In order for me to develop as a recreation and leisure professional to the point where I can conduct successful programming for people with disabilities, I will need to use my strengths and overcome my weaknesses, in order to better understand how diversity in ability can impact programming.
The greatest personal weakness I would anticipate in conducting programming for people with disabilities is simply a lack of knowledge. According to a survey of women with disabilities, the people around them often lack the knowledge to appropriately encourage them to participate in physical activities
Health promotion, No date). As a recreation and leisure professional, it will be my job to ensure I have that requisite knowledge. The problem, naturally, is that there are a great variety of disabilities and I will need to ensure that I have enough knowledge about those disabilities to appropriately plan and modify activities. Planning activities for children with autism, for example, may entail programming with low levels of noise and perhaps more isolated components, as group interaction can make some autistic people uncomfortable. and, yet, such activities would be completely inappropriate for people with other types of disabilities, such as mobility impairments or epilepsy.
Inclusion situations, where people with disabilities will be engaging in activities along with people who do not have disabilities, will be an entirely different situation. I will need to develop strategies for providing activities that are challenging and enjoyable to the people without disabilities, but also offer modifications for those who need them. In short, I still require a good deal of education and I must ensure I keep up-to-date on various disabilities and ideas for planning appropriate activities.
My greatest strengths in planning recreation and leisure activities for people with disabilities are my compassion and flexibility. I am an accepting person who has engaged in activities such as sports and clubs with people who had various levels of ability and were able to make different kinds of contributions. I have learned that it is important that everyone have the opportunity to participate in recreational activities, and this conviction...
In short, I see my role as an access point to help people with disabilities engage in more recreational activities; by contrast, I would never want to serve as a barrier.
My other significant strength is my flexibility. While it is important for a recreation and leisure professional to ensure that his or her activities are well planned, a good professional can also think on the fly and make appropriate adaptations. I am not a person who becomes easily flustered when things do not go exactly as planned. Rather, I have the flexibility to make changes during an activity to make it more enjoyable and appropriate for people with disabilities. I think this flexibility will serve me well, given the variety of situations that can present themselves when conducting activities for people with varying levels of ability.
Works Cited
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Dieser, Rod (1997). Pluralistic leadership in recreation and leisure planning:
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Disabilities/Limitations (2007). Retrieved March 25, 2007, at http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/disable.htm.
Health promotion (No date). Retrieved March 28, 2007, at http://www.crowdbcm.net/healthpromotion/Phys_Act-gen.htm.
Meyer, Karen (2004). Educators help students with disabilities create fond memories.
ABC 7, April 20. Retrieved March 26, 2007, at http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=News&id=1490483&ft=lg.
National Therapeutic Recreation Week (2003). Retrieved March 27, 2007, at http://mentalhealth.samhsa.gov/highlights/july2003/recreation/default.asp
Pop Warner Challenger Division (No date). Retrieved March 26, 2007, at http://www.popwarner.com/images/PWChal.pdf.
Walker, P. (1999). Promoting inclusion in recreation and leisure activities: An information package. Retrieved March 25, 2007, at http://thechp.syr.edu/recreation.html
