Lessons about disabled

Press, 19 May 1981, Page 19

Lessons about disabled

What would happen if your father was in a car accident and had to use a' wheelchair, or your best friend was blinded in a Guy Fawkes explosion?,

These and other questions are being asked of school children in the International Year of Disabled Persons. They are part of a “Telethon information kit” prepared by the I.Y.D.P. national committee, and approved by the Education Department for distribution to all schools.

The kit examines the disabled and the family, the community, the law, learning, at work, in recreation, and suggests social studies which actively involve children with disabled people The kit is the basis fo> learning projects, providing

“starter” material for teachers.

It explains that up to 10 per cent of school children are estimated to have hearing defects, and between 4 per cent and 5 per cent sight defects. It also emphasised that more New Zealand children died or were disabled through accidents than by illness, and that almost 25 per cent bf all children, in hospital were there because of accidents.

A Telethon organiser, Mr Don Hutchings, said that as children played an important part in every Telethon, it was important to give them a better understanding of the cause they were helping. Copies of the school kit were also being distributed nationally to scouts, guides, and the girls’ and boys’ brigades. _