Tag: disability

aaron johannes, belonging, community, community living, critical disability theory, disability, person centred planningLeave a comment

Stories about access and cognitive dissonance

Aaron

“In A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance (1957), Leon Festinger proposed that human beings strive for internal psychological consistency to function mentally in the real world. A person who experiences internal inconsistency tends to become psychologically uncomfortable and is motivated to reduce the cognitive dissonance. They tend to make changes to justify the stressful behavior, either by adding new parts to the cognition causing the psychological dissonance or by avoiding circumstances and contradictory information likely to increase the magnitude of the cognitive dissonance. “Coping with the nuances of contradictory ideas or experiences is mentally stressful. It requires energy and effort to … Continue reading Stories about access and cognitive dissonance

aaron johannes, advocacy, Al Etmanski, barb goode, belonging, books, community living, dads of children with disabilities, disability, family, inclusion, innovation, liz etmanski, self advocacy3 Comments

#powerofdisability review of Al Etmanski’s new book

Aaron

“I discovered that people with disabilities have been major players throughout history. If you were to take away their contributions, you wouldn’t recognize the world.” I can’t remember the last time I read a book so quickly.  I’ve heard of people “devouring” books and always wondered about that terminology but now I know how that feels.  I meant to read a few pages – it’s a snowday here, the second dump in a couple of weeks and while the first was much worse, everyone is still tender from black ice and fender-benders and the college is closed, my students are … Continue reading #powerofdisability review of Al Etmanski’s new book

aaron johannes, art, ARTbrain, community living, critical disability theory, disability, education, innovation, liz etmanski, self advocacy, Social Innovation, Susan Powell, workshops2 Comments

ARTbrain – a new project

Aaron

Now that this has been formally announced, we can share some great news!  Our new ARTbrain project combines a few ideas that Liz Etmanski, Susan Powell and I have been talking about for a while.  We were grateful to receive some funding from the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture to explore these ideas over the next eight months.  Our proposal read, Access to fine arts and humanities education has been almost impossible for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities, and this project will involve them in thinking critically about how art works, making art, works from art history and … Continue reading ARTbrain – a new project