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Changing attitudes- Setting an example

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  • Ami2301
    Ami2301 Community member Posts: 7,942 Disability Gamechanger
    This is a really good idea @WestHam06 :) I would have loved to have seen more talks/disability awareness days during my secondary school years. I remember a lot of days/weeks being related to a variety of things, e.g. culture, countries, life skills, all sorts - but disability and anything related was never mentioned.

    I've always been old for my age (or I think the saying is too mature for my age or something) from a very early age. My niece, who starts secondary school in September, quickly adapted to me becoming disabled, she never judged, if anything, she was setting a good example of how adults should be treating me too. For this reason, I do feel primary school ages would be an ideal audience, however, I also think as children become older and more mature, more in-depth and real-life stories could have a positive impact.

    After being bullied for all of my school life (I wasn't disabled until the age of 22) I realised judgement was the core of most of why I was bullied - I would love to see more beint done to break down stigma, remove judgement and promote equality. We learn about religion, different languages, sex, relationships, disability should be up there too!

    Thats my two penny's worth :) 
    Disability Gamechanger - 2019
  • Richard_Scope
    Richard_Scope Posts: 3,638 Scope online community team
    WestHam06 said:
    Hi @Richard_Scope
                                      Thank you so much for sharing your experience with us it is greatly appreciated. I am sure that those children absolutely did carry a positive image of disabled people with them as they moved up to secondary school. I wonder if that is where some of my thinking comes from, that there are not enough role models in schools with disabilities as well as in wider society, I would really appreciate your thoughts on this. I totally agree with what you say about primary aged children, I have volunteered at a primary school and worked in early years and I have found that once children have had their questions answered they are generally very accepting. I think that is where I am coming from with aiming this at secondary school children, as for some this will be the first time they have come across disability. I am currently in the very early stages of working with my old secondary school in developing mentoring opportunities as I believe students, both disabled and able bodied, may benefit from seeing a disabled adult and hearing their experiences. I think educating students is one of the key ways forward in creating equal opportunities for all. I would greatly appreciate any further thoughts you may have on this? Please may I also ask, do you think the role models programme will start up again? Thank you. 
    I agree that there aren't enough disabled role models anywhere really. I certainly can't think of a single one from my childhood. I have found that being visible in your local community is really helpful (I appreciate that this is easy for all of us) and being willing and open to answer the difficult and sometimes awkward questions. Even for adults, you might be the first disabled person that they have interacted with. This is just my personal view but I see people asking me questions as an opportunity to educate. Idon't find it offensive but I get that some disabled people do.
    Scope
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  • WestHam06
    WestHam06 Community member, Scope Volunteer Posts: 1,396 Pioneering
    Hi @dolfrog
                        Thank you so much for sharing your experiences with us, it is greatly appreciated. It is really useful to gain a wider understanding of what other people are doing to push disability equality including understanding disability to the top of the agenda in whatever form that may be. I'm very new to this and in the very early stages so it is very much a learning opportunity which I hope I can develop into something positive.  I am sorry to hear of the difficulties that you have faced but applaud you in your determination to try to educate various different sectors about the complexity of disabilities and how we are all different. I think we need more role models out there in society who have real life experiences of a variety of disabilities to help inform the change that is needed. As I say, I believe educating people is a key way to remove prejudice and discrimination though I do acknowledge not the only one and that it is not easy. I really hope that you continue with the work you are doing and wish you the best of luck with it. Please, if you would like to, I hope we can keep this conversation going. Thank you.  
  • WestHam06
    WestHam06 Community member, Scope Volunteer Posts: 1,396 Pioneering
    Hi @Ami2301
                            Thank you so much for sharing your experiences with us, it is greatly appreciated and I for one am so pleased you put two penny's worth in :) You really do speak so much sense and I totally agree with what you say about being at secondary school and having days dedicated to a wide range of things but disability not really ever being involved with this. I'm really sorry to hear that you were bullied throughout your whole school life, that is not nice and can't of been easy. I agree a lot of the problem is that there is still so much stigma and pre-judgement and people can be cruel purely because they perceive that a person doesn't fit their 'mould' of how a person should be whether that be due to how they look, what interests the person or much else. I really hope that change can come about but it is something that has been spoken about for many years and though progress has been made it clearly has not been fast enough nor has it adapted to changes in society such as social media. I know that once I had done my talks at school some of the students communicated with me differently and I think they felt more comfortable to talk to me or ask questions. I also hear what you say with regard to your niece adapting to your disability and showing an example to adults, I think in general children do adapt better to changes and also are more accepting. Earlier in this post @janer1967 spoke of her inspiring son and how he adapted to the new situation, children are resilient and accepting and once they have information and see role models I would hope it can change attitudes that might otherwise have developed. It is also about giving other disabled students a role model to show them that, though it is difficult, disability does not have to define you and there are opportunities out there. I do hope to continue this conversation, and please if you would like too, would really like to hear more of your thoughts as it sounds as though you have much insight to share. Thank you.   
  • WestHam06
    WestHam06 Community member, Scope Volunteer Posts: 1,396 Pioneering
    Hi @Richard_Scope
                                     I can't really think of any disabled role models either from my childhood. I was the only physically disabled student at my primary school until Year 6 and unfortunately I later learned that the other child who joined the school left due to a reluctance by the headteacher to embrace their disability. I completely agree being visible can really help to change and inform opinions and as I have become older acknowledge the importance of people asking me questions. I really appreciate it when they ask me and not someone I am with.  Thank you.   
  • dolfrog
    dolfrog Community member Posts: 441 Pioneering
    @WestHam06
    If the UK education system was inline with international neurological research, then based on how the human brain develops and the various stages of maturation, formal education should begin from between the ages of 7 - 8 years old. And various neurological systems are not fully developed until the late teens, or early 20s. Each individual is different, and can develop different neurological skills at different times (ages) and at different rates. There is on one size fits all. And normal is pure a statistical term base on any sample mean value.
    Some years ago I used to edit Wikipedia articles (more the supporting research rather then the content you read) and as such I was provided with a Wikipedia User page, which I used to list some of my Research paper collections regarding Invisible Disabilities. You might like to have a look at my Wikipedia user page at 
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Dolfrog 

    I also used to run a some Research Paper Groups on the old CiteULike research network which was wound up at the end of March 2019. I transferred some of the research paper collection to an alternative web site a Zotero. Which has a different site structure and layout compared with CiteULike. You could create your own account to compile useful information. I use Evernote to help me work around my dyslexia issues, and I have an Evernote web page which has links to my Zotero research paper collections which you may find of some interest at 
    https://www.evernote.com/shard/s329/sh/f6711c86-87ce-4f2a-a6dc-a7df6fadcf2b/71d49aa42e81f7338d2812d10974e445 

    I hope you find some of the information useful.
    Keep up the good work
  • Denise11
    Denise11 Community member Posts: 99 Pioneering
    I think that your ideas are very, very good and I would  loved to help, although I did go to a school which was for disabled.  Young children have no ask things that older people find difficult and giving them time to ask questions and understanding is brilliant!  
  • WestHam06
    WestHam06 Community member, Scope Volunteer Posts: 1,396 Pioneering
    Hi @dolfrog
                         Thank you so much for sharing this information, it is greatly appreciated. I will be sure to take a look at the links you have provided. Many thanks. 
  • WestHam06
    WestHam06 Community member, Scope Volunteer Posts: 1,396 Pioneering
    Hi @Denise11
                            Thank you so much for sharing your experiences with us, it is greatly appreciated. I agree I think younger children feel more comfortable with asking questions and they are quite accepting once things are explained to them. I believe they is a place for this type of thing in different types of educational settings and it's about getting the presentation and conversation suitable for the different audiences. I also believe everyone has something to offer regardless of the type of educational setting they attended. Thank you.  
  • WestHam06
    WestHam06 Community member, Scope Volunteer Posts: 1,396 Pioneering
    Hi all, 
              I hope everyone is well and I would like to thank you all for sharing your contributions with us, I greatly appreciate all of the insights people have shared in this conversation, thank you. Please, if I may, I wondered if I could ask  you all a question and would greatly appreciate any answers you feel able to give, thank you. My question is 'What does achievement mean to you'? Thank you.  
  • newborn
    newborn Community member Posts: 832 Pioneering
    Staying alive?
  • amyhutchinson_12
    amyhutchinson_12 Community member Posts: 8 Connected
    WestHam06 said:
    Hi all, 
              I hope everyone is well and I would like to thank you all for sharing your contributions with us, I greatly appreciate all of the insights people have shared in this conversation, thank you. Please, if I may, I wondered if I could ask  you all a question and would greatly appreciate any answers you feel able to give, thank you. My question is 'What does achievement mean to you'? Thank you.  
    I think that getting to university has been my biggest achievement and it is challenging me in so many ways in terms of reading and focusing due to my visual impairment, but I do love university. Getting into university, my 'achievement', means that i am far more than my disability (although i do have quite a lot of vision, it still does affect me a lot). 

    Unfortunately at university though, i have been through what is considered as a 'bullying' situation. Coincidentally, i am actually studying a special needs and disability degree but my group were doing a small presentation during our first year, and we were sitting right at the back of the room. What we were meant to be doing was on the interactive board at the front but i couldn't read it, but i didn't have enough confidence to say that i couldn't read it or go up to the board and read it as i was embarrassed about saying so and standing in front of the board and possibly getting in the way. This unfortunately led to my classmate bullying me via our group chat on facebook by telling me, in front of the others, everything she'd gone through and telling me that what i went through was 'nothing' and i have been very uncomfortable with her since. My tutor told me that i could have 'asked her or asked someone else or gone up to the board' but what people don't understand is that i don't like doing that because i don't want to rely on people, but then my friends brought up a good point that i should not be expected to do that, to tell them because they should know. 

    Luckily, prior to university, i had not been through bullying and actually had quite a few funny experiences during high school where during exams before i went into a separate room and was doing my exams in our main hall with everyone else, i had enlarged papers and my friends were always saying 'woah, you have such a big paper!' and we just laughed about it because it was huge, and they actually found it fascinating! 

    I think that raising awareness in educational settings about disability is really important. I would love to have the confidence to talk about it in somewhere like a primary school where they are at early ages but they may not understand. High schoolers can be quite inattentive sometimes so i think i agree with everyone else, that students like university and college students may be the best option as they usually seem to be more mature and understand more too. 

    Sorry for the long post! 
  • WestHam06
    WestHam06 Community member, Scope Volunteer Posts: 1,396 Pioneering
    Hi @amyhutchinson_12
                                           Thank you for sharing your experiences with us, it is greatly appreciated. Awesome, a degree in Special Needs and Disability, I bet that is really interesting. Please may I ask, what career path are you considering following finishing your degree? I am pleased to hear that you regard going to university as an achievement, good for you and I hear what you say when you explain that it means you are far more than your disability. I am sorry to hear of the experience you had in your first year, you would have thought given the subject content people would have had a little more empathy and understanding. You are right when you and your friends say that you should not have to ask, that people should be more aware of everyone's individual needs within the group. I also find it difficult when people try to compare experiences, everyone is individual and unique and face their own personal battles. I am pleased to hear though that you had positive experiences during high school and that friends took a positive interest. Laughter is the best :) Thank you for sharing your thoughts, it has been really interesting to get different people's perspectives and I think one thing I am learning is that there is potential for this type of thing at every level of education. I am trying to find the most appropriate way forward so all of the thoughts people are sharing on here is greatly appreciated. Please do continue to share your thoughts if you would like too. Thank you. 
  • amyhutchinson_12
    amyhutchinson_12 Community member Posts: 8 Connected
    WestHam06 said:
    Hi @amyhutchinson_12
                                           Thank you for sharing your experiences with us, it is greatly appreciated. Awesome, a degree in Special Needs and Disability, I bet that is really interesting. Please may I ask, what career path are you considering following finishing your degree? I am pleased to hear that you regard going to university as an achievement, good for you and I hear what you say when you explain that it means you are far more than your disability. I am sorry to hear of the experience you had in your first year, you would have thought given the subject content people would have had a little more empathy and understanding. You are right when you and your friends say that you should not have to ask, that people should be more aware of everyone's individual needs within the group. I also find it difficult when people try to compare experiences, everyone is individual and unique and face their own personal battles. I am pleased to hear though that you had positive experiences during high school and that friends took a positive interest. Laughter is the best :) Thank you for sharing your thoughts, it has been really interesting to get different people's perspectives and I think one thing I am learning is that there is potential for this type of thing at every level of education. I am trying to find the most appropriate way forward so all of the thoughts people are sharing on here is greatly appreciated. Please do continue to share your thoughts if you would like too. Thank you. 
    I am unsure of what to do after my degree. I returned to my primary school back in February to complete my first placement there and loved it so I may work as a teaching assistant there if that will be possible by the time i finish my degree but i am not certain on this and that will also obviously depend on if they need anyone like that there. I do also have the thought of working with people with visual impairments due to personal experience, but I am not sure how that would work in terms of what places I could look at to do this.

    As I look back on high school now, I am surprised that I did not have any bad experiences there in comparison to university with my disability as the irony is in my last comment: students are more mature than high school students. Yet, in my case, high school students were more tolerant of my disability and were nice about it. I loved it when they joked about how big my exam papers were because it was funny ?


  • WestHam06
    WestHam06 Community member, Scope Volunteer Posts: 1,396 Pioneering
    Hi @amyhutchinson_12
                                           Both of those ideas sound great and I wish you the very best with whatever career path you choose to follow. Either way, with both your knowledge and personal experience, I am sure you will be brilliant. Earlier in this thread, we spoke of the need for there to be more disabled role models out there in society so I am really inspired by what you are doing and what plans you may choose to explore. I guess every person's experiences will be different but at the end of the day no person should have a bad experience because of their disability and I am sad that so many people do. I would like to thank you for sharing your experiences as it has highlighted that there is a need for education on disability at all levels of the education system. Thank you.
  • amyhutchinson_12
    amyhutchinson_12 Community member Posts: 8 Connected
    WestHam06 said:
    Hi @amyhutchinson_12
                                           Both of those ideas sound great and I wish you the very best with whatever career path you choose to follow. Either way, with both your knowledge and personal experience, I am sure you will be brilliant. Earlier in this thread, we spoke of the need for there to be more disabled role models out there in society so I am really inspired by what you are doing and what plans you may choose to explore. I guess every person's experiences will be different but at the end of the day no person should have a bad experience because of their disability and I am sad that so many people do. I would like to thank you for sharing your experiences as it has highlighted that there is a need for education on disability at all levels of the education system. Thank you.
    You are welcome. Doing a disability degree has given me more opportunities to understand disability and although it may not give complete in depth knowledge and may be biased at times, it has allowed me to learn about conditions that i never knew existed and made me more knowledgeable. I am glad that my experience has shown that there should be education on disability at all levels and obviously there will be different ways of learning for different ages, but it should be done. I think that going around schools and discussing about disability is an amazing idea, I just wish i had the confidence to do it! 
  • WestHam06
    WestHam06 Community member, Scope Volunteer Posts: 1,396 Pioneering
    Thank you @amyhutchinson_12, I greatly appreciate it. That sounds like an amazing course, with lots of learning opportunities, I wish you the best of luck with it. Your experience has enable me to reflect and learn as well as think about how we can best address these issues with different age groups so I really thank you for sharing these with us. Obviously, currently I can only speak from experience but they are many different disabilities and they all deserve equal understanding and awareness. It has given me lots to think about. Thank you. 
  • WestHam06
    WestHam06 Community member, Scope Volunteer Posts: 1,396 Pioneering
    Hi @dolfrog
                        Hope you are well. I just wanted to say I haven't forgot about the papers you so kindly shared with me, I am getting there and will definitely get back to you to talk through elements of them with you please if that is ok, but want to ensure I have given them the time they deserve. Thank you.
  • dolfrog
    dolfrog Community member Posts: 441 Pioneering
    edited August 2020
    Hi @WestHam06
    Long Story, I had some flu type issues which were corvid negative,
    I had a week of headaches etc. And getting old does not help overcome these issues lol. 
    I am currently going through my 2011 collection of bookmarks on Diggo about a 1000 lol, which includes many research papers. This was the result of having to move from one bookmark web site to another, as my initial site was closing down lol.
    I did not realise i had transferred so many links lol.
    it keeps me busy lol.


  • WestHam06
    WestHam06 Community member, Scope Volunteer Posts: 1,396 Pioneering
    Hi @dolfrog
                        Well I hope that you are feeling better and I look forward to talking elements of the research papers through with you at some stage. Thank you and best wishes. 

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