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Welcome to Disability
Advocates and Resource Center,
lighting the path to
independence for all.
Serving Pitt, Beaufort, and
Wilson Counties.
We are located at DARC, 702 A
Johns Hopkins Drive,
Greenville, NC 27834.
We can be reached at
252-355-6215, or 888-541-7227.
The value of disability.
People with disabilities have
the capacity to enrich our
personal and social lives.
The following video will cover
topics that will help you
navigate your way through this
period in your life.
Male 1: Well diversity
has had an incredible impact on
my life.
I come from a very diverse
background, born in Cameroon,
then we moved to Europe, but I
grew up mostly in Canada.
So, I have gone to so many
different schools.
It wasn't until I moved to
Greenville that I was in the
same school for more than two
years in a row.
So, it was quite nice having
met so many different people
and then coming to Greenville
and having to learn to speak
English.
So I was already that, it gave
me like the cool card I guess,
the French guy.
But I really got to make a lot
of friends from my ESL classes,
English as a Second Language,
from all over the world, the
middle east, Asia, from
African, just different
languages with all similar
goals, wanting to learn English
so badly so you could, you
know, succeed in the US.
So that was I guess my first
introduction to the importance
of diversity and how, no matter
how different people are, or
seem to be anyways, we have way
more things in common than
separate us.
Female 1: I think the
biggest challenge is
remembering that each kid,
especially children with
disabilities, is individualized
and that the cookie-cutter way
of doing things may not always
work with each child, even if a
child with the same disability,
that something that works for
one child may not work the same
way for another child and
realizing that things may look,
a classroom may look different
to one child and completely
different to another one and
kind of appreciating those
differences in that a classroom
for a child with disabilities
may look a little different or
that a mainstream classroom may
need to adjust a little bit
when a child with a disability
comes in.
Male 2: When you think in
terms of disability, people
without disabilities, or you
know the able-bodied
population, think that the
person who is paralyzed, that
the paralysis is the
disability.
The person who doesn't do well
with math, you know they have a
learning disability.
I think one thing that is
important to work with
consumers as well as the public
that they are interfacing with
is the definition of
disability.
You know, again, that knee
jerk reaction is the disability
is the dysfunction or the
disease or the impairment that
the person has.
But I think a more advocacy
oriented definition of
disability is that disability
is the attitude of society
towards the person with the
impairment.
So if I have to use a
wheelchair because I am a
paraplegic or quadriplegic I
have a disability when I can't
get inside of a building
because they didn't put a ramp
in.
So the disability is the
attitude of the owners of that
building for not putting a ramp
in, not so much the fact that
my spinal cord was severed a
certain degree.
Female 2: How
should faculty and students
treat a person with a
disability?
And the answer to that is that
you should treat them exactly
as you treat anyone else.
People with disabilities are
people with abilities who learn
or navigate the world
differently and that is the
only difference.
Female 1: I think one of
the greatest things that I see
a lot is being in home health,
being able to be around a child
with their parent at the same
time.
That is what I love about it,
is being there and sharing in
those moments with the parent
and those big milestones that
they come across, and being
able to see them in their kind
of daily environment and bring
those moments big to parents.
I think that is one of the
good things about early
intervention and working with
kids is being able to see them
in their home and give parents
that support in the home that
they will get at school, but
knowing that it is out there to
come into the home especially
in that birth to 3, and being
able to be there for those
moments and give parents as
much as giving the kids that,
but give parents those moments
of ah-ha and those moments of
hope that I think they kind of
look onto reach that next
milestone.
Male 1: Until recently
there was more of an effort to
include people with
disabilities on campus.
I mean there has been an
acceptance for a while but it
was not until recently that all
of these efforts were made to
make all of the buildings and
bathrooms accessible and
actually it wasn't just in East
Carolina, globally almost,
because a couple of years ago
there were articles and
research being done in France,
for instance, saying that if
you just walked along in Paris
you didn't see that many old
people or disabled people
because buildings were just not
accessible.
I mean, I guess if you had
some disability you were just
expected to stay at home and be
taken care of.
It was not until I guess this
past decade that more efforts
were being put in making every
building accessible.
Female 1: I think the first
thing, and foremost is
determined by that they are not
alone.
You may feel overwhelmed, you
may feel like you are on an
island by yourself but you are
not.
There are tons of people to
support you, from other parents
groups to professionals in the
field, to agencies, to your
pediatrician.
Everyone can help point you in
the right direction and give
you lots of support that you
may not know is out there.
Female 2: People learn to
live with their strengths and
weaknesses and we are all the
same in terms of that, that we
are individuals.
And I think that very common
things would be that if you see
a person in a wheelchair, the
most important thing is to talk
to the person, not necessarily
to bend down to their level but
to talk to the person directly,
look them in the eye.
If you see a person walking
down the hallway who may be
visually impaired and they are
walking with someone else, look
to the person who is visually
impaired and address them
directly.
Don't ask the other person a
question about how to talk to
the person who has that visual
impairment.
These are all basic, basic
things.
Male 2: When it comes to
advocacy I really think that
the person who is looking to
advocate for themselves needs
to know what they want to
accomplish, what their message
is, and it doesn't hurt to have
some data and evidence behind
them so they can argue their
point.
Female 1: I think
right now I don't know if we
are going good or bad.
I feel like it is at a
standstill and it is not really
going in one direction.
It is kind of, where I feel it
is at right now, I would like
it to go to the good into just
more of not only appreciation
of what needs to happen but
action in the steps that what
school districts need to do to
help move it in a good
direction.
I think a lot of times there
is a lot of talk about what is
good but no change has
happened.
And so that is what I would
like to kind of start seeing,
the things that are talked
about happen, instead of kind
of just getting pushed aside.
Male 2: A lawyer is the
most, I think, common advocate
or a guardian, someone who
gives someone else a voice.
So advocacy, particularly self
advocacy, is I matter and I am
going to speak on my behalf
because there are things I want
to accomplish and you are
getting in my way.
Male 1: Having
experienced diversity in Canada
and in the United States I see
lots of similarity then also
many differences of course.
Take education for instance,
at my school in Ottawa, half
the class was, health class,
you know half of it was about
just talking about sexuality
and you know condoms and
contraception and all of that
stuff.
The other half of the class
was about the bible.
They basically split the
semester in two, you know, talk
about biblical stuff and talk
about sexuality and real
tangible things.
I mean, they brought people
showing how to use condoms and
all of that stuff.
And it wasn't until I moved
down here that I realized that
such diverse opinions on very
normal every day things are so
separated basically.
You either talk about sex or
you completely ignore it and
talk about the bible.
I never really, that never
really hit me while I was in
Canada.
Just kind of like half the
semester we talked about this
and the other half we talked
about that and over here which
is completely different.
Male 2: I am a certified
rehabilitation counselor so
that is part of our training.
It speaks quite frankly near
and dear to my heart, helping
others advocate, advocate for
themselves.
In fact, that is one of the
critical roles in function of a
rehabilitation counselor in
counseling persons with
disabilities is to help the
consumer learn self advocacy
skills and techniques.
And there are many different
ways to do it and, of course,
it depends on the particular
consumer, what they want to
accomplish with the disability
they have as well as, you know,
the discrimination they
experience with their
disability.
As a clinician there are
certain interventions we use.
One of the more popular ones
is assertiveness skills
training.
It is a cognitive behavioral
technique.
It is often used for people
who are shy, for people who
have thorny issues, and just
are passive and what-not, and
assertive skills training helps
them to be just that more
assertive in how they
communicate in getting their
needs met and their desires met
and what-not.
What I think you will find
people do in rehab counseling
settings who work with a person
with disabilities is take those
assertive and skills training
components and use it for
advocacy and helping the person
with the disability advocate
for themselves by asking for
what they need and what they
want and so on and so forth.
Female 2: In thinking
about some of the leaders that
I know personally that are
leaders in our community or
leaders in our churches, those
people didn't necessarily ask
to become leaders.
People around them recognized
that they were passionate but
also that they were
knowledgeable and that they
were reasonable people.
And those were all things that
tend to put people in
leadership positions, when you
have those traits and being
reasonable, I think, is a key
leadership quality and often
times people don't ask to
become leaders but it is just
because of their example that
they are setting to the people
around them, that you are put
in that position, and it comes
with a great deal of
responsibility and I think you
have to embrace that
responsibility as a leader so
that you're guiding people on
the right path and you're
setting a good example for what
they need to bed.
Female 1: I think that one
of the biggest things is parent
advocacy, is at the end of the
day going to the school
districts and going to the
administrators.
Teachers, we do our best in
fighting battles every day to
get our kids what they need in
the classroom but I think when
parents come in numbers and
when parents advocate for their
children that that makes them
kind of step back sometimes and
say, something needs to happen
and something needs to change,
and for parents to remember
that they have a voice in
advocating for their children
even when it is their school
day, that they can go and talk
and get that advocacy out there
to help changes happen.
Female 2: Probably one of
the biggest keys to being a
leader in a community or in any
organization is that you have
to remember that you're always
on.
You are always, you know,
representing.
Everything you do, from your
actions at home to your actions
out in the community, to your
actions at work, that you
always have to remember that
you are a leader and people are
looking at you as an example
and they are trying to emulate
what you do and using you as a
role model in a community.
So being a leader is a big job
and you have to realize that it
is a very serious job.
Whether you have asked to be a
leader or not, sometimes you
have to accept the role and all
of the responsibility that
comes with it.
Male 2: I think a leader
is somebody who is willing to
ask the tough questions.
When things or processes are
in place or things aren't going
well and so on and so forth,
and those people are kind of
glossing over it, I am like why
do we continue to do this when
it is not working.
I think that is a part of
leadership that I strive for.
Doing things over and over
again just because that's the
way we've always done it
doesn't mean we have to
continue doing it that way.
It is ridiculous.
It is inefficient.
So, asking tough questions.
Female 1: I think an
important thing to remember as
a parent in self advocacy is,
in my opinion, you can never be
too pushy.
It is your child and that
you're their biggest advocate
and that you need to push in
whatever direction you can, in
talking to your classroom
teacher, and getting your point
across, and talking to other
parents.
That is the biggest thing, is
knowing that if you feel like
the teacher is not listening,
or that you keep bringing a
point up and nothing kind of
changes or happens or you don't
feel that feedback you're
getting, you can always go up.
You can go to the principal.
You can go to an administrator
and not feeling that fear that
you can't do that, because you
are your child's biggest
advocate.
For additional information
please visit www.darcnc.org.