Dream Plan for Aaron: 2016 (Part 4)

“If you don’t design your own life plan, chances are you’ll fall into someone else’s plan. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much.” – Jim Rohn I will soon be celebrating my 66th Birthday. I used to think 66 was old. Now I just think 66 is experienced with...

What is Inclusion?

Aaron at Graduation 1997 Tommy at Graduation — Check out the graduation pictures of my two sons. What’s the same? What’s different? BACK to SCHOOL Article 3 To celebrate the new school year here are some of my favorite posts: Article 1: Why Do We Go...

Our House of Cards|Disability Style (Part 2)

Our House of Cards|Disability Style (Part 2) Introduction: I am going to try to describe what happened to Aaron, my son, when he was 36 years old. Aaron has the labels of autism and developmental disabilities. It is a complicated story. In the comments, let me know if...

Dream Plan for Aaron: 1981 (Part 1)

Build a dream and the dream will build you. R. Schuller. What is Normalization? In 1981 when Aaron was 6 years old, my friend Debbie Wetzel and I drove to Louisville, KY to hear Wolf Wolfensberger give a presentation on “Normalization” or “Social...

Ed Roberts’ Day| “Be Extraordinary”

In my class, “Introduction to Exceptionalities,” we read an article by Paul Longmore about the social construction of disabilities. The point being that the traditional “medical paradigm” points the disability finger at the person– they...