Fostering understanding
Sensitivity Awareness Workshop aims to foster
empathy through education and information

Orangewood Elementary School student Uriel Martinez ties a shoe without the use of his thumbs at a gross motor skills station of a Sensitivity Awareness Workshop put on by Lisa Cronin Miller. Students went to several different stations to help them understand what people with disabilities go through every day. They learned about disabilities involving fine motor skills, gross motor skills, speech impairment, hearing impairment, visual impairment and learning disabilities.

By Pamela Smith Hayford

Sean Ricks pulls away from a table in Orangewood Elementary’s library and exclaims, “I can’t do this!”

He’s a typical 10-year-old trying to trace a star — while looking at it in a mirror.

It’s as if he has a visual impairment that prevents his eyes from communicating properly with his brain.

At nine other tables around Sean, fellow fifth-graders step into the shoes of those with disabilities, from blindness to dyslexia. They try to solve math problems in which the numbers are written backwards. They try to tie shoes and count change without using their thumbs. And they try to trace stars while looking in a mirrored box.

“I never knew that it was like that,” says Sarah Correnti, 10. “It was really hard.”

That’s exactly what Lisa Cronin Miller wants to hear.

Miller created the workshops after years of hearing snide remarks and seeing twisted faces aimed at her only daughter, a sweet girl with big brown eyes, a wide grin and wavy brown locks —and some developmental disabilities.

Sometimes, people would just ignore Rachal, and that hurt Miller just as bad.

Something had to be done, she thought, and information was the key, but school principals and others told her they didn’t have the time to create the program she wanted. So she did it herself.

In 2003, the Estero woman formed Sensitivity Awareness Workshop in Fort Myers.

In December, her organization received non-profit status.

Some 4,000 people — students as well as adults —have gone through the workshop.

“It’s a beautiful experience,” says Vivian J. Colón, school counselor at Bonita Springs Middle School. “It fosters empathy instead of sympathy.

“Sympathy everybody knows. But walking in somebody else’s shoes, that’s something else.”

Businesses and organizations have also participated in a version geared toward adults.

“I was much more sensitized to the environment of those around me, particularly those who might have visual or hearing or learning disabilities that affect the way they perceive things,” says Steve Tirey, president and CEO of The Chamber of Southwest Florida. “It’s a valuable experience for anybody who’s in an environment where they work with others.”

Some participants have shed tears.

The session starts with Miller sharing the story of her daughter and showing a short video about Rachal. There are scenes of her growing up, dancing and smiling. And there’s video of a seizure when she was just 3 months old.

Thousands of seizures delayed Rachal’s development and left her with a slight speech impairment. Doctors told the Millers to put Rachal in an institution, Miller tells the students.

Then, everyone in the workshop breaks into groups and experiences disabilities first hand.

“I didn’t know it was this hard,” they say as they try to finish simple, everyday tasks with compromised abilities.

Some giggle as they try to tie a shoe with only their fingers, no thumbs —but they learn what it’s like to have motor-skills impairments.

“This is easy,” others say, but change their tune at another table.

In the end, the students understand what Miller was trying to tell them.

“It was very intense,” says Corey Gibson, 11, after the workshop at Orangewood. “I didn’t see how people could live like that.”

They live and thrive because of people who show love, compassion and empathy, says Miller.

She refused to put Rachal in an institution.

Today, the 13-year-old girl has the mind of a 5-year-old, but she sings and dances like any other child, though with a slight speech impairment. She requires no medication and is free of seizures.

Miller hopes that her daughter’s story will help others.

“No one volunteers to be disabled,” Miller says.

How to be inclusive

• Do not imitate or laugh at another person
• Do not call them names
• Do not feel sorry for them
• Do not ignore them
• Do show compassion and empathy
• Do show them acts of kindness

SAW of SWFL, Inc. is a Florida 501(c)3 Non Profit Corporation. All gifts of cash or securities are fully tax deductible under IRS law. A copy of the official registration and financial information may be obtained from the division of consumer services by calling toll free (800-435-7352) within the state. Registration does not imply endorsement, approval or recommendation by the state.
© 2003 Sensitivity Awareness Workshop of Southwest Florida, Inc. All Rights Reserved.