If a person with a developmental disability has one-half of the knowledge as those who are in the average range, we view ourselves as being at 100% and them at 50%, a very significant difference. In reality, with every-thing there is to know and under-stand about the world, the universe, God, etc., none of us really knows much at all.
The difference between knowing very little and half of very little is negligible and makes us more similar than different. ALL I NEED TO BE” David Laman,Ph.D.
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION:
Is your work with persons with cognitive disabilities generally respected? Why or why not?
Why do you think direct support professionals are so poorly paid?
Why do we have a hard time finding people to do direct support and/or keep them in the profession?
List 10 qualities or characteristics society values in a person? Make a list of the things you value. Are they the same?
What does it mean to be normal? Does it mean average, biological-ly functional or ideal?
Should being “normal” be defined from the outside or the inside?
What can we do so persons with cognitive disabilities can feel normal and perform well in the home and day program environments?
Who decides what is merely different and what is deviant in our society?
How different from others or from the general society do you feel you can be without being shunned or ostracized?
Does our society/culture more easily accept some differences or deviations than others?
Does our society accept persons with wealth or beauty who are very different or even deviant more readily than you or me?
How did certain dress, body ornaments, or behaviors in our society formerly considered deviant get to be accepted or at least merely different?
What lessons can we learn from the acceptance in our society of certain styles or dress, actions, behaviors, or bodily adornment that were at one time considered deviant?
Why are some kinds of “diversity” (people and actions) and “difference” sought after and admired and not others?
How can being seen as negatively deviant be changed? How can we help change the attitude of negative difference in persons with cognitive disabilities to positive difference?
How are attitudes formed? How do attitudes affect our behavior?
How can we change attitudes and behavior? Our own and those of others?
How can we help change the attitudes and behavior of others?
How we are all basically alike, how we can help others see that a person with a disability is “just like me”?
SPEAK DSP Training Session, October 6 and 27, 2005
Agenda
This session identifies the values of society that do now and have in the past set the stage for the way we “treat” and care for persons with disabilities. Presentations from individuals with disabilities will provide the opportunity to openly explore our own values as we listen to the perspectives, feelings and experiences of consumers of our services. What do we need to understand to truly support them in their journey to well-being? The group will focus on ways in which positive attitudes can be developed in ourselves and others and demonstrated in visible ways in all our interactions.
Objectives: Persons who provide direct support to individuals with developmental disabilities will be able to:
1. name or identify values in our society through which we unconsciously form attitudes toward others;
2. discuss and openly explore values in our society and in ourselves that lead to the formation of negative attitudes toward and devaluation of individuals with disabilities;
3. openly explore our own values as we listen to the feelings and experiences of persons with disabilities who will be sharing their journey to well being;
4. discuss how we can consciously choose the values by which we lead our lives, and explore personal values that lead to positive regard for others;
5. name ways in which positive attitudes can be developed in ourselves and others and demonstrated in a visible way in our interactions with others.
Introductory questions, reflections and explorations:
1. Why is your work not respected?
2. Why are you so poorly paid?
3. Why do we have a hard time finding people to do your work and keeping them in the job?
4. What do you value?
5. What does society value?
6. What does it mean to be normal? Does it mean average, biologically functional, or ideal? How does the notion of a bell curve influence our definition of normal? The answer lies in the human perspective.
7. Should being “normal” be defined from the outside or the inside?
What is valued in our society?
Independence
Self-sufficiency
Productivity
Money
Power
Being in control
Behaving “appropriately”
Freedom and choice
High “Quality of Life”
Being smart or clever
Physical attractiveness
Physical strength
Obvious “Consciousness”
What is not valued in our society?
Being dependent or “needy”
Being unemployed or not earning money
Being poor, living on welfare, or considered “lazy”
Powerlessness, being told what to do
Being out of control
Behaving “inappropriately”
Having no choice
Restrictions of freedom or having your freedom “taken away”
Having less than an optimum “quality of life”
Appearing to be stupid or ignorant
Looking unattractive
Being physically “weak” or acting “wimpy”
Appearing to have a low level of consciousness
Who decides what is merely different and what is deviant?
How different can any of us be?
Does our culture more easily accept some differences or deviations than others?
How did persons “formerly” considered deviant get to be merely different, or even sometimes idealized?
What lessons can we learn from the above “movement” of attitudes?
Why are some kinds of “diversity” and “difference” sought after and admired but not others?
The Problem with Labels
What’s so “special” about people with disabilities?
Ø Attitudes throughout history
Ø Being seen negatively as deviant leads to devaluation
Ø Devaluation leads to feelings of worthlessness
“I’m not so special and you’re not so normal!”
Ø Labels, regardless of what they may be, tend to change the way people interact, tend to determine expectations, colors perception and attitudes
Ø Defined by one characteristic – one label tends to override all the others such as friend, worker, sister, uncle, etc.
How can we help change the “image” of persons with disabilities?
Objective: Participants will reflect on the principle in support that states that we are all more alike than different and each person with a disability is first and foremost a person. They will give examples of the power of language and understand why “people first” language is critical to respectful interaction and will resolve to use such phrases as “people who have an intellectual disability”, “persons with cognitive disabilities” or “a person with a developmental disability” when necessary.
Reflections: Think for a moment about all the labels with which you live, and how each of those labels changes how those around you react to you. What expectations do people have of you as a result of each label? These labels carry expectations and for most of you, certain labels carry privileges and responsibilities that are socially determined. People who have been labeled as having intellectual disabilities may have many of the same role labels you have, but because of the power of language, their one label tends to override all the others and colors the expectations and perceptions others have for them and also the interactions others have with them.
Transparency: Picture of Ray with roles and labels off to the side, (sports coach, Actor’s Theater docent, church member, Nascar Racing fan, world traveler, son, brother, baker for a sweet shop, hospital volunteer) then cover with red colored transparency that says “person with mental retardation.
Reflections: There are many myths and misunderstandings about persons with disabilities. Some people in our contact circles may even think that “mental retardation” is the same as mental illness, therefore, for this and for all the other reasons (such as that it is offensive to persons with a cognitive disability to be described in that way), it is best to stay away from the use of the term mental retardation. Another example of a misconception is when people believe that all persons who are physically disabled are have intellectual disabilities - which is certainly not the case with many people who have cerebral palsy – actually about 50% have average or above intellectual ability and only half have cognitive disabilities.
Name other myths: _____________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
How can being seen as negatively deviant be changed? How can we help change the attitude of negative deviance to positive difference?
How are attitudes formed? How do attitudes affect our behavior?
How can we change our attitudes and behavior ?
How can we help change the attitudes and behavior of others?
How we are all basically alike, how we can help others see that a person with a disability is “just like me”?
v Security, safety, protection
v A home, a place one “belongs”
v Having family, friends, loved ones
v Belonging to an intimate group
v Being accepted and welcomed (not being seen as odd, strange)
v Having a say
v Freedom of movement
v Access to places where ordinary everyday life is conducted, to ordinary events and activities, and to the associated opportunities
v Having something important to contribute, having one’s own contribution acknowledged as important
v Opportunities to develop one’s talents and expectancies to discover more and more abilities as one grows
v Work, especially valued and adequately remunerated
v Access to valued occupations
v Being treated fairly, justly
v Being respected
v Being dealt with honestly
v Being treated as an individual
v Having transcendent belief systems
Questions to ponder?
Why is there not more of a civil rights movement for persons with intellectual disabilities/developmental disabilities? Why are persons who are in no way responsible for their circumstances come to merit the fear and disdain often shown them? What justifies in the human mind prejudice against persons who had no choice about their conditions and the life they are living?
A Vision of Values Related to Basic Instincts
As we consider information on “devaluation”, let us remember the next step - which is “valuation”. How do we “rationalize” the valuing of persons whom society has “devalued”. We come from two major premises: one, there is a higher power; two, there is purpose to each person’s life. (If you are an atheist or an existentialist, stop reading here.) If we accept society’s values, we have been taught that what is worthwhile has to do with physical attractiveness, productivity, possessions and the manifestation of these in the material world. Is there another way to look at human value and life?
Our faith foundations tell us that there is an intrinsic value to human life because it is endowed with the Spirit of the Creator. It is the spirit and soul of a person we honor when we care for those who appear to have little to contribute in the material sense of the word. Those of us with much life experience and a good measure of faith have learned not to trust the world but rather to trust our instincts.
Life experience develops one’s instincts. As we act on these instincts, we become a living story. Each individual’s story includes these twelve instincts
v The instinct to shine in your life from a true center
v The instinct to have a home
v The instinct to communicate
v The instinct to love
v The instinct to act, to be will in motion
v The instinct to find a purpose in life
v The instinct to commit to growth
v The instinct to heal
v The instinct to express truth
v The instinct to express soul
v The instinct to express power
v The instinct to gaze at your past and your future