Claudia Carawan is the music teacher at CharterHouse School in Richmond, on the campus of United Methodist Family Services, the wonderful organization that has helped me build my special family.
I love many of her songs, but this one especially made me think of the beautiful Miss Brooke and her incredible mom, Lynnette.
I love you both!
Friday, September 30, 2011
Thursday, September 29, 2011
Buyer Beware
Have you ever had this happen? If so, I would love to know how you handled it.
IEPs are almost always held in the Spring in my school district. The planning is for the next school year. Ronnie's IEP was held in May, and his teacher last year, a teacher for the Deaf, as well as the Chair of the Hearing Impaired department, tried very hard to convince me to move Ronnie from our neighborhood high school to another school where the district was trying to consolidate services for Deaf students. In addition, the teacher said she was also moving to that school.
The other school was not that far away from us, and Ronnie said he wanted to go (although I believe there had been a little coercing before the meeting). And, his signing friends were also moving, I was told. The move was going to make my life just a tad bit harder, but if it was in Ronnie's best interest, I would certainly do it.
So I made the decision that he could move. We hammered out the rest of the IEP - heavy on academics, not so heavy on functional skills because I believe it is my job as his parent to focus on those things.
Fast forward to September.
Ronnie starts at his new school and I find out that the teacher for the Deaf is not going to be at that school, and the Chair of the Department has retired. And I'm not so sure that this is a good placement. But Ronnie says he likes the new school. So far the homework that he brings home is heavy on functional skills and light on academics. And, he is only one of three students in his classroom.
Making a change at this point back to his previous school would be difficult. He is starting to make friends, especially girl friends (!) at the new school, and I'm not sure moving him again so quickly would be a good thing. But something needs to be different.
I'm thinking I need to call an IEP meeting and share these concerns with the school team. What do you think?
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Visualize This
Sometimes I like to visualize in my mind what it must be like to be in a wheelchair like Ronnie or Ashley. Doing so helps me figure out accommodations that can be made to help make their travels a little easier. Today I was attending a business-related conference at a local hotel and decided this would be a good time for a visualization.
Unfortunately, the first leg of my visualization trip was not so good. I had to park in the parking garage for the hotel. I tried to pull into a handicapped parking spot, but the access aisle was being used for storage. See the picture below.
This is not an usual sight though. In the past I've seen piles of dirt, piles of snow, snow moving equipment, and grocery carts piled into the handicapped parking spot and access aisle. The way these concrete things were positioned, it was impossible to open the car door. I pulled out and found another parking spot. A person with a wheelchair may not have been able to do that.
Then my visualization took me up the elevator to the hotel lobby so I could register for the meeting. All that went well. The registration counter was lowered and had I been in a chair, I would have had no problem signing in and picking up my materials.
The next problem came when I tried to move through the hallways of the conference area. There were vendors lining each side of the wide hallway, making it not so wide. Throw in approximately 800 people, and traveling in a chair would have been nearly impossible.
There would have been excuse me after excuse me, tap-tap-tap after tap-tap-tap trying to get people's attention so I could move past. I think I would have just given up at that point, and now I understand better why Ashley and Ronnie can both get so frustrated in crowds.
Finally I found the room I was supposed to be in. It was a large banquet hall filled to capacity with round tables, each seating 8 people. There was hardly room to walk between the tables, much less move in a wheelchair. Had I really been in a chair, I would have had to just wait by the door for the entire presentation.
After the keynote, we were to move to breakout rooms for the next session. Mine was in a room with two aisles of chairs, each having 10 chairs in each row. Again, there was no room to move a chair down the aisles. I would have to park my chair either in the front of the room or the very back of the room. Either would have marked me as 'different' to the crowd.
After that session, it was back to the banquet hall for lunch. I thought I had it figured out this time. I would go in early in my chair, before the room filled with people, and that way I could get to the far side of the room to sit with my co-workers. But I forgot something very important. Had I done that, I would have been trapped in the room until everyone else left at the end of lunch. A trip to the restroom would have been out of the question.
And so the day continued - too many people, not enough room, and doors to heavy to handle while trying to also move a chair. I found myself getting very frustrated and wanting to just yell at someone. Again, I now understand Ashley's and Ronnie's behavior a little better.
But there was one thing that really, really surprised me. How could there be almost 1000 people in one location and not one of them have a physcial disability? Does that seem a little odd to you?
Unfortunately, the first leg of my visualization trip was not so good. I had to park in the parking garage for the hotel. I tried to pull into a handicapped parking spot, but the access aisle was being used for storage. See the picture below.
This is not an usual sight though. In the past I've seen piles of dirt, piles of snow, snow moving equipment, and grocery carts piled into the handicapped parking spot and access aisle. The way these concrete things were positioned, it was impossible to open the car door. I pulled out and found another parking spot. A person with a wheelchair may not have been able to do that.
Then my visualization took me up the elevator to the hotel lobby so I could register for the meeting. All that went well. The registration counter was lowered and had I been in a chair, I would have had no problem signing in and picking up my materials.
The next problem came when I tried to move through the hallways of the conference area. There were vendors lining each side of the wide hallway, making it not so wide. Throw in approximately 800 people, and traveling in a chair would have been nearly impossible.
There would have been excuse me after excuse me, tap-tap-tap after tap-tap-tap trying to get people's attention so I could move past. I think I would have just given up at that point, and now I understand better why Ashley and Ronnie can both get so frustrated in crowds.
Finally I found the room I was supposed to be in. It was a large banquet hall filled to capacity with round tables, each seating 8 people. There was hardly room to walk between the tables, much less move in a wheelchair. Had I really been in a chair, I would have had to just wait by the door for the entire presentation.
After the keynote, we were to move to breakout rooms for the next session. Mine was in a room with two aisles of chairs, each having 10 chairs in each row. Again, there was no room to move a chair down the aisles. I would have to park my chair either in the front of the room or the very back of the room. Either would have marked me as 'different' to the crowd.
After that session, it was back to the banquet hall for lunch. I thought I had it figured out this time. I would go in early in my chair, before the room filled with people, and that way I could get to the far side of the room to sit with my co-workers. But I forgot something very important. Had I done that, I would have been trapped in the room until everyone else left at the end of lunch. A trip to the restroom would have been out of the question.
And so the day continued - too many people, not enough room, and doors to heavy to handle while trying to also move a chair. I found myself getting very frustrated and wanting to just yell at someone. Again, I now understand Ashley's and Ronnie's behavior a little better.
But there was one thing that really, really surprised me. How could there be almost 1000 people in one location and not one of them have a physcial disability? Does that seem a little odd to you?
Monday, September 26, 2011
Easy Being Green
This weekend, the kids and I decided to try our hand at making a rain barrel. Our local science museum was having both the rain barrel workshop and a Go Green Garden Festival. Since we are museum members, the only cost involved was $25 for the rain barrel and all the pieces for making it. After checking the prices online for a ready-made rain barrel, we got a real bargain, and the kids learned something in the process!
Here are some photos. Chip, of course, did most of the making of the rain barrel, but Ronnie and Ashley were at the ready in case he needed any help! And of course, at the end, they both provided quality control checking!
The Go Green Garden Festival was packed with lots of good information, and unfortunately green stamps for everyone's hands. Ashley did NOT like the stamps, and did her best to get it off. I guess she took Go Green seriously...
The booth at the festival that intriqued me the most was a Living Roof demonstration. I really, really, really want one....
We could use the water from our new rain barrel to keep it alive!!
Here are some photos. Chip, of course, did most of the making of the rain barrel, but Ronnie and Ashley were at the ready in case he needed any help! And of course, at the end, they both provided quality control checking!
The Go Green Garden Festival was packed with lots of good information, and unfortunately green stamps for everyone's hands. Ashley did NOT like the stamps, and did her best to get it off. I guess she took Go Green seriously...
The booth at the festival that intriqued me the most was a Living Roof demonstration. I really, really, really want one....
We could use the water from our new rain barrel to keep it alive!!
Friday, September 23, 2011
No Longer About Basketball or Interpreters
I approached my school district with the following request:
Ronnie started playing wheelchair basketball last school year for a team organized by Sportable. Sportable is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing sports experiences for people with physical disabilities.
Ronnie loves playing on the team and is showing real potential as an athlete. It’s a sports experience that unfortunately he cannot get at school. While he can attend school events such as football games, basketball games, and such, because he is a wheelchair user, he can’t participate on those teams. To my knowledge, the school district does not offer any wheelchair-centered sports teams.
Because he is not afforded the opportunity of school sports teams, I would like to have school district support for his commitment to the Sportable wheelchair team, including interpreter support during practices and games. If HCPS did offer wheelchair sports teams, I’m sure providing an interpreter for those would not be a problem.
The school district mulled it over and then politely declined my request because they contend they do offer sports teams on which he could compete. When they explained the teams to me, I knew exactly what they were talking about.
In my school district, the special education department has organized ‘special’ basketball games where one school team plays another. The teams are made up of all the special education students in each particular school, and Ronnie played on his school team last year. However, he was the only student in a wheelchair. As you can imagine, this is not the level of basketball play Ronnie prefers.
I explained that to the person who contacted me about my request. She said, “Well, if he would like to be one of the managers of our regular football team, we could arrange that.”
I replied, “So if he would like to be the token disabled kid who sits near the bench for your high school football games and you call him a manager, then that would be ok with you?”
She said, “Of course.” (I swear, that really was her response.)
What would your response have been after that...????
Thursday, September 22, 2011
What Do You Think?
Ronnie has a wheelchair basketball tournament coming up in a few weeks. It will be held at one of our local universities, and is sponsored by Sportable, an organization in our area that is committed to providing adaptive sports opportunities for people from age five to age 90.
Ronnie is the only Deaf player on the team. We've spent the last week or so trying to figure out how he will know if the referee blows his whistle, and how the coach can convey play strategy to Ronnie.
I think we have figured out the whistle thing with the help of the women's basketball coach from Gallaudet University. When Ronnie's teammates hear the whistle, they will put their arms in the air thus alerting Ronnie.
But the coaching instructions are a bit more difficult. We have experimented with the coach having a blue tooth headset and communicating via an IPhone dictation app to Ronnie. But, doing it that way is a little cumbersome. The ideal solution would be to have an interpreter.
But interpreters are really expensive.
In the past, we had a volunteer and that worked really well. Unfortunately our volunteer moved away, and I haven't had much luck finding another volunteer. So one of the options we had been exploring was to ask the university where the tournament is being held to provide interpreters for the day.
They declined, saying they felt it was Sportable's responsiblity to provide the interpreters.
Two conflicting opinions have been voiced. One, the interpreting company feels that the university is just as responsible for interpreters as they are for accessible bathrooms, wheelchair ramps, and such. In a very impassioned email on the subject, the head of the interpreting company wrote:
Does this mean that if your child was in a wheelchair they’d put a lock on the handicap-accessible bathroom door? Put gates in front of ramps? Would you have to find a volunteer to carry your child (and wheelchair) into the building? Put a diaper on him (since he wouldn’t be able to get into the bathroom)?
The other opinion says it is indeed Sportable's responsiblity to provide interpreters since they are the ones running the tournament. Unfortunately, Sportable, being a non-profit that has a shoestring budget, cannot afford to do that.
So I am just wondering - whose opinion do you think is correct?
Ronnie is the only Deaf player on the team. We've spent the last week or so trying to figure out how he will know if the referee blows his whistle, and how the coach can convey play strategy to Ronnie.
I think we have figured out the whistle thing with the help of the women's basketball coach from Gallaudet University. When Ronnie's teammates hear the whistle, they will put their arms in the air thus alerting Ronnie.
But the coaching instructions are a bit more difficult. We have experimented with the coach having a blue tooth headset and communicating via an IPhone dictation app to Ronnie. But, doing it that way is a little cumbersome. The ideal solution would be to have an interpreter.
But interpreters are really expensive.
In the past, we had a volunteer and that worked really well. Unfortunately our volunteer moved away, and I haven't had much luck finding another volunteer. So one of the options we had been exploring was to ask the university where the tournament is being held to provide interpreters for the day.
They declined, saying they felt it was Sportable's responsiblity to provide the interpreters.
Two conflicting opinions have been voiced. One, the interpreting company feels that the university is just as responsible for interpreters as they are for accessible bathrooms, wheelchair ramps, and such. In a very impassioned email on the subject, the head of the interpreting company wrote:
Does this mean that if your child was in a wheelchair they’d put a lock on the handicap-accessible bathroom door? Put gates in front of ramps? Would you have to find a volunteer to carry your child (and wheelchair) into the building? Put a diaper on him (since he wouldn’t be able to get into the bathroom)?
The other opinion says it is indeed Sportable's responsiblity to provide interpreters since they are the ones running the tournament. Unfortunately, Sportable, being a non-profit that has a shoestring budget, cannot afford to do that.
So I am just wondering - whose opinion do you think is correct?
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