Schenectady County Community College is hosting Abilities Awareness Week starting through Friday, March 27. Through a series of programs and events, the college hopes to raise awareness and appreciation for people with disabilities by recognizing their abilities.
Just because an individual has a disability doesn’t mean that they don’t have an incredible number of abilities. In a number of areas and for too long people have focused on their disabilities and not the abilities that they come with, said Ellen Wertlieb, coordinator of Americans With Disabilities Act transition services at Schenectady County Community College.
`People are looked at too much as objects, for example as the blind person, rather than the person who happens to be blind,` said Wertlieb.
Wertlieb said that a group of students at the college decided to call the week Abilities Awareness Week rather than Disabilities Awareness Week because they wanted to focus specifically on what people can do rather than what they can’t do.
There are many speakers and movies planned for the week, including a performance by the band Flame, which consists entirely of individuals with disabilities.
`One of the highlights is the band that’s going to be coming,` said Wertlieb of the local band that’s now gaining clout internationally.
Flame is from Fulton County and it consists entirely of people with developmental and physical disabilities.
`They started out of a recreation program five years ago. Here we noticed we had a couple of individuals with really amazing talent at a talent show, and the lead singer performed and she blew everyone away,` said Tim Fiori, director of public relations for Flame. `The recreation director said, ‘We have to have a rock band,’ so she had open auditions and within a couple of weeks we had a band formed.`
He said that once people in the community started hearing the band play they started getting requests to hear them everywhere. The band started to grow in popularity and they began playing all over the country. They even landed a trip to Greece last December when they were invited by the Greek government to perform at a convention. They also recently performed at the Special Olympics in Idaho.
`Our message is that we want to inspire people with disabilities and their families that they can achieve anything in life, and not only can they do something important and succeed, they can also have a fun, fulfilled life,` said Fiori.
The band plays 90 to 100 times a year, which averages about two to three gigs a week. Three of the band members are blind, two are in wheelchairs and all of them have developmental disabilities, according to Fiori.
The band will be performing Thursday, March 26, from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and again from 1 to 2 p.m.
Other events during the week include two movies and guest speakers from the Capital District Center for Independence, Inc.
On Wednesday, March 25, from 11:15 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. the film `Freedom Machines` will be shown. The film profiles the lives of individuals with disabilities in the context of assistive technology. Viewers are shown the importance of aligning civil rights and public policy with these advances.
The second movie, which will be playing on Friday, March 27, from 11-11:50 a.m. is called `The Boy with the Incredible Brain.` The documentary features the story of Daniel Tammet, someone who is not only able to mentally perform calculations to 100 decimal places but can learn a language in one week’s time. While highlighting the abilities of those considered savants, the film explores the relationship between savant syndrome and brain damage as well as autism.
`The film makes it very clear that this is incredibly unusual, but what they’re saying is there is some link between brain damage and savant syndrome, autism and savant syndrome, and they’re looking at these individuals to see what that link actually is,` said Wertlieb.
On Tuesday, March 24, from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. speakers Ryan Pooler and Lincy Thomas from the Capital District Center for Independence, Inc., and the Client Assistance Program will talk about how their programs help individuals to navigate the maze of disability services. They will describe how their programs provide information, referral, and transitional services as well as advocacy and legal representation.
For more information, visit http://www.sunysccc.edu.“