Reflective Statements
Brandi Coleman
I chose to focus on this topic because I appreciated the rights IDEA gives individuals but my curiosity grew concerning people who were not covered under IDEA. What happens after IDEA? What I learned was amazing. After the age of 21, a child is no longer covered under IDEA, and therefore has to fend for their own resources and this is what troubled me. However, I learned at the Disability Answers Conference in Lincoln Square that even in this small town, there are an abundance of resources covering an abundance of needs. I thought that this was amazing considering how small of a town Champaign is. The great thing was that the majority of these programs were free or extremely low cost. They are available to anyone with a disability and all you have to do is seek help. I would have never known that there were so many programs for adults with disabilities in Champaign. I got to meet a lot of great people and even saw Barb, the lady who was a guest speaker who came to our class and showed us her house. I was very inspired to compile this information, put it on a website and spread the word. There is no reason why adults with disabilities should feel that they have no support here. There are plenty of people and organizations that donate their time and money just to see them succeed despite their disability, and learning this was my favorite part.
Audrey Chun
I was in charge of creating website and compiling information from the website and brochures. I used Weebly to create the website and I found that it was a pleasant experience from the start. I have experience building website from scratch and I have used other programs like Weebly such as WIX but this was by far the easiest and simplest.
During information gathering process, I found that some websites were easy to navigate and some were not. I tried to put myself in the shoes of the stakeholders (adults with disabilities and their families and/or friends) and thought how frustrating these experiences might be for some of these websites. At the same time, it was rewarding to know that the website I am creating now will be used to benefit and guide these stakeholders to the right direction. Some families with disabilities do not know where to start and I hope this will help them by laying out some of the available services in Champaign-Urbana area. I have learned so much about the services through this project and I hope that others will be able to do that through our final product.
I chose to focus on this topic because I appreciated the rights IDEA gives individuals but my curiosity grew concerning people who were not covered under IDEA. What happens after IDEA? What I learned was amazing. After the age of 21, a child is no longer covered under IDEA, and therefore has to fend for their own resources and this is what troubled me. However, I learned at the Disability Answers Conference in Lincoln Square that even in this small town, there are an abundance of resources covering an abundance of needs. I thought that this was amazing considering how small of a town Champaign is. The great thing was that the majority of these programs were free or extremely low cost. They are available to anyone with a disability and all you have to do is seek help. I would have never known that there were so many programs for adults with disabilities in Champaign. I got to meet a lot of great people and even saw Barb, the lady who was a guest speaker who came to our class and showed us her house. I was very inspired to compile this information, put it on a website and spread the word. There is no reason why adults with disabilities should feel that they have no support here. There are plenty of people and organizations that donate their time and money just to see them succeed despite their disability, and learning this was my favorite part.
Audrey Chun
I was in charge of creating website and compiling information from the website and brochures. I used Weebly to create the website and I found that it was a pleasant experience from the start. I have experience building website from scratch and I have used other programs like Weebly such as WIX but this was by far the easiest and simplest.
During information gathering process, I found that some websites were easy to navigate and some were not. I tried to put myself in the shoes of the stakeholders (adults with disabilities and their families and/or friends) and thought how frustrating these experiences might be for some of these websites. At the same time, it was rewarding to know that the website I am creating now will be used to benefit and guide these stakeholders to the right direction. Some families with disabilities do not know where to start and I hope this will help them by laying out some of the available services in Champaign-Urbana area. I have learned so much about the services through this project and I hope that others will be able to do that through our final product.