Isabelle St. Onge, a Taos High School special education teacher, worked with folk culture teacher Larry Torres to bring their students together to present a puppet show about a new disabled student befriended by an able-bodied student. Your class can create a cooperative spirit by pairing able-bodied students with students who have various disabilities. Students cooperate to complete a project or present information about how disabilities affect people. Regular education students may take a day to experience life as a disabled student, such as spending the day in a wheel chair or using ear plugs or dark glasses to reduce or impede a sensory organ.
Teach students that disabled individuals can make significant contributions to society by studying the lives of disabled people such as Helen Keller, President Franklin Roosevelt, Stephen Hawking or Stevie Wonder. Each student chooses a different person to research and present to the class. Students present the contributions of their choice person and the type of disability he or she experienced.
Have your class interview willing physically and mentally challenged students and adults about how they complete normal tasks. Students may learn how to paint with a brush in their mouth instead of in their hand, how to maneuver from a bed into a wheel chair, how to read lips or how to use a guide dog to get around. Students also learn about intellectual disabilities by attempting work three or four grade levels above them or how to relay information without speaking or writing.
Make up a language and try to communicate what you want without speaking a language known by any student in the classroom. Write a garbled message on a piece of paper or on the board and have students try to decode what you want to say. These exercises mimic the frustration of those who have difficulty communicating with others because of physical, emotional or intellectual challenges. Have the class brainstorm ways to determine the kind of disability and how to work towards mutual understanding. For example, you might demonstrate where you want to go by drawing a picture or by giving clues such as pointing to a wound when needing a doctor or pantomiming sweeping for needing a broom.