SpringfieldSpeaker Series event to focus on living with disabilities

Focusing on the people rather than what makes them different is the focus of the first Global Education Speaker Series event of the new year.

“Growing Together across our disAbilities” will show what it’s like to live with various disabilities, such as being in a wheelchair, blind, deaf and other challenges. The program is free and will be presented at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 9 in the Buckeye Room at the Mueller Center, 2525 Kenton St.

It is presented by the Global Education and Peace Network.

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Lillian and Steven White are coordinating the program as it has affected them personally: their son, Justin, has Down syndrome.

“A lot of people will see just the developmental disabilities and don’t understand their difficulties, they see them as objects and not people,” said Lillian White. “We want people to not sympathize, but to empathize.”

She’s encountered people who think those with such disabilities’ behavior is on purpose when things like noises and light can trigger reactions or they have a different speech style.

On the positive side, White has also seen others’ eyes opened when they get to know people like Justin. His Special Olympics coach was unsure at first, but now can experience the world through her athletes’ eyes.

Her niece’s husband took just a few minutes to discover Justin’s love of the Three Stooges and now they have a fun running joke between them, while her niece was so inspired by Justin that she now works with the developmentally disabled in Troy.

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“It’s not about ‘you poor thing,’ no, no, no,” White said.

The program will feature interactive stations in which attendees can experience challenges those with various disabilities go through such as experiencing blindness or hardness of hearing. Various local day programs and individuals will also attend.

White is grateful the series is highlighting this and said it isn’t much different than what an immigrant or someone who doesn’t speak a certain language would experience

“There is a culture and they have a different way of looking,” she said. “They have challenges others don’t realize. You’ve got to get to know them. We hope maybe that can happen a bit on Thursday night.”

The Speaker Series theme for 2019-2020 is “Sharing our Roots - Growing Springfield Together - My Story, Your Story, Our Story” and presents different topics each month on that theme.

For more information, go to springfieldohio.gov or contact Nancy Flinchbaugh at 937-324-7696.

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