Programs aim to empower people with disabilities

This story is the first in a series on the various aspects of living life as a person with a disability.

The advancement of the social model of disability has given rise to a variety of initiatives that focus on empowerment, inclusion, and respect. Over decades, Beaufort and surrounding counties have been taking their respective places in an evolution that includes centers for independent living, school-based work-readiness programs, grassroots nonprofits and other innovations that are being considered for expansion into this area in the near future.

The social model does not deny that disabilities are real, but it points out the influence of the cultural environment in exacerbating the restrictive effects of disability and the possibility of creating self-fulfilling prophecies. The National Coordination of Associations of People with Down Syndrome created an ad campaign last year titled “Assume that I can and maybe I will” based on these concerns about ableism.

Walton Options for Independent Living, Inc., is among the most established disabled advocacy organizations in the area, having just celebrated its 30th anniversary. Recent client Noah Richardson praises the approach of the skill training.

“They didn’t tell me what to do or try to tell me what I should want,” Richardson said. “They asked me a lot of questions about what my goals were.”

He described how he met a representative from Walton Options who told him about the organization and assisted him in getting his first job, a position with Americorps. He was among those whose jobs were eliminated in the recent government downsizing. Richardson was recently offered a new job in assistive technology at Walton Options.

In the Beaufort County School District transition program, students with disabilities are educated as much as possible alongside nondisabled students in what they refer to as “the least restrictive environment.” According to information from the Beaufort County School District, these students are able to gain work experience under faculty supervision in one of four school-based businesses. They may also get work opportunities through the school’s partnerships with local businesses in the hotel, restaurant, and retail industries.

The Hilton Head Island Bluffton Chamber of Commerce has also worked with the Beaufort County disAbilities Coalition to promote hiring of people with disabilities, posting a link on the Chamber website under Lowcountry Jobs Now. The Coalition has been discussing various concepts for connecting jobseekers with prospective employers with a focus on preparing applicants and potential employers for a successful partnership.

People with disabilities have a wide variety of situations that can be compensated for with accommodation and training, and some of those situations involve simply becoming able to navigate the world.

This reality is the impetus behind Wings For All, an organization that holds air travel simulation days in which people with intellectual and developmental disabilities experience the sights, sounds and procedures from arrival at the airport to boarding that are involved in flying for business or pleasure, but without taking off. The concept for Wings For Autism/Wings For All was developed at an Arc affiliate in Massachusetts and was incorporated into the advocacy of the Arc of South Carolina. Leaders at the Arc have been working on bringing a Wings For All event to our area and have been looking into having one on Hilton Head.

The Beaufort County disAbilities Coalition plans to continue working to coordinate and promote all community initiatives with the goal of involving people with disabilities in all aspects of community life.

To find out more, visit the Coalition website at www.disabilitiescoalition.com. If you have questions or would like to get involved, contact Andrea Hattler Bramson at 786-371-5494 or andrea@fullspectrumstudio.org

Channing Heiss is a freelance writer and a member of the Beaufort County disAbilities Coalition.