How can elementary students learn facts about a variety of disabilities as well as gain a glimpse into the experience of individuals with disabilities in a time-efficient manner? This was the challenge for Colleen Brown, Public Education Coordinator at The Advocacy Center five years ago. Colleen envisioned gathering experts to teach students in a hands-on, active, fun, memorable way. Choosing experts was the easy part - who better to teach about disabilities than individuals with disabilities and their parents and advocates?

Colleen joined forces with parent volunteer Rhonda Miga to develop Disability Awareness Days.

The Advocacy Center staff and volunteers offer a wealth of information and direct experience in every area of the topic. Schools embrace the opportunity to provide this knowledge to their students in a time and cost-efficient manner. A Disability Awareness Day provided by committed, informed adults can enrich an entire grade level in just one day. As one student participant said, “It was the greatest day of my fourth grade life. I learned that if people have disabilities you still need to treat them the way you want to be treated, like a friend.”  

An opening assembly gathers students to discuss the upcoming day. Then individual classes visit up to ten stations in which topics such as the following  are presented: Autism, Communication Differences, Down syndrome and Learning Differences, Fine and Gross Motor Skills, and Visual Differences.

To accomplish a Disability Awareness Day, The Advocacy Center typically brings up to 25 staff and volunteers, a whole array of equipment, posters, and visual aids to engage participants in a multi-sensory, intellectual, and emotional exploration into disabilities.

By teaching about disabilities, The Advocacy Center encourages students to understand, include, and value their classmates, family and friends, and community members with disabilities.