From Rabbi Michael Levy: There are many accommodations that can easily be made for 2024 camps. Even more important is the removal of attitudinal barriers, often based on deeply rooted societal assumptions about disability.
. Keep in mind a number of guidelines.
-1. There is no such thing as “one size fits all” accessibility. Well-meaning families and educators should not plunk Barbara with her particular disability into a camp that worked for Amy who had the same disability. What is central is their personalities, not their “handicaps.”
-2. Campers with the same disabilities vary in their coping skills, comfort zones, and willingness to ask for help. Some want a “shadow” all day, some detest it. Some are timid, some like to try new things—just like non-disabled campers.
-3. There are liability concerns. You can be a non-disabled camper and accident-prone, or disabled and accident-prone. “I dare you” is sometimes heard around the pool or the rope-climbing area.
-4. Camp directors and their staff, especially the “front line” counselors need to meet articulate self-directing successful adults with disabilities and discover how they matured to got be that way as kids. That minimizes the danger of stereotypical assumptions like “whatever Tantrum Tommy does, let him do it because he has a disability.”
-5. There is still stigma associated with disabilities. Confront that reality head-on and early. The very act of acknowledging it is the first step towards its eventual elimination.
-6. What’s the camp’s policy towards campers who are homesick. Apply it equally to non-disabled and disabled campers as much as possible.
-7. What’s the camp’s policy towards bad behavior. A kid might stop rolling his eyes if you ignore it. At the other extreme, a camper who is a risk to himself or others, physically or psychologically, might be unceremoniously expelled and sent home to boring isolation. Apply the policy equally to disabled and non-disabled campers.
-8. Let’s end on an up note. Prizes, awards, recognition. My thought is “for goodness sakes, there must be SOMETHING that every camper excels in! Pays the most attention. Best cleanerupper. Best finder of lost articles. Never disrupts the bunk at night. Most likely to be a camp counselor. Most likely to be a camp cook, camp lifeguard, camp hiking coach, camp ruach leader, camp fund-raiser, camp reunion promoter, camp storyteller. Future rabbi, future caterer,
Just don’t give a kid with a disability an award for courage for living with a disability or for being special.
From Rabbi Michael Levy: There are many accommodations that can easily be made for 2024 camps. Even more important is the removal of attitudinal barriers, often based on deeply rooted societal assumptions about disability.
. Keep in mind a number of guidelines.
-1. There is no such thing as “one size fits all” accessibility. Well-meaning families and educators should not plunk Barbara with her particular disability into a camp that worked for Amy who had the same disability. What is central is their personalities, not their “handicaps.”
-2. Campers with the same disabilities vary in their coping skills, comfort zones, and willingness to ask for help. Some want a “shadow” all day, some detest it. Some are timid, some like to try new things—just like non-disabled campers.
-3. There are liability concerns. You can be a non-disabled camper and accident-prone, or disabled and accident-prone. “I dare you” is sometimes heard around the pool or the rope-climbing area.
-4. Camp directors and their staff, especially the “front line” counselors need to meet articulate self-directing successful adults with disabilities and discover how they matured to got be that way as kids. That minimizes the danger of stereotypical assumptions like “whatever Tantrum Tommy does, let him do it because he has a disability.”
-5. There is still stigma associated with disabilities. Confront that reality head-on and early. The very act of acknowledging it is the first step towards its eventual elimination.
-6. What’s the camp’s policy towards campers who are homesick. Apply it equally to non-disabled and disabled campers as much as possible.
-7. What’s the camp’s policy towards bad behavior. A kid might stop rolling his eyes if you ignore it. At the other extreme, a camper who is a risk to himself or others, physically or psychologically, might be unceremoniously expelled and sent home to boring isolation. Apply the policy equally to disabled and non-disabled campers.
-8. Let’s end on an up note. Prizes, awards, recognition. My thought is “for goodness sakes, there must be SOMETHING that every camper excels in! Pays the most attention. Best cleanerupper. Best finder of lost articles. Never disrupts the bunk at night. Most likely to be a camp counselor. Most likely to be a camp cook, camp lifeguard, camp hiking coach, camp ruach leader, camp fund-raiser, camp reunion promoter, camp storyteller. Future rabbi, future caterer,
Just don’t give a kid with a disability an award for courage for living with a disability or for being special.