Crazy Cool Costumes

“The NVIV (Next Vista Inspiring Video) series of posts are written by Rushton Hurley and designed to provide students and teachers with fascinating discussion prompts.”

In Crazy Cool Costumes, Rushton features Ryan Weimer who makes a costume for his son that incorporates his son’s wheelchair. This led to an idea for a new corporation that could help others.

Rushton gives the following prompts to accompany this video:

“If you were in a wheelchair, what would you want for a cool Halloween costume? What would it take to build it? Do you know people who like to build cool things for the sole reason that it’s cool to do that?

What’s something you’re good at? Could you use that ability to help someone else in some meaningful way? (Hint: the answer is yes, but the challenge might be knowing how.)

I really love hearing how people are finding ways to help those who are different be accepted by others. These costumes take the focus off the wheelchair and allow the children to be just like their peers. It would be great to find ways to do this for other differences too that would allow the focus to be on the person and not the way they are different.

Please check out the video and think of other prompts you might come up with. Please share.

Accessibility

According to Wikipedia, accessibility  “ refers to the design of products, devices, services, or environments for people who experience disabilities.”

Recently we were in McDonalds when a young girl and an adult arrived. After ordering, they came to the tables and the young girl chose the table labeled for handicapped accessibility. The adult told her that they shouldn’t pick that table when there were so many tables that were unoccupied. I then listened to the adult ask the girl to explain why the tables were different. She pointed out the blue round sticker with a wheelchair on it. They then discussed why that table was special and how it accommodated wheelchairs. What a great lesson to hear!

Later, my husband and I were discussing how people need to be taught this at a young age. I don’t know if I ever taught this in my classroom but maybe it should be. We always hear that we shouldn’t park in a handicap designated parking space, but we don’t really explain why other than to avoid getting a ticket.

It really amazes me how many people will park in a handicap parking space without a sticker or a license tag or placard to allow them to do this. I have heard some people even complain that the handicapped people shouldn’t get preferential parking!

Here are some topics that I thought should be addressed:

·      Handicap accessible seating in restaurants

·      Handicap accessibility in restrooms

·      Handicap accessible parking spaces

·      Handicap accessible areas in event venues such as sports arenas, movie theaters, playhouses etc.

I think it would be important to address what these are, how they are designated, and why they are designated.

Maybe if we start teaching young children about these, they will grow up to be more considerate because they understand better what it means.

What other topics about handicap accessibility do you think should be addressed? Please share.