A basket filled with colorful spools of ribbon and small safety pins was kept in Landstown Elementary School’s main office throughout October. Meshell Woliver wanted her colleagues to be able to make awareness ribbons of their choice. Included was lime green ribbon to recognize cerebral palsy, teal for anxiety disorders, blue and yellow for Down syndrome, dark green for emotional/mental health disorders, among many other colorful options.
Woliver, a special education compliance specialist, wore a purple ribbon to recognize her sister-in-law, Julie, who she says has been beating the odds of a cystic fibrosis diagnosis for years.
“She has had a double lung and liver transplant and, according to her doctors at Duke University, has exceeded her life expectancy,” said Woliver. She adds that despite Julie’s medical battles, her sister-in-law earned a bachelor’s degree in in Early Childhood Education from James Madison University.
Emphasizing the abilities of individuals with disabilities rather than their exceptionalities is a stated goal of the Disability History and Awareness Month resolution passed by the Virginia General Assembly in 2009. It is a message that Woliver and Landstown Elementary School teachers Kelly French and Whitney Williams want their students to recognize during October as well as throughout the school year.
They created a hallway bulletin board featuring awareness ribbons made of construction paper and photos of famous people, such as Beethoven, James Earl Jones, Einstein, Walt Disney, Ben Franklin and George Washington, with notes about their accomplishments as well as their disabilities.
It had students talking.
“We had to explain to them who James Earl Jones is, but once they realized they’ve heard his voice a bunch, they were like, ‘Wow! He stuttered and now he does that?’” said Williams. The students were amazed to realize that Jones, better known to them as Darth Vader in Star Wars, was a child with a speech impairment.
Williams said one of her students, who is dyslexic, was pleasantly surprised to learn from the bulletin board that Dav Pilkey, author and illustrator of children’s literature, is an adult with the same learning disability. “And, he’s a writer!” the student told Williams.
Achievement and inclusion were key components of the message VBCPS graduate Emmanuel Mitchell conveyed to parents and staff at Pembroke Elementary School’s luncheon to celebrate Disability History and Awareness Month. The annual event brings together families of students receiving special education services at the school and members of the school community who support them.
“We want what you want,” Mitchell told guests. “Everyone deserves success, regardless of what it looks like.”
Mitchell was born with limited use of his arms and hands and accomplishes many tasks by using his feet. He spoke fondly of his third-grade teacher who he said made him feel included by providing experiences to help his classmates gain a better understanding of his challenges as well as his abilities.
Building awareness and celebrating everyone’s abilities was the goal of an “I Can” video production by Corporate Landing Elementary School (CLES) special education teacher Leah Howard with the help of third-grade student producers Alexis Yawin and Dashaun Simpson.
Howard explained the idea was prompted by CLES students’ questions about how Yawin maneuvered her wheelchair. Yawin proudly announced her “I Can” statement with a smile. “I can drive,” she said, showing how her wheelchair moves with speed.
Howard and her production team visited classrooms at every grade level to have students with disabilities share and/or demonstrate all the things they can do. The final production will be shown to all CLES students and staff.
Robert Eggleston’s “I can” mentality is well-known to his sixth-grade peers and staff at Kemps Landing/Old Donation School. “Usually when I’m at home, we don’t even mention it,” Eggleston said of his visual impairment, and neither do his classmates.
Eggleston, blind since the age of three, worked with ease through a set of math probability problems with two other students in Vivian Barber’s pre-algebra class. Listening to and solving problems in his head is not difficult, he said, “but sometimes, when there are a lot of numbers, like in probability where each number is in a certain group with a color, I might need somebody to repeat that.”
Take, for example, question 12 which asked students about random selections from a bag of colored marbles: A bag contains 2 blue marbles, 3 yellow marbles and 7 orange marbles. Jorge draws one marble from the bag and puts it in his pocket. He draws a second marble from the bag. What is the probability that Jorge has drawn a blue marble and an orange marble?
No sooner did Eggleston’s classmate finish reading the problem from the laptop, than he and his partners began talking through it to determine the correct solution from the multiple choice list.
“The students have to be much more verbal to explain their work, and that’s good for them,” said Barber of her observations of student interactions in class.
Karie Correll, visual impairment teacher, transcribed Eggleston’s verbal problem-solving on a small whiteboard for his group members to view as needed, while Eggleston used a refreshable braille display at times to read text output. Together, the group selected answer C as the correct one and clicked to the next online question about a circular spinner and the probability of landing on an odd or even number.
Lessons in other classes, such as one on the Habits of Mind, provided Eggleston’s classmates an opportunity to experience reading braille. Materials related to each habit were produced in braille, making students aware of what it is like to read with their fingertips.
Becoming aware of employment opportunities after graduation were Princess Anne High School students who visited Eggleston Center in Norfolk. Work experience program coordinator Adrienne James arranged the field trip for students with disabilities to tour the facilities, visit with staff and gain a better understanding for some of their training and career options.
“Visiting the Eggleston Center gave our students a good perspective about possible realistic job opportunities available upon transitioning into the world of work after high school,” said James. “It also allowed them to see a recent graduate gainfully employed. They also were able to relate some of the jobs at Eggleston with what they are presently learning in their vocational classes at school.”
Senior Danielle Villano enjoyed seeing the monogramming services. “My favorite job was sewing,” she said. While juniors Paul Messick and Zarran Lamprin agreed that the auto body shop was their favorite stop on the tour. Messick is interested in car detailing, and Zarran would like to drive a tow truck.
Being prepared for the future to reach their full potential is what Landstown Elementary special education teacher Williams believes is important for all students. “We try to give them the tools they need to overcome challenges and hopefully overcome any they get in the future,” she said. “Those are skills they can take through life.”