AT Tasks Week 4--Part One

Although I'm not in a school environment, when I was a 6th grade middle school teacher, a college professor of mine invited a young boy with ADHD to visit our grad class and speak about his disability. I'll never forget that experience, because I was so impressed with how honestly and openly the young boy spoke about his experiences. The boy's mother also came with him, and spoke more about her son afterwards. One thing that really stood out for me was that the boy really understood his limitations in the classroom and felt fine speaking about them. He also conveyed what he knew he could do academically and how his teachers helped him do that. He seemed confident that while his disability made certain things harder for him and he struggled sometimes, he still really looked forward to going to school and was excited for the new school year to come. I was really impressed by the detailed sharing of the boy and also by the determination of the boy's mother. She really emphasized the huge role teachers, faculty, and staff played in helping her son and how important it was to have people that believed in and supported him! This success story is one I'll never forget! It really showed how people could work together to help students, especially students with disabilities. And, it really made me think about what's important as a special education teacher (and now as a future librarian)--the needs of students (users).

Taking the quiz was pretty straight-forward for me. It brought back memories of my "Introduction to working with students with Disabilities" course at San Diego State when I was earning my Level 1 Special Education credential. Despite the fact that was over 4 years ago, I couldn't help but think this quiz was a good refresher. I think sometimes people can overlook the small way they do things or the language they use and without knowing it, are truly being offensive to people with disabilities. The first thing I learned in my credential program was the proper way to describe people with ______ disabilities. I've always thought this description makes sense, however, in listening to the conversation of others, this isn't always the case. My brother-in-law is a person with a speech and language impairment as well as person with autism and I have heard some of the things other kids used to say to tease him. It really breaks my heart. I don't think parents are well enough aware to educate their own kids that people with disabilities should not be the subject of ridicule and teasing, that they are kids with fragile self esteem levels who just want to belong, like anyone else. Speaking from my husband's experiences, this really does so much damage to a young child and if anything, publicizing the correct way to interact with people with disabilities perhaps will prevent this from happening in the future.

I really liked the "Ten Commandments of Communicating with People with Disabilities". I think everyone should have access to these reminders! To me, this is simply treating a person with a disability in the same fashion as someone else (with a few slight changes). Certainly listening attentively, offering to shake hands when introduced, and looking at someone on eye level are simple common courtesy gestures that I would extend to any new acquaintance. Not performing these just because someone has a disability that makes it harder would be an insult.