Accessibility in High School

One of my most fond memories of high school was working in the special olympics as an assistant. During this event we were given a “buddy” which was one of the special needs students and we were assigned to watch/take care of this student for the day. This was a very rewarding activity knowing that I brought joy to a students day when this activity is something they will remember for years to come. One problem I had with this event was that it was just once a year, we saw how happy it made these students to participate in these games yet we can only do it once a year. I thought that maybe highschools should have a class where students can work with special needs students and help create an environment that we created on the day of the special olympics.

I do remember one aspect about the special olympics that made me upset, some of the students would treat their buddy like they were not a regular person and I felt that was wrong. Just because the special needs students were participating in the events did not make them “wrong” and it was uncalled for to dehumanize them in the way some people would. I cannot speak for the participants but if I were one of them I would want to be treated as a regular person, and some of the participants were not. Some students would take pictures or even laugh when a participant did something “weird” or funny and that always upset me but I did not know people like that so I felt wrong to say something. Looking back I would change my actions and stand up for the participants.