Module I: Learning About Disabilities

Module Summary:

This module deals with a variety of more common types of disabilities. The nature of each is discussed including considerations for interactions and possible accommodations. Through experiential exercises, participants will better understand many disability issues, including the importance of accommodations.

Module Objectives:

1. To instruct participants on the nature of some more common disabilities.
2. For participants to learn about considerations for interacting with people with a variety of disabilities, including accommodation issues.
3. For participants to develop empathy and understanding of the effects of various disabilities through experiential exercises.

Preparation:

1. Arrange the participants' chairs facing the front of the room and the trainer.
2. Have copies of the handouts made for each participant.
3. Have overheads in order next to the overhead projector.
4. Gather the props necessary for each exercise and have them organized in a place where they can be easily distributed to participants.
5. Read through all handouts to familiarize yourself with the information.

Module Format:

1. Pages 7 - 42 deal with information about specific disabilities. Depending on the focus of your training, you may want to use the entire module, select one or two specific groups, or pick and choose selections from each section for a general discussion. Disability Awareness Handout F offers further interaction and communication tips.

   The following overview will help you locate the information you need:

   Deaf and Hard of Hearing
   Handout A
   Overheads #1 - #10
   

   Blind/Vision Impairments
   Handout B
   Overheads #11 - #16
   

   Learning Disabilities
   Handout C
   Overheads #17 - #21
   

   Aquired Brain Disabilities Handout D Overheads #22 - #24

   Psychological Disabilities
   Handout E
   Overheads #25 - #30

   Physical Disabilities
   Handout F
   Overheads #31 - #32

   Systemic Disabilities
   Handout G
   Overheads #33 - #34

   Speech Disabilities
   Handout H
   Overheads #35 - #36

2. Distribute Handout I and using Overhead #37 discuss the 6 Steps to Integrating People with Disabilities into the Workplace.

3. "Although better educated adults are less likely to have negative feelings toward people with disabilities, they also are more likely to feel awkward and embarrassed," according to a survey by the National Organization for Disabilities (N.O.D.) on public attitudes toward people with disabilities. The following exercises will help participants to better understand their disabled counterparts and decrease feelings of awkardness or embarassment.

Exercises:

Distribute Handout J "Family Airs Sangs (Familiar Sayings)." This exercise can be completed individually, in pairs, or in small groups, although small groups may be best.

Explain that some Learning Disabilities affect the ability to discriminate information received auditorily. Within their group, have participants take turns saying the sentences out loud. Ask them to write the familiar saying below each sentence.

After 10 - 15 minutes, review the correct answers with the group using the answer sheet for Handout J.

Ask the group to share their feelings, insights and reactions from this exercise. What were their frustrations?

Discuss the following accommodations, and ask the group if they can identify any other possibilities:

• Tape recording conversations so the person can listen and rewind as needed
• Provide a notetaker or written notes from conversations or meetings
• Learning Disability - Spatial/Motor Perception Materials Needed: One mirror for every two participants, Handout K, pens

  Distribute Handout K (Star). Have participants pair up and provide a mirror for each couple.

  Explain that some people with Learning Disabilities have difficulties with spatial determinations, especially as it relates to hand/eye coordination.

  One from the pair will go first. The second person will use one hand to hold the mirror upright (at a 90 degree angle) next to their partners' star, and their other hand to hold a piece of paper to cover their partners' direct view of their own hand.

  The first person must trace the star, staying between the lines, but they must do so only looking in the mirror.

  Participants will experience their brain seeing one thing and their hand doing another. After each person has had an opportunity to try the exercise, ask the group to share their insights, feelings, and reactions. What were their frustrations? After all, this was a simple star... right?!?

  Explain that this is why we sometimes experience people with Learning Disabilities who write slowly and have illegible handwriting. The formation of letters on the page requires much more thought and the process of writing may distract from the content of what is being written.

  Discuss the following accommodations and ask the group if they can identify any other possibilities:

• Provide a tape recorder to use instead of writing notes. Allow the tape recording of meetings.
• Suggest that the person make phone calls, leaving voice mail messages, rather than sending someone a handwritten note.
• Provide a personal computer with spell checker for written communications
• Be patient with the time it takes the person to write something down.

Learning Disability - Visual Perception
Materials Needed: Handout L, Overhead #38

Explain that there are many different ways a Learning Disability can affect a persons' reading skills. The following exercises illustrate two ways people may experience reading. Emphasize that not everyone who experiences these effects experiences them to this extreme. It's important to ask each person about how their disability affects them.

Distribute Handout L (Reading/Changes).

Tell the group that you will call on them to take turns reading through the first passage aloud. Tell them to read as quickly as possible. This will increase their anxiety level.

It is important for the facilitator to keep the group moving as quickly as possible by continually telling the person reading to hurry up. Ask them "Can't you read it?," "What's wrong with you?" This simulates what people with Learning Disabilities face in classrooms and on the job.

Before reading the second passage explain that for some people letters are seen backwards, while others have difficulty distinguishing the proper orientation of letters.

Explain that some people have difficulties differentiating letters by their orientation. Hold up a pen and move its orientation from vertical to horizontal to angled while explaining that no matter how you hold it, this is still a pen. It does not change from a pen to a watch to a cup depending upon its orientation.

Tell the group that a problem for some people with Learning Disabilities is distinguishing between 'p,' 'd,' 'b,' and 'q.' As the trainer, you will now explain to the group the difference‹ Using Overhead #38 with the large 'p,' explain that this is a circle with a line attached to it, change orientation of the slide to show a 'b' and explain that this is a circle with a line attached to it, change orientation of the slide again to show a 'q' and explain that this is a circle with a line attached to it. Ask "Can you see how this can be confusing?"

Again, tell the group that you will call on them to take turns reading through the passage aloud. Tell them to read as quickly as possible.

Ask the group to share their feelings, insights and reactions from this exercise. What were their frustrations?

Discuss the following accommodation possibilities and ask the group if they can identify any other possibilities:

• Allow extra time for reading: Be patient
• Have important materials put onto audio tape
• Some people benefit from having materials printed on colored paper or from using colored transparencies to place over the materials being read (this helps words and letters to not move around on the page as much)
• Provide a scanner to connect to their computer with optical character recognition and screen reading software