In June 2013, Sound Advice’s Caroline Carswell gave a workshop, “Mindset Change: Transforming Perceptions of Ability“, at the conference of the UK’s National Association of Disability Practitioners (NADP), in Cheshire, northern England.
Infographic of the Sound Advice service.
The Problem (Solution)!
Read: Active Role Modeling Explained
Parents, fearing for their child’s social, emotional and physical wellness, can overprotect a child and in the process, limit their potential. These projected fears, with society’s erroneous perceptions of ability, translate into poor educational attainment for many children with disabilities – and into correlated risk of unemployment.
The Solution:
Successful role models are vital to revising society’s outdated attitudes while being a valued information, advocacy and support link for parents, educators and employers.
This workshop highlighted the need for parents, educators, college access officers and employers to engage with, and to learn from positive adult role models with disability, living their lives and building careers like everyone else.
Central to this approach, is the Sound Advice website and the lived experience of its mainstream-educated team, who have satisfying careers after graduation from third level education.
Professional Role Models:
Interviews with deaf professionals in the medical, veterinary, journalism, music and other fields are posted to sound-advice.ie, as case studies for online readers to note how the role was achieved, and with what support/s.
During the workshop, Caroline also shared strategies for students with disability and college access officers to manage transitions and situations that occur for the first time on an education campus or in a new workplace.
Workshop attendees departed, having learned how the Sound Advice venture uses low-cost web technologies to reach stakeholders like parents, educators and employers, to facilitate active networking and to raise overall expectations.
More Reading
- Talking Your Way Into A Relevant Graduate Job
- Advice For Deaf Students Going To Third-Level
- Deaf Students and Inclusive Education (Disability Law News, March 2010)
- What Tertiary Supports Do Deaf Students Need?
- Sound Advice’s Post-School Seminar (Nov 2nd, 2011)
- Taking A Mainstream Route To Self-Employment
- Working In Unision – Connectivity: The Only Way Forward
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