My first Special Blog goes back to when I started school and how things could have been different.

FRIENDS……

• Positive – could make friends no problem
• Negative – I couldn’t go to their houses, they had to come to my house. Their houses always have stairs. So that means I couldn’t go to most of my friends birthday parties.

HAVING AN AIDE….

• Positive – They could help me with school work and there was no chance for bullying.
• Negative – I was always with the adults because I couldn’t go play and I heard all of the adult gossip and things about other students. It was hard for me because sometimes you don’t want to know about everyone’s business!

PLAYGROUND…

• Negative – There was no where for me to play! The equipment wasn’t designed for kids with disabilities. I can’t even go on a playground because they are usually covered in rocks or sand! My wheelchair can’t move on rocks or sand!

A positive would have been something like this…..

This summer I got to go on a swing at Camp L.G. Barnes in my wheelchair.

I can’t help but think of how great it would have been to have something like this when I was in school. We looked up a few things on the internet and these are cool accessible playground things for kids. It would be great to see this at a playground in Camrose.

This was a project done in the United States. You should check it out!

http://www.globaldisabilityrightsnow.org/impact/armenia/playground-everyone

INACCESSIBLE SCHOOLS

As I started doing my presentations I found not all schools are accessible.

The schools I went to while growing up were easy to get around in my wheelchair, everything was on one floor. Chester Ronning didn’t have a Wheelchair Door Buttons but they do now. In the Comp they had elevators and a lift. I was thankful for this.

I found the following when we went to do school presentations:

• One school we could only get in the gym, if I had to use the bathroom I wouldn’t have been able to without someone carrying me up the stairs.
• Another school I could only go in the Band Room. The school had a ramp to get into the school but there were stairs inside.
• Another school had a wheelchair system in place but it was only for one student that used it.
• One school has stairs right when you come in the front door. I had to use a side door to get into the school. This school also had a larger bathroom that was supposed to be for wheelchairs but I couldn’t even get in the bathroom stall with my chair and we  had to leave the door open while I went to the bathroom…….AWKWARD!

When we do our presentations we have to ask can I come to your school and can I get into your school! It isn’t a question they think about….

Don’t get me wrong I love going to the school’s it’s just another part of having Cerebral Palsy. I just have to figure out different ways to do what I need to do!