This year, Super Bowl Sunday started a bit differently for the Dr. Phillips Baseball Team and their coaches. Instead of sleeping in to be fresh for the night’s festivities, the team and coaches were downtown at an Orange County School Building, taking part in disability awareness training. Split up into groups of 6, the boys went to 15 different stations, each one teaching them about a different disability. The purpose of this initiative is to teach more than just awareness-the goal here is to instill empathy.
How do you make an impact on a group of athletic boys in a short amount of time, expose them to varying disabilities and have them leave realizing “Those kids really are just like me”? This is accomplished by providing simple facts that do not sugar coat things, facts that answer questions kids already have about their peers with disabilities. Once information is supplied, some of the mystery of the disability is lifted. It takes more than data to really get a true understanding of what it is like to have a disability, and in order to feel true compassion, these boys would need to take part in hands on activities that would let them experience a degree of disability.
While going through the rotations, the boys had to perform different unique tasks. At the station where they learned what it would be like to have dyslexia, they had to trace a star on paper while looking at in a mirror. They quickly realized that this was much harder than it looked, and more than one of them said how hard it must be to do school work if you have dyslexia.
While learning about vision impairments and blindness, the brail books brought looks of amazement and admiration. Many boys paired off and played tic tac toe blind folded and realized that they needed to utilize their other senses to play.
There were walkers provided at the Mobility station for kids to really see that it is not easy to get around in a world made for legs only. There were also stations for Sensory issues, Downs Syndrome, Spina Bifida and Traumatic Brain Injury. Each station provided facts about the disability as well as an activity. There are 15 stations total, and all are manned by volunteers. Most of them are parents of children with disabilities in the Orange County Public Schools (OCPS), and they are thrilled that these Challenger players went through the training. Even better, the Challenger players are just the beginning of a district initiative that will eventually include all OCPS schools.
This training, which has the support of Anna Diaz, Associate Superintendent of Orange County Public Schools is an ongoing process that a committee has been working on since last year. Patrice Byerly, Parent Ambassador and Director of Training at OCPS have been the driving force behind this program getting off the ground.
Patrice had this to say about why this training is so important for OCPS students to participate in, “These rotations have been a great way to teach our students tolerance and empathy. I believe that this program can also help with bullying; being respectful of others and their differences is key. They are experiencing somewhat what it is like to live with different disabilities on a daily basis. Hopefully all will have a better understanding and awareness towards our children's struggles. Our goal is that our children with different abilities will be accepted and embraced by their community as they become young adults.” Patrice has presented this program in various stages- it has evolved and grown in the 10 years since it started. This is the first time ever the OCPS has had a district initiative, and it has the potential to make a huge impact on the student body as a whole. Patrice said this may take a couple of years to accomplish, but during that time the program is going to be rolling out, starting with the schools where the student disability population is the highest.
The Dr. Phillips Team finished their training, went home and back to their lives. They don’t go to speech therapy, have to use sign language to communicate or need a walker to get around. For two hours though, they stepped into someone else’s shoes, and had to pause and think how different life can be for someone else. Maybe, just maybe, one of these boys will see a peer with autism struggling in the hallway. Instead of laughing with his friends, he says “leave him alone guys.” One person is all it takes to stop bullying.
Patrice has a vision for the “Kids Just Like Me” program, and it does not stop at OCPS. “It is my passion to make sure that all people with disabilities be fully included and accepted in our society. The Just Like Me program is just a beginning in Orange County. I would like to eventually take it state wide....and one day nationally.” A goal like that benefits all of us, differently abled or not.
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