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Disability simulation program coming to Lockport

Lockport Union-Sun & Journal (NY) - 8/3/2015

Aug. 03--A free and interactive simulation program sponsored by Western New York Independent Living will take place at Karate Ken's on Brocton Drive, in order to educate people of all ages about living with disabilities.

Leading the 90-minute program is Todd Vaarwerk of Western New York Independent Living, who is living with cerebral palsy, a congenital disorder of movement, muscle tone or posture.

The program will consist of three interactive simulation stations that will show children and adults what it is like to be living with disability. These stations include wheelchair exercises, how to use a cane, and communicating with sign language.

A fourth station may also be incorporated into the program depending on time, according to Vaarwerk. This station would educate the public on hidden disabilities, such as autism and other mental disabilities.

For Vaarwerk, the purpose of these simulation stations is simple. He wants to educate people of all ages about the reality of disabilities, as well as change the image some have of people with disabilities.

"I want the kids that we are educating now to have disability as part of their life experience," Vaarwerk said. "I want them to think that it isn't anything different from anything else they'd see, or any other difference they'd see like eye color, hair color or height."

When Western New York Independent Living first started, a lot of people didn't understand the perspective of being a person with a disability, according to Vaarwerk. So the organization started by giving people an opportunity to have a disability experience through five-minute simulations, rotating them through the different impairment stations.

They first opened a free program at their headquarters on Main Street in Buffalo, then soon after began working with teachers in area school districts.

After working with educators, Western New York Independent Living discovered the stations weren't able to be easily integrated into a health teacher's curriculum, due to a lack of time and space.

That is when the organization started a program working with physical education teachers in 2005. In this program, disability education became a part of the gym program.

Over 10 years, Independent Living has been hosting free programs for the public, ages 5 and up, in order to give an experience of what it would be like to live with a disability.

"(The kids) are not going to know everything that they need to be aware of disabilities in five minutes, but what they are going to do is start to think about how they are going to react and respond," Vaarwerk said.

Western New York Independent Living has held programs in Niagara Falls city schools, the Native American School and Tonawanda elementary schools. However, the group is available to host programs at at any level or for any type of organization, such as business corporations, probation departments and police academies.

Through these programs, Western New York Independent Living hopes to eliminate two stereotypes, such as people with disabilities are either criminals and dangerous, or that they are superheroes.

"I'm tired of hearing how brave I am for leaving the house in the morning," Vaarwerk said. "I'm not brave, I'm just getting up and going to work."

"If I walk into the store with him, people automatically look at the wheelchair," said Katie Trombley, Independent Living's director of outreach and community engagement. "But if he was standing straight up next to me, would they have even noticed?"

Many, according to Trombley, associate mentally disabled individuals with crimes. However, she stresses that only 1 percent of mental health patients have the ability to cause mass harm to others, while the other 75 to 80 percent fall victim to violence and abuse.

Trombley and Vaarwerk said they want to eliminate ignorance of disabilities by teaching kids at a young age that they are no different than them, they just handle daily tasks differently.

"This is about teaching people that the place disabled people are supposed to be is right out in the community with everybody else," Vaarwerk said. "They should expect to see people with disabilities anywhere they go."

"It's really about breaking down the barrier of misunderstanding or lack of information," Trombley added. "Because at the end of the day, yeah it's fun they get to see what it's like, but if one person walks away understanding that people with disabilities are the same as them they just have different challenges, that's our goal."

After 25 years of simulation courses throughout the eight Western New York counties, several developments have been implemented today, such as handicapped bathrooms, ramps at restaurants, handicapped parking and wider doorways in buildings and new homes.

These developments, as well as several others, are continuously being implemented throughout Western New York, Vaarwerk said.

Vaarwerk and Trombley, as well as other members of Western New York Independent Living, will be presenting to the students of Karate Ken's, from 3 until 4:30 p.m. Thursday at 6007 Brocton Drive. The program is free and open to the community.

Contact reporter Rachel Fuerschbach at 439-9222, ext. 6246.

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