Why Kids ADA?
Disability History Week in West Virginia.
Disability History Week requires instruction in public schools on disability history, people with disabilities, and the disability rights movement during the third week in October every year.
Congress designated October as National Disability Employment Awareness Month. The West Virginia legislature designated the third week of October as Disability History Week.
Kids ADA, an Educational Program
Beginning in October of every year, and continuing throughout the school year, Mountain State Centers for Independent Living (MTSTCIL) staff and consumers (people with disabilities who receive supports and services at MTSTCIL) conduct a FREE Kids ADA (American with Disabilities Act) educational program in local elementary and middle schools in Cabell, Fayette, Raleigh, and Wayne counties.
The Kids ADA program is offered to elementary students in grades third through fifth and middle school students grades sixth through eighth. MTSTCIL provides age specific training materials and handouts for students.
Trainings are also available for high school level students and for special groups such as the Boy/Girl Scouts and other youth groups.
Disability Awareness
This educational program is designed to promote awareness of people with disabilities. The program provides an opportunity for students to interact with people with disabilities and to learn more about the assistive technologies that people with disabilities use, such as wheelchairs and seeing eye dogs.
Mountain State Centers for Independent Living believes that if we promote disability awareness at an early age, we can reduce attitudinal barriers and help children to realize that we are all more alike than different.
Kids ADA Program Topics
Program topics include:
- Defining disabilities
- Acquiring disabilities
- Hidden disabilities
- How individuals and families can be affected by disabilities
- How the ADA benefits people with disabilities
- Bicycle and ATV safety
- Support animals
- Hands-on experience with assistive technology
Feedback from young people who have participated in this program tells us that with this interaction makes them feel more comfortable and understanding of people with disabilities. From year-to-year students remember MTSTCIL staff and always enjoy talking about their experiences meeting people with disabilities.
We invite schools, boys’ and girls’ clubs, and any young people’s group to call contacts below to schedule a Kids ADA presentation at any time during the year. This program is available at no fee to any kids group in Cabell, Wayne, or Raleigh counties.
Cabell and Wayne Counties contact:
Ronda Shockley
Phone: 304-962-3391
Email: rshockley@mtstcil.org
Fayette and Raleigh Counties contact:
Stephanie Hill
Phone: 304-962-0005
Email: shill@mtstcil.org