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National Service Inclusion Essay

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It’s not every day that the average, able bodied person talks to a person with a disability. Because there are not a lot of interactions between these two groups, communicating to each other effectively can be very complicated. The National Service Inclusion Project (NSIP) has put together a six video series to explain how able-bodied individuals should communicate with individuals with disabilities. For someone like me, who does not interact with individuals with disabilities often, I found the videos to be very educational. The first lesson that I learned from the NSIP videos was how to communicate with someone in a wheel chair. I was unaware how strenuous it can be on an individual in a wheelchair to have to look up during conversation when someone is speaking with them closely. When speaking to an individual in a wheelchair one should attempt to grab a seat next to this person so that communication can happen at eye level. Individuals in wheelchairs also enjoy their personal space. Some people have been in a wheelchair so long that it has become a part of them. Because of this bond, these individuals feel like their personal space is being violated when anyone touches their wheelchair without asking. Whenever a person plans on helping out an individual with a disability, they should first ask if …show more content…

When talking to an individual that needs an interpreter, you should talk directly to them and not their interpreter. This is important because you do not want to leave the person you are having a conversation with out of the conversation. If a situation comes up where you catch yourself talking to the interpreter it is totally acceptable to apologize and move on as if it never happened. Most individuals with disabilities realize that it can be difficult to communicate with them at first and appreciate when people correct their actions, then act as if it never

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