Discover Together

By Valentina Slobodian

As children with disabilities are becoming more involved in mainstream schools, “Teachers are looking for readily accessible appropriate resources to assist them in teaching students about the nature of disability and to provide them with an opportunity to develop positive attitudes and behaviors towards people with disabilities both within schools and the community,” says Sally Lockhart, coordinator of the Disability Awareness Program of the Ottawa Rehabilitation Centre.

The Discover Together school package, supported by the Man In Motion Committee, was designed by the department of Secretary of State as part of their contribution to National Access Awareness Week. The package was developed in consultation with consumer groups of and for persons with disabilities as well as professionals in the field of education. The purpose of the package is to foster positive attitudes among all students towards the concerns and needs of persons with disabilities. A positive attitude is one of the most important keys towards achieving a fully integrated society.

The Discover Together school package is cross-disability in nature and is oriented towards changing and shaping the attitudes of children from Kindergarten to Grade Eight. It has been designed to be used year-round and will be piloted and evaluated in 1990. A broader distribution of the final document will take place in 1991.

The school package itself will be divided into two sections, a Teacher’s Guide and a Teaching Kit with sample lesson plans, cross disability activities and 6 disability sections. Each disability section will have an introductory activity, discovery activities, exploration through discussion, follow-up discussion and evaluation on how attitudes have changed. One of the discovery activities is a “peeling” bag where blindfolded students reach into a bag containing several familiar objects. They silently identify them by using the sense of touch rather than sight. The objective is to understand the importance of the sense of touch in acquiring information about our world.

Negative attitudes are often due to ignorance and fear of the unknown. They can inhibit the removal of concrete barriers to the participation and integration of persons with disabilities in society. Discover Together was designed as a structured resource tool for teachers to address this issue in their classroom.

Children’s attitudes are shaped by the opinions of influential adults in their lives. Classrooms, therefore, provide the ideal time and place to instill positive attitudes. Early education and experience with disabilities among peers helps children become comfortable with issues of disability and persons with disabilities. They will understand disabilities within the general public and will carry these positive attitudes with the into adulthood.

For more information please contact:
Disabled Persons Participation
Program, Secretary of State,
Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0M5

(Valentina Slobodian is a member of the Committee responsible for assisting the Department of the Secretary of State develop the School Disability Awareness Package.)