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Universal Design and Au-Some Swimmers

Universal design is something that people without disabilities take for granted on a daily basis. It is very important for us to consider though to help those around us with disabilities be able to do things independently to the fullest. Everyone benefits from universal design, with or without disabilities. Michael Nesmith stated in his TedTalk, “Disability drives innovation. The existence of disability forces you to come up with new solutions, it does not impair you.” He goes on to say that everyone has a disability, they are just displayed in different forms or for different lengths of time.

I chose to listen to the podcast “Au-some Swimmers” on swim lessons for kids with autism. The occupational therapists had a couple main objectives when designing this program: to see the needs of the sites and lifeguards, to teach the lifeguards how to communicate with kids on the spectrum, and to increase the general knowledge about Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). By educating the lifeguards about ASD, they were then better able to communicate with the child and adjust how they provided swim lessons to those children when needed. One thing that was implemented that I think was most beneficial would be the student log. In the student log, the lifeguard would write down what was done in the lesson that week, what the child did not like to do, and what stimuli triggered the child negatively. This made it easier for a substitute to complete the swim lesson and know what skills the child was working on, even if they had never worked with the child before. Additionally, it kept track of the progress the child had made during the sessions. Kim Persons, one of the occupational therapists interviewed, stated that drowning is one of the leading causes of death for children with ASD. It is important that children are taught swimming skills early to be confident in the water to increase safety.

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Logan and I on our first day of OT school.

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