 |
||||||
|
||||||
|
 |
 |
|
Being Comfortable with Disability Differences
 An interview with Nancy B. Miller, Ph.D., M.S.W., author of Everybody's Different and Nobody's Perfect. From the June 2002 Disabilities newsletter.Q: How can disability service providers become more at ease with disability differences? A: First, it's important to acknowledge that while many service providers are experienced and comfortable with a wide variety of disability differences, there are going to be times we meet someone whose personal disability difference is unfamiliar to us. Sometimes we are surprised by our own moments of "dis-ease" when we want to interact with someone whose disability experience is unfamiliar to us, or if communication is disrupted by something like a person's speech patterns, or inattentive behavior, or a hearing or vision impairment. Most service providers are motivated to know the person first, and to see the disability in the context of that person's life. Sometimes "the disability" is the only reason we meet and know someone, and sometimes "the person" gets ignored. This is a loss for both the provider and the client, because our professional moments with a client are so valuable. They are a time for us to expand our knowledge about a person's experience of his or her disability, valuable information that isn't in clinical textbooks. Q: How can service providers communicate effectively with clients who have disabilities that they are unfamiliar with? A: Communication happens on several different levels. The first relationship between the service provider and client is the personal contact. Effective service providers are always "in training," learning about disabilities that are specific to their work, but each individual client has his or her own experience of a disability. For example, you may have five clients with cerebral palsy. You may be an expert on cerebral palsy, but your client is the expert on her cerebral palsy, and she has much to teach you about her daily living skills, her psychological health, her social network, and her knowledge about resources. Q: How can service providers help typically developing people in the community become more comfortable interacting with people with disabilities? A: There are so many ways to influence "td" (typically developing) people, beginning with your immediate and extended family, your friends, fellow members of your religious group, students, and strangers in the supermarket. Your everyday words and actions make you a powerful role model. This might be direct, such as giving talks to a Sunday school class, forming a neighborhood caregiver support group, sending stories or articles to family and friends, or talking about your experiences. Each one of us helps create a "circle of change" in our communities with each positive action we make.
|
|
