Canes Enable

Canes Enable Presantation

The Canes Enable presentation was very inspiring to me. It taught me many interesting things that I had not known before. Luckily, I have had the experience of working with Debby on this program last year for our Tikkun Olam project along with Alex. This helped me connect and feel like I had known a lot about Canes Enable during the presentation. I hope that Debby will join us again for the next part of her workshop.

Throughout this presentation I learned many new and amazing things. I found the umbrella cane a very neat invention, although there are some problems with it. I learned that handicapped is a derogatory term. Lawrence, was the highlight of the presentation for me. He showed us that it is possible to do all the things we do with only one leg. He told us that he had just recently skied four kilometres! Lawrence taught me that if you really put your mind to something, you can pursue it even with a disability. I also learned about how difficult and expensive it is to get a prosthetic leg. In my opinion, they should not be so expensive because families may be in need of one but might not be able to afford it. I know that Lawrence will succeed in anything he chooses to do.

What surprised me the most in this presentation is how open Lawrence answered each of the questions, even if they were extremely personal. It seemed to me that he no longer felt ashamed of his one leg but instead happy that he was unique and can do so many inspiring things. Lawrence was very nice in taking of his prosthetic leg and passing it around for us to see what it looked like and how it operated.

I feel that making things more accessible is a very important thing to do. People with disabilities should be treated equal to normal people; more accessible places are desperatly needed. People in wheelchairs really have a tough time getting around, but people with out disabilities take all the access we have for granted. I aspire that soon every thing will be just as accessible for a wheelchair user or anyone with any kind of disability as it is for us.

-Aviva

Jettison

Analogy: Jettison is to take as Mac is to PC.

Canes Enable by Jonah

I thought the presentation was amazing. Debbie and Lawrence were well spoken and easy to understand for our age group. I like the part when Lawrence took off his leg and did the bear crawl. Debbie’s idea of bringing Sarah bear was a nice touch. She also presented Sarah bear’s questions to the class and we passed a string that you pass to a person, which creates a web. The designs on the canes were incredible. The people at Canes Enable are so creative.

I learned that people with disabilities can do so much because before the presentation I thought they were very limited. Debbie and Lawrence showed us that with on leg you can do volleyball, bowling, skiing, dance and lots more things. I also learned about a prosthetic leg. It looks so realistic and very flexible. Having a prosthetic leg allows people to do more but it is so expensive.

I was so surprised that a prosthetic leg cost $40 000. That is the price for a good one. It must be very hard for people to afford one. Having a disability may limit your job possibilities and as Debbie said some disabled people get jobs that do not pay large salaries. How do you afford your bills plus $15 000 to $40 000 for a prosthetic leg. That is why it is good to spread awareness through presentations such as this one.

I think we need for our school to be wheelchair accessible. It has no elevator or ramp. When I was in a wheelchair I could only use it at recess and outside of the school. It was very painful because I had to use crutches up and down the stairs so may times and it was difficult. There was also no handicapped parking and it was hard to get out of the car and into my wheelchair in the drive through. I only had to be in the wheelchair for two months while for some people it is permanent. I really got a good idea of how difficult it is. I would make railings, escalators and elevators in most buildings.

Canes Enable Workshop Response

I thought that the presentation was really cool because we got to learn more about disabilities and we talked with Lawrence about his. I liked how he was so open about his prosthetic leg and how he wasn’t ashamed. I also liked it how Debbie told us about different disabilities and she spread awareness about them.

I learned that so many places in the world are actually not that accessible for people with disabilities and that we need to be more aware of that. Lawrence probed to us that even with one leg he can do almost everything that we can do. He can hop, dance, crawl, ski and do so many other things with just one leg.

I was really surprised that having one leg did not hold him back that much. He was very flexible, and could move around with ease. His prosthetic leg was very different that I expected it to be. In a way it looked very real, and it was very mushy and bendable. All of the different styles of canes were very cool too.

Everyone in the whole world should realize that we actually don’t have that many places that are accessible for people with special needs. We need to start to take action and spread the word. For example, even adding in braille to an elevator or adding in a few more wheel chair parking spaces would make a huge difference. If we do some simple things, it will make a huge difference.

Danny Greenberg

Canes Enable Workshop

Yesterday’s workshop was a very educational and exciting lesson. I learnt many things that I did not know about canes and other things as well. One of the things I learnt was the name of forearm crutches. Another thing I learnt was that handicapped is a derogatory term. I found it very interesting to look at all the kinds of canes people made and to see how they would be helpful to different individuals and I thought that the cane umbrella was very cool. I also enjoyed that second part when we went into a big circle around the canes. Exploring all the ways of transportations from A-Z was fun as well because I had never explored some of the ideas and topics that were brought up.

I think Lawrence is a very inspirational person. I found it was amazing that he was able to get over what happened to him and pursue with what he loves best. I was able to connect with him well because we have a lot in common. He loves skiing and dancing and those are two of my favourite sports.

When I walk around I do not always notice how lucky I am and consider how other people might get around. I think that our school is not very accessible and the narrow cramped hallways do not help anyone at all, especially people who do not get around the same way as I do. I think that a good start to making our school more accessible would be changing our stairs and widening our hallways. From now on I think I will pay closer attention to the accessibility of buildings.

Adina Landsberg 7A

Agon Acrostic

Acrostic:
A-antagonist and protagonist fight
G-great argument
O-one big conflict
N-no-one agrees

Marc L. 7B

Canes Enable Presentation

Canes Enable Presentation

The “Canes Enable” presentation really moved me and made me realize how lucky I am. I thought that this was the perfect time to start showing us these presentations, because after all there are kids younger than us with disabilities, and living with challenges. I thought Lawrence was a great person to bring in because of all his achievements and because he was so open to talk about his disability. I also thought that Debby was a very good speaker and that she led the program well.

I learned that disability does not prevent sport, dance or art. I learned all about the challenges that come with having a disability. I learned that at a very young age bad things can happen and you have to be careful with whatever you do. I also learned all about people with prosthetic legs and all about prosthetic legs.

One of the things that surprised me was how fast Lawrence took off his leg, and how he was so comfortable with taking it off. Lawrence also surprised me with how well he could balance/walk/dance on one leg. A was so surprised to see all the beautiful paintings on the canes. Lastly I was surprised to hear of all the many problems one with a disability might come across.

Firstly I think it is crazy how inaccessible our school is and how inaccessible our city is compared to others in Canada and the world. I think that this is a major problem that should be brought up more in schools across Canada. I also think that if more people of aware of this problem more people will help.

Marc L. 7B

Canes “N” Able Response

This presentation was truly inspiring! It was fascinating to see Lawrence perform with such ease and everything flowed very nicely.

After hearing this presentation it taught me many things. It taught me about accessibility and what accessibility actually means. It means wheelchair parking, Braille for blind people, ramps and basically to let people who have special needs still have the same experience of things like we do. Please note that people with special needs are no different from us. It’s just that they have different needs. Everyone has to accept them for who they are. Just because someone looks different doesn’t give people the right to treat them differently. I met this man names David Roche. He was born with a tumor on his face which disfigured all the features on his face. When I first saw a picture of him I thought, wow this guy is weird. Then I met David. He turned out to be one of the nicest guy’s I’ve ever meet. He presents a show about his life in comedy form. It moved me in so many different ways. David is truly amazing and taught me that you can’t go around judging people for what they look like, because they might turn out to be the most passionate, caring loving person you’ll ever meet.

The only surprise I experienced is when Lawrence took off his leg. And, how much his leg actually cost. It’s not fair to people who can’t afford to pay for prosthetic legs. Lawrence was a great performer. It also amazed me how Lawrence could stay his leg for five hours straight! This shows (once again) that people with disabilities have more abilities than not. One last thing that surprised me was where the word “handicap” comes from. I can’t even imagine who could even think of making that word!

This world has a lot of work to do. One of the big factors is making places accessible. I’ve encountered many situations of non-accessibility because of my brother Oz who has Cerebral Palsy. My family goes to Israel a lot. You might not know this but Israel isn’t the most accessible place in the world…It was so challenging taking Oz places because places weren’t accessible. Most restaurant, stores, malls and houses did not have ramps or elevators. We are lucky to live in a place like Canada where a lot of things are accessible. I think even if places are not accessible people should still make the effort to help people who have difficulty getting around. If it’s helping a blind person across the street or pushing someone in a wheelchair or explaining something to someone who has an Intellectual Disability or providing closed caption for people with hearing loss; these are all responsibilities that we have to make for people in our community and in the world.


BY ARI HAVUSHA!