Lindsey’s Blog Post #1

Why did you enroll in this course? (motivation, prior interest)

I have been a special education teacher in the Bethlehem Area School District for six years. I have worked and continue to work with many children with autism, on all areas of the spectrum. I work hard to find interventions to implement in order to provide students with autism the same opportunities that their typically developing peers have. The Bethlehem Area School District practices full inclusion for students with disabilities, including those diagnosed with autism. Special education teachers provide regular education teachers strategies and specially designed instruction to implement in the regular education classroom. This ensures that all students with disabilities can be successful academically and socially. 

When I saw the opportunity to travel to Africa to help children and people with autism, I knew it was something I had to do. During my interview, I was informed that students with autism are not given the same opportunities for education in Africa, because people are unaware of what autism is. I want to share my experiences and knowledge about autism and the support services we offer in the United States to the people in Africa. Hopefully this will help  all children, despite their disability, have access to the same educational experiences that typically developing students have. I am hoping by educating the people in Sierra Leone about autism, they will be accepting to these children and will learn ways to include them both academically and socially. The teachers will have the knowledge of services to assist students in becoming more functional inside and outside of the school setting. 

How do you envision this course making you a better special education student?

I envision this course and opportunity to be very beneficial for me while continuing my journey of receiving a Masters in Special Education at Lehigh University. Through the coursework, before traveling to Africa, I will gain more knowledge about autism by researching the history of our educational system, and how the United States become more knowledgeable and accepting of disabilities. My team can use this knowledge when creating a plan to educate the people of Sierra Leone and encouraging acceptance and knowledge of people with disabilities in the educational systems and within society. 

Another area I will research prior to my trip to Sierra Leone is about the education system and the teachers in Africa. I will research the necessary qualifications and requirements in order to become a teacher. Also, I want to know their amount of knowledge regarding special education and disabilities. This will be a good baseline of where to start with educating the people of Sierra Leone. My goal, which will take time, is for educators to gain an understanding of disabilities and learn appropriate tools and techniques to implement in the classroom, so children with disabilities have access to education. 

Not only will this experience benefit my educational career at Lehigh, but it will benefit my professional career in the Bethlehem Area School District. I will have an insight of how the education systems work in developing countries. I will be able to share my experiences with my students, in the United States, about Africa’s culture, and about my other experiences. The research that I conduct will also benefit  me as a special education teacher, because it will expand my knowledge about disabilities and the history of our educational systems. Occasionally, our district has families move from other countries and enroll their children in our schools. The knowledge that I gain from this fellowship can assist these families. I can educate the families on how we practice inclusion in the classroom and how we have an acceptance of disabilities. I will have background knowledge on how other countries may view children with disabilities and that could help me interact with these families. 

The World Health Organization estimates that over one billion people who need eyeglasses do not have access to them. The vast majority of these people live in developing countries like Kenya where there is barely one optometrist per one million people. Given the high poverty levels, access to eyeglasses is almost nonexistent. Lack of proper eyeglasses severely impacts people and their livelihoods by decreasing their productivity at work, limiting or eliminating new opportunities, affecting their quality of life, deteriorating their general health and possibly leading to (preventable) blindness. What solution do you propose to address this problem?

All people, regardless of socioeconomic status, should have access to resources that improve their general health. A solution that I would have to this problem would be to have people donate their old glasses when they need new glasses. Many people’s acuity changes, therefore they require updated eyeglass prescriptions. An incentive to have people donate their old eyeglasses would be to receive a percentage off a new pair when they donate their outdated ones. This collection of eyeglasses can be donated to other countries that do not have access or funds for eyeglasses. 

A good solution to having more optometrists go to developing countries would be to offer an incentive. Optometrist students could receive hours towards their residency by screening and offering their services to people struggling with their vision in developing countries. While in the developing countries, they can teach other people how to do screenings for vision impairments. 

With the donations of glasses, the increase number of optometrists, and the education that will be provided,  it will allow people with visual impairments to have access to the resources necessary for improving their quality of life. 

 

One Reply to “Lindsey’s Blog Post #1”

  1. Hi Lindsey,
    Good work! I think your approach would help motivate increased donation of eyeglasses by targeting people who are already present with their old glasses as they purchase new ones. Another student brought up shipping costs for donated glasses, and the potential difficulty of sustaining that model financially, which could be an additional consideration.

Leave a Reply