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<\/a>\u201cWe had to explain to them who James Earl Jones is, but once they realized they\u2019ve heard his voice a bunch, they were like, \u2018Wow! He stuttered and now he does that?\u2019\u201d said Williams. The students were amazed to realize that Jones,\u00a0better known to them as Darth Vader in Star Wars, was a child with a speech impairment.<\/p>\nWilliams 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\u2019s literature, is an adult with the same learning disability. \u201cAnd, he\u2019s a writer!\u201d the student told Williams.<\/p>\n
Achievement and inclusion were key components of the message VBCPS graduate Emmanuel Mitchell conveyed to parents and staff at Pembroke Elementary School\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want what you want,\u201d Mitchell told guests.\u00a0\u201cEveryone deserves success, regardless of what it looks like.\u201d<\/p>\n Mitchell was born with limited use of his arms and hands and accomplishes many tasks by using his feet.\u00a0He 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.<\/p>\n Building awareness and celebrating everyone\u2019s abilities was the goal of an \u201cI Can\u201d 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.<\/p>\n Howard explained the idea was prompted by CLES students\u2019 questions about how Yawin maneuvered her wheelchair.\u00a0Yawin proudly announced her \u201cI Can\u201d statement with a smile. \u201cI can drive,\u201d she said, showing how her wheelchair moves with speed.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Robert Eggleston\u2019s \u201cI can\u201d mentality is well-known to his sixth-grade peers and staff at Kemps Landing\/Old Donation School.\u00a0\u201cUsually when I\u2019m at home, we don\u2019t even mention it,\u201d Eggleston said of his visual impairment, and neither do his classmates.<\/p>\n Eggleston, blind since the age of three,\u00a0worked with ease through a set of math probability problems with two other students in Vivian Barber\u2019s pre-algebra class. Listening to and solving problems in his head is not difficult, he said, \u201cbut 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.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a>