle courses while blindfolded.
Similarly, at Miraloma Elementary School in San Francisco participated in events to simulate disabilities as well, as the school promoted Inclusive School Week. They participated with the goal of getting the students to think about various ways to include students with disabilities.
“They’re definitely empathizing with what it could be like to have a challenge,” Catherine Dauer, an organizer of the events at Miraloma said to The San Francisco Examiner. “They’re learning to be helpful and respectful, but they’re realizing that if they had a challenge, they wouldn’t want help all the time.”
Other schools have also done smaller things like Matteson’s O.W. Huth Middle School organizing wheelchair basketball games for students to participate in.
The ultimate goal in each of these events is to give students hands on experience about what it is actually like for those with disabilities to function in an environment that is not necessarily designed for them.
“It’s very important to start making students aware that there are people out there who are different from them so they begin to develop a culture of respect,” Marion McGrath, the principal at Terhune Elementary School said to Wayne Patch. “The more we teach our children about the differences in others, the more accepting they will be of those differences when they are older.”
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