People have struggled with disabilities throughout recorded history. Common infectious childhood diseases such as whooping cough and measles often left survivors with deficits in hearing or vision. Create a presentation based on the history of people with disabilities. Include materials about how people struggled in the past to gain access to mainstream society, and how people viewed the disabled in societies around the world.
People with disabilities have managed to overcome tremendous odds and demonstrate their innate abilities to the non-disabled. Write biographies of people like Louis Braille, who invented a writing system for the blind, Helen Keller, who graduated from college despite being deaf-blind, and Franklin Roosevelt, who was elected president despite being unable to walk as a result of polio.
Help make people aware of disabilities with the use of statistics. Compose a fact sheet about the number of people with disabilities. Include statistics about how many people face vision, hearing, mobility and mental illness. Research facts about the commonality of birth defects, as well as our ability to reduce disability in young people because of the widespread availability of fortified foods and vaccines that prevent disabling conditions.
In recent years, many technological innovations have helped people with disabilities function better, complete their educations and enter the workforce. Hand out pictures and description of items such as electric wheelchairs, voice synthesizers, canes that help vision impaired people navigate and cochlear implants that provide sound to those with hearing problems.
Provide a multimedia presentation on the history of the disability rights struggle. Include materials on the push for full school inclusion and the Americans with Disabilities Act. Bring bystanders up to speed about current legislative efforts to help people with disabilities fully integrate into societies around the world.