An e-mail from a former Connect-Ability editorial board member:

I just wanted to let you know that I have furthered my experience after Connect-Ability and am continuing to work on disabilities awareness. I attend college at SUNY Albany as a freshman now, and I recently joined a club called Autism Speaks. This club is all about raising money for Autism. This weekend we will be outside Gap in Crossgates to fund raise (give a dollar towards autism, get 25% off your Gap purchase). I just wanted to let you know that I really appreciate you exposing me to this type of community service. I really enjoyed working with you guys and can't wait to extend my knowledge of disability even further.
-Gabby

Neil talks about his experiences writing his Individualized Education Plan (IEP) at a Connect-Ability writing workshop. The transition from high school to college is easier for students who take an active role with their parents and teachers in planning their education.

This poem is an ELA lesson that goes along with a Science lesson on different environmental habitats. They are called diamond poems.

Dogs

Big, little

Jumping, running, leaping
Cocker Spaniel, Springer, Britney, Charles

Barking, hiding, growling

Strong, powerful

Dogs

 

Peter Craft
WSWHE Boces
Myers Center
Saratoga Springs, NY

Art work by Katie Dingman, Connect-Ability Art Editor


Connect-Ability editorial board members take a hard look at some of the difficulties facing students with disabilities. At this writing workshop they followed the wise advice offered by Native Americans - Do not judge your neighbor until you walk two moons in his moccasins. The students listened and learned and talked to one another from the perspectives of four individuals with disabilities. Click on the newsletter in the right hand column and look at the 2008 issue of Connect-Ability. Find out what these students discovered.

 

Seven of the ten student editorial board members pictured here at a 2008 workshop have moved on to college since this picture was taken.  Cassie and Valoree are still working hard to mentor our new members and make Connect-Ability a success. Lee Cutler, NYSUT's secretary-treasurer, remains a huge fan of Connect-Ability!

 

 

At a Connect-Ability workshop Maggie plays the role of a teacher who uses a flower pot to get her fifth grade students to talk about their first experience with someone with a disability. She discovers that for most of her students it was an experience that took place at school. Maggie concludes her lesson by encouraging her students to ask questions about disability and learn more about them in her classroom.
 

                   Wolves                                                                                                                       
                Brown, hairy                                                                                                   
      Scaring, creeping, howling                                                                                               
     Grey, Desert, Blind, Black
         Eating, hiding, fighting
              Grey, smelly                                                                                                                   
                 Wolves                                                                                                                       
                                                        
Miranda Polmatier    
WSWHE BOCES
Myers Center
Saratoga Spring, NY  

Artwork by Katie Dingman, Connect-Ability Art Editor

                                                   

I used to work with a guy who always argued with me about the down side of having a disability. He was a paid advocate for people with disability but he had the most irritating ideas about just how awful having a disability was. He seemed like the wrong kind of person to speak for people with disability. I wanted every advocate to be like minded - to have a "we shall overcome" attitude and to see all the strengths that people with disability have to offer. Still I was happy to argue with him on an almost weekly basis whenever our paths crossed. Over the years I came to realize that he taught me more about advocacy than my friends who thought just like I did.

I had dinner the other night with a young teacher I know. We happened to be talking about a woman  who had taken on a pretty difficult job and wasn't doing as well as we expected her to do. The job was outside of her training and work experience and expertise but she had volunteered to do it and we thought she should take it more seriously. Maybe she was burnt out with her other responsibilities, I offered. She is after all a full time teacher and mother, I told her. My young friend wasn't impressed with my explanation. She looked at me in disbelief. Then she responded that maybe we shouldn't expect that much from her. She couldn't be that smart, anyway, she said.  She's a special education teacher.

So now it's not just kids in special education who aren't that smart. It's their teachers, as well?

                             Fish

                      Colorful, bright                                                                                                             

              Swimming, fighting, eating                                                                                                           

        Goatfish, sunfish, catfish, sandfish                                                                                                                        

              Sleeping, hiding, playing                                                                                                                     

                   Cool, awesome

                           Fish

Samantha Salvi
WSWHE BOCES
Myers Center
Saratoga Springs, New York

Artwork by Katie Dingman, Connect-Ability Art Editor

Connect-Ability's student editorial board members found in a survey they conducted in 2011 that the majority of people they interviewed first encountered someone with a disability in school.  Yet despite school being a place of education, they learned very little about disability there. Such things were simply not taught or even spoken of despite so many children having mental, emotional, physical or medical disabilities. Many teachers do not talk to their students about disabilities. Their silence prevents students from learning about and understanding disabilities. It also makes them feel that disability isn't an issue worth addressing. The most successful teachers who have helped students blossom have been those who worked hard to understand disabilities as well as how to properly work with students who are disabled. They are patient and never belittle their students and they teach children ways to work around their disability.

All this focus on the importance of voting made me re-read Bridget Ford's article in the 2005 issue of the Disabilities Awareness Newsletter (Connect-Ability's old title). She named it "The Forgotten Bloc" calling attention to the fact that "individuals with disabilities who have an enormous stake in politics" are "less likely to register and vote." Lack of accessibility is just one of the problems she cited. I challenge all of you students out there to paste the following link to your web browser and ask yourself some questions about the voting places in your community. Let us know what you find.
http://www.ada.gov/votingscrn.pdf

                   Crabs

              Spiny, rocky
      Running, hiding, pinching
Marsh, Fiddler, Rock Shore, Ghost
    Scaring, frightening, terrifying
            Spiny, prickly
                Crabs

Mike Lesar
WSWHE BOCES
Myers Center
Saratoga Spring, NY

Artwork by Katie Dingman, art editor, Connect-Ability