Would You Rather Wednesday- 4/6/11

 

Would you rather be blind or deaf?

This is a really tough one. I could go either way with this. If I were blind, then I wouldn’t be able to see all the amazing things in the world. I would never see my fiancé or any family members or friends again. On the other hand, if I were deaf, I would never hear music again. I also would never hear the voices of my fiancé, family, and friends.

I think if I really had to choose, I would rather be deaf. I just feel that I would be able to function better if I had my vision. This isn’t to say that anyone who is blind can’t function properly, because with the right support they can live a normal life. But I would rather be deaf and be able to see because then I would be able to do things mostly on my own. Yes I would miss the sounds of the world and I would have to learn sign language, but for the most part, I would want to do things on my own.

This is a really tricky question, because I could argue both sides of it. If I were blind but could hear, I would still be able to enjoy the music that I love. I’d be able to tell my fiancé and family that I love them and I could hear them say they love me.

So what do you think? Leave me comments and vote on the poll located on the top right of my blog. Pass this on to your friends and find out what they think.

Linking to...

Tourette’s, Asperger’s, and Idol

So if you don’t watch Idol you may wonder what those other 2 terms have to do with Idol. There is a contestant on American Idol this season named James Durbin. The 22-year-old has been compared to Adam Lambert because of the way he sometimes screams as he sings which is what Lambert is known for. When you see Durbin sing, the one thing you may not know about him is that he has two disabilities: Asperger’s syndrome and Tourette’s Syndrome. He was 9-years-old when he got diagnosed and that was also when he lost his father to a drug overdose. He used to get picked on and beat up in school because of his disabilities. The amazing thing is, when he sings “it all just goes away, like I don’t have a care in the world”.

Now here is a little bit of info on the two disorders. The best-known symptom of Tourette’s syndrome is involuntary swearing, also called coprolalia. But only a small minority of people with TS have that problem. Tourette’s is a neurological disorder that triggers involuntary movements and vocal outburst called tics. On Idol, we have seen Durbin show characteristic symptoms such as blinking and facial twitches. I hope that people who watch the show regularly understand that he can’t help that and don’t make fun of him for it.

Asperger’s syndrome is a high functioning form of autism that can cause repetitive rituals, obsessions, oddities of speech, eccentric behavior, trouble connecting with peers, and clumsy movements. Durbin said about Asperger’s “that it’s about social awkwardness and not being able to contain yourself and being overwhelmed”.

He also made a great statement that I absolutely love: “I have Tourette’s and Asperger’s, but Tourette’s and Asperger’s don’t have me. I’m doing what I can to suppress it. It’s not who I am”.

I think James Durbin is a great role model for anyone, and especially those who have Tourette’s, Asperger’s, or any other disability. By him being on Idol, he is showing that no matter what disability you have, anything is possible if you believe in yourself.

Some food for thought…

I would just like to share something with you that happened today. I was doing some research on an assignment where we have to find some kind of assistive technology and write a little bit about it. I decided to try to find a mobile app to do mine on. I found this one called iPrompts. It is an app where you can create schedules with pictures, give individuals choices between 2 things, and it has a timer where you can time how long until an activity ends or starts.
Here is a video if you would like to check out what the iPrompts app is about.

I saw on the company's website that in their mission they had written "disabled persons". This goes against what I have been taught over and over again in my education classes. We always talk about people first language, which is stating the individual first and then the disability. Because after all, the disability is just a part of that person and it doesn't define who they are.

So after reading this I thought, "I'm going to email them and tell them what I think about this." That was at 12:08 today and when I got out of class, I saw that I got a response at 1:26. The response said as follows:

“Nicole,
Thanks for the suggestion. As the father of a boy with autism, I am all for being sensitive. We will incorporate your suggestion next time we make changes to our website.”

That just makes me feel like I have made a minor difference in the field of special education. Sure it isn’t that much, but it is still something.

This also leads me to something else. Does it really matter if you state the person first or the disability first? I believe that it does. I’ve had arguments with some people and they don’t think that it matters. But I truly believe that you should always talk about the person first and then the disability, because they aren’t a disability, they are a person. I would love if we could get everyone in the world to believe this but that would be an impossible task. So because I can’t change the world, I will just continue to try and change the people around me. I want to encourage everyone else to do the same. When you hear someone talk about a person with a disability, if they mention the disability first, just politely suggest to them that they use people first language. Well, that’s all for now. Please leave me your comments and share this post with a friend!

What does an IQ score mean?

So in one of my special education classes that has to do with individuals with intellectual disabilities, we were talking about the past and current definitions of intellectual disability. The old definitions focused a lot on IQ scores. But what exactly does that mean if you have an IQ of say, 95? I think it is just a number. So what if someone claims to have an IQ of 100 something. When you are diagnosing a person with a disability, why should you just go by a number? The most important thing is their adaptive behaviors and how they function doing daily day-to-day tasks.
Well, that's all I've got to say for now. Leave me your comments and let me know what you think about IQ scores.