Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month
The National Association of Councils on Developmental Disabilities (https://nacdd.org/about/) works with state councils to empower people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, their families, and allies to build welcoming and supportive communities through policy and practice ensuring that people with intellectual and developmental disabilities can live a self-directed life in the community. Disability awareness was celebrated throughout the month of March and NACDD’s theme was “A World Of Opportunities” in celebration of people working together to remove obstacles.
Our local schools support this mission by hosting Disability Awareness Days. One of my favorite duties as the CEO of LifeBridge Partnership is participating in these events at local schools. Children are naturally curious and loving. I believe they just want to understand our world. When given the opportunity, they ask wonderfully honest questions. By having those questions answered, they learn to understand that each person has their own “normal”. Understanding promotes empathy, acceptance, and inclusion, which leads to helping others overcome challenges.
When we participate in ability awareness days, we have the students play games. However, we add a challenge to each game such as playing Jenga while wearing oven mitts and racing to build a lego tower with limited use of their hands or blindfolded. Inevitably, the students wonder why they have to play the games this way, saying “it’s too hard!” This opens the door to great conversations about how disabilities affect everyday life and how people adapt activities so they can do what they want or need to do to live a normal, happy, and fulfilling life.
Every person uses adaptations to make life easier or to overcome challenges…wearing glasses or contacts to see clearly, using a device to speak or a stool to reach that high shelf in the kitchen, or perhaps relying on a calculator to figure out the tip at a restaurant. Each of us is unique and wonderfully made, with hopes, abilities, and the need for some help along the way - our own normal. Understanding and respecting other people's normal promotes belonging.
Karen Schuster, CEO