Playing together in New York State

The New York State Inclusive Recreation Resource Center at SUNY Cortland is offering a certification program for interested people to become Certified Inclusivity Assessors.  By attending Inclusion U! - an 8 hour training - students can learn to use an assessment tool that provides information to people with disabilities about the physical and programmatic inclusivity of recreation areas in New York State.  I attended the training on September 13th and am now certified to provide information to the website on recreation areas in NYS.  

A great idea - an army of volunteers advocating and educating about access to recreation areas in New York.  Let's play!

www.nysirrc.org 

Self-employed

I'm halfway through my first week of self-employment (writer and person-centered planning facilitator).  This is the first September in 39 years that I have not been a student or a teacher, so it's unsettling.  I'm continuing to work on my Partners in Policymaking qualification, doing scattered research, and refinishing my new home office, but I have to admit to still feeling the pull of the classroom.  Sure I will get used to it in time.

#1 good thing about working from home:  You get a chance to read the trivia questions and answers from your string cheese at your leisure.  (Today's question: How long is the memory span of a goldfish? Answer: Three seconds.  I immediately thought "Just like high school freshmen!!!!!")

Searching History

"To understand today, you must search history." - Pearl S. Buck

One of my interests is disability history, especially the history of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. I was amazed when I read the work of Phil Ferguson (author of Abandoned to Their Fate) and learned that fewer than 10% of people with developmental disabilities ever lived in the large state institutions for the disabled. The majority lived in their home communities. The history and philosophy of the large institutions has been studied in a limited way; the lives of people in the community has hardly been studied at all.

When I think back through my own life history, I remember stories about people with developmental disabilities (family members, family friends, neighbors, etc.); I suspect everyone does. I would like to start collecting these stories, looking for themes, historical lessons, wisdom, etc.

Anyone have a story to share?

Do you have memories from your childhood of friends or family

Another promising company

This consulting company, called Specialisterne, uses the special gifts of people on the autism spectrum to do technological testing for research and development departments of large companies. It was founded by Thorkil Sonne, who has a young son with autism, to create future job opportunities and now employs about 40 people, with more consultants in the training pipeline.

Countries like Denmark are light-years ahead of the United States in their thinking about social policy. Read more about great idea that is business savvy enough to appeal in the US, too at

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/06/30/putting-the-gifts-of-the-autistic-to-work

The brilliance of the obvious

Just heard about this organization, Exceptional Minds (www.exceptionalminds.org) which teaches young adults with autism spectrum disorders how to work in computer animation and graphic arts. Sometimes, the best ideas for bright futures are right in front of us.

Exceptional Minds is moving towards offering a postsecondary training program that would enable graduates to find work in the film industry.

I simply can't do the website justice; there are many samples of student films and a story about how one student contributed to the movie Judy Moody and the Not Bummer Summer (in theaters, summer 2011).

Sweet sorrow

I told my students that I will not be coming back in the fall. As excited as I am about future opportunities, my heart ached all weekend remembering the sad faces. I've been teaching in my school for sixteen years. Without knowing it, I somehow became an institution...

After a few days, the kids are starting to cheer up. We were having a quiet moment today, and one young man [D] asked, "Mrs. K., how are we going to do this without you?"

Me: "I'm sure that you can."

D: (quietly)"But what if we can't?"

[Every now and then, my guardian angel speaks for me]

Me: "D., has anyone ever dropped out of our class?"

D: "Well, yeah."

Me: "Wasn't I here, doing the same thing we've always done?"

D: "Well, yeah!"

Me: "Did they make it?"

D: "No."

Me: [quietly] "Then, it wasn't just because of me, was it?"

[Sound of thinking]

D: "No."

And the teacher teaches one last lesson...

'Hold My Hand' documents disabled student's desire to attend SOU art class | MailTribune.com

What an inspired idea to make Eliza's story into a documentary! There is no better way than in our media-driven culture to tell a story worth telling. I would love to have a copy of the finished project, if only to show people what I keep talking about.

Well done, Eliza and filmmakers.

'Hold My Hand' documents disabled student's desire to attend SOU art class | MailTribune.com