Yesterday I wrote a beautiful article from a mother who talks about her down syndrome son. In the article she says that she forgets her son has down syndrome. She looks at her son as any other person and does the title of down syndrome goes away until someone brings it up.
This made me think about my life and how I, too, forget that i have a disability. Many of my family and friends say the same thing. i view myself as just another person and it is not until something gets brought up that i think about my disability. i mean yes i may have to ask for help to do something but that is just my normal. This also made me think what if people forgot those with a disability are different. what if people did not look to others and judge them by their outside appearance but instead judge them from the inside. i know i know this is pretty much impossible but the more people who forget then the more that dream will come to life.
the other day in my special education class we talked about how we should not call on our students as "oh you know the disabled student" but instead as "oh you know Nicole who has a disability". this brings to life the little progress of forgetting. where we are not labeling the student but we are giving life to the student by saying that individual's name and who they are come first and the disability comes second, which i think is a beautiful thing.
you see, we may not come to the point where every individual forgets that the person they come in contact with has a disability but we are making progress to treating those with disabilities as a person first and the disability second, which i believe is an amazing thing.
here is the link to the article i was discussing: http://themighty.com/2014/11/when-a-cashier-reminded-me-my-son-has-down-syndrome/
This made me think about my life and how I, too, forget that i have a disability. Many of my family and friends say the same thing. i view myself as just another person and it is not until something gets brought up that i think about my disability. i mean yes i may have to ask for help to do something but that is just my normal. This also made me think what if people forgot those with a disability are different. what if people did not look to others and judge them by their outside appearance but instead judge them from the inside. i know i know this is pretty much impossible but the more people who forget then the more that dream will come to life.
the other day in my special education class we talked about how we should not call on our students as "oh you know the disabled student" but instead as "oh you know Nicole who has a disability". this brings to life the little progress of forgetting. where we are not labeling the student but we are giving life to the student by saying that individual's name and who they are come first and the disability comes second, which i think is a beautiful thing.
you see, we may not come to the point where every individual forgets that the person they come in contact with has a disability but we are making progress to treating those with disabilities as a person first and the disability second, which i believe is an amazing thing.
here is the link to the article i was discussing: http://themighty.com/2014/11/when-a-cashier-reminded-me-my-son-has-down-syndrome/
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