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  Disability Awareness

Core Information

Activities

Activity 1

Disability in the media:

Provide the group with a newspaper or magazine article about someone with a disability, then ask each person to complete the following exercise:

Read the article. Does the way it is written (including editorial content, adjectives and tone) convey a positive image of the person with a disability as a "normal" human being, focussing on the person or does it portray the person as "different", focussing on the person's disability? How could the article be re-written to be more positive. (Hint: imagine you are the person being talked about in the article - how do you feel about the way the article describes you?)

Find a similar article about a person without a disability and compare the two (for example, a profile on a Paralympian and a piece on an Olympian).

Activity 2

Some famous people with disabilities:

Following is a list of famous people with disabilities.

Mix up the names, occupations and disabilities and get group members to re-arrange them into the correct columns.

Discuss how the various person's disabilities made an impact on their career and/or way of life. (This may require some research.)

Discuss individuals who are known to group members who have found their disability does not hold them back from doing what they want to do.

Name

Occupation

Disability