Class act

Written by Kate Calacouras

The idea is simple, but effective: let others experience what it is like to live with a disability. It’s an idea Dr Sharon Boyce struck upon when her own disability altered her original dream of working in a hands-on role in early childhood.

After an early career in lecturing and teaching in education at UniSQ, Sharon understood that young children learnt best when they could experience something for themselves; she respected the directness of children, and their curiosity of what life was like in a wheelchair. This experience gave her the spark to increase disability education in her community.

She created the Discovering DisAbility & Diversity education program that gave children and teachers a hands-on opportunity to experience what it might be like to live with a disability. This includes visible disabilities, like the one she lives with, as well as invisible disabilities such as autism and dyslexia.

“I have an activity that is a simulation of autism,” Sharon said, explaining how the program works.

“It is to help children understand why their friend (with autism) behaved the way he did. They had to listen to a soundtrack from a regular classroom with headphones until their auditory system was overloaded. They had to wear gloves so they couldn’t feel things normally. They wear coloured glasses. They had to crowd around a small space. All of their senses were overloaded.”

She said by using the materials designed to overload the senses, neurotypical children soon realised that was what their autistic friend experienced every day.

“The friends were asking ‘Is that why you get mad at us and chuck things at us?’ And that’s just one day with those kids that created that change,” she recalled.

“The more that I went into schools working with kids, the more I realised it was also teachers who had many questions too.”

“(They asked) ‘Could we have this for a pupil free day? Could we have this for the kids and us?’”

Sharon said her program included materials such as wheelchairs and blindfolds so able-bodied people could experience physical disabilities; sensory activities to teach about autism; and books published to represent what it was like to live with dyslexia and physical disability.

“I have a real passion for everyone having equal access to learning,” she said, discussing how a disability could sometimes limit the long-term potential of a child taught by teachers who did not understand. However, with the correct supports in place the sky is the limit.

Sharon said one condition that needed more attention was dyslexia, as its effects were misunderstood.

“Kids and adults having problems with dyslexia and not being able to read and write properly can stop you from being part of the community,” she said.

Her work has helped thousands of people further understand disability.

“The barriers are broken down. As adults we (are taught) we had better not say anything, we had better pretend we are not looking at the wheelchair. So the learning never happens,” she said.

“If you don’t ask questions you don’t move forward (as a society).”

Sharon’s success with Discovering DisAbility & Diversity has been recognised. She is Chair of the Queensland Disability Advisory Council and also advises for the National Disability Advisory Agency.

“It’s just all linked into what I developed all those years ago,” she said.

While she has adjusted the way she works since Covid, such as hosting lessons over Zoom, Sharon is as committed as ever to creating a more equitable society. She believes it is up to everybody to “create a community that values everyone and allows access – both emotional and physical access.

“Those are big things. People’s attitudes can create a major barrier,” she said.

“If people have closed minds, they think someone can’t be a part of a community. We can really change that attitude, so they can be a part of it, and people’s lives can be changed.”