Family Support Specialist

All Abilities. Limitless Possibilities.

Alice Meppen is delighted. She wanted to give back somehow to Easter Seals so that future generations of children and adults with disabilities could have similar opportunities.

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Easterseals Joliet Region

You can reach us at :

212 Barney Drive

Joliet, IL 60435

815-725-2194

815-725-5150 (Fax)

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709262872 Program Support / Miscellaneous Family Support Specialist

Part-time PART TIME

2022-02-17T14 : 55 : 35-0600 http : / / www.easterseals.com / joliet http : / / www.easterseals.com / shared-library / affiliate-logos / easterseals-joliet-region-logo.png Send resume to :

Email : [email protected]

Apply in person at 212 Barney Dr or 991 Essington Rd in Joliet

Apply via email to [email protected]

Summary :

Using the Applied Bevhavior Analysis (ABA) model, in a one on one setting with a child with developmental disablities, implement programs focused on reducing maladaptive behaviors to increase social, academic, and daily living skills.

Positions are part time, afternoon and weekend hours.

Qualifications :

HS diploma or equivalent

Valid driver's license

Wednesday, February 2, 2022, 10 : 38 AM

A journalist contacted me a few months ago. Im working on a story about restaurants and accessibil

Im Beth. This is my back. I have a red coat.

Of course, I said yes.

I dont know, she said with a nervous chuckle. I just read on the internet that I should describe my physical appearance when I introduce myself to someone who cant see.

I hated hearing this. I have no idea where this declaration started, but it sure has sprouted up on a lot of disability etiquette lists lately.

Maybe it has something to do with all the Zoom meetings people have been on lately. In the past year or so, Ive attended more and more events (live and virtual) where the speakers or participants are told to self-describe themselves before starting their presentations.

You know, for the benefit of people in the audience who have a visual impairment.

A dear friend of mine died a few weeks ago. A tenured professor in urban planning, she traveled all over the world researching and lecturing on affordable housing (including significant work in housing for people with disabilities).

Her husband worked with her staff and graduate students for an entire week to set up and present a virtual celebration of her life, and more than 300 colleagues, students, family and friends zoomed in.

It being virtual and all, people living everywhere from Beirut to Hamburg, Miami to Walla Walla Washington could celebrate her with us, too.

I felt honored to be one of the dozen attendees asked to give a short presentation at the event. Knowing my friends co-workers and grad students were responsible for the technology assured me itd all be accessible.

Id be able to mute and unmute using my screen software.

And I was right. It was.

When I sent an email their way the next day to thank them for their technology prowess, one of them responded with an apology.

I am glad you felt the event was accessible, they wrote. I was a little concerned about that. I wondered if we should have had all the speakers describe themselves first.

Argh! Im sorry they felt this way. Self-describing takes time and I was much more interested in hearing what people at the celebration had to say about our friend who had died than hearing what the people telling the stories think they look like.

During my short presentation, I mentioned that one advantage of being blind is that you get to walk arm-in-arm with friends a lot.

This friend and I walked arm-in-arm everywhere to the Chicago River, the Chicago Lakefront, Printers Row Park, Millennium Park, nearby restaurants, concerts, and our local wine shop.

Walking arm-in-arm makes it easier to hear each other, and the conversations we had especially in these past two years while she was battling ovarian cancer are a gift from her to me.

Credit : goodmantheatre.org

Back in November my 26-year-old niece Anita texted me :

Here in Chicago, some families go to the Goodman to see *A Christmas Carol* every year. How pedestrian! Truth be told, I kind of sort of rolled my eyes at Anitas suggestion.

Bah humbug! Id seen *A Christmas Carol* done at community theater in the past, and I like watching it on TV during the holidays, but I had never ever wanted to join the throngs of everyday people who go to see it at a theater and thought it best I keep it that way.

But then came the back-and-forth texts. Anitas girlfriend Kelly would be coming as well. They had chosen a date that offered a pre-show audio tour for blind people.

Anita grew up around disability. I became blind before she was born, and she and her mom lived in the same town we did when we were raising our son Gus, who was born with physical and developmental disabilities and uses a wheelchair.

Her father is from Jamaica, her mother is white, and shes all about diversity and inclusion!

And then theres this : Anita and Kelly are a fun couple, so smart and witty that we share a lot of laughs whenever were together.

And, okay, it was pretty flattering to think theyd go out of their way to spend an afternoon at the theater with their old blind great aunt Beth.

No more bah humbugs! I said yes. And am I glad I did!

Tickets for are usually quite expensive, but in its efforts to be a theater for all and a place where diverse audiences experience extraordinary productions, Goodman offers reduced-price tickets to people who attend the touch tours.

Anita and Kelly were accompanying their blind old great-aunt Beth, so they got the same discount I did.

Seeing Eye dog Luna guided me from home to the theater to meet Anita and Kelly last Saturday, I showed my proof-of-double-vaccination card with pride, and handed over my ticket.

Box seats! The ticket-taker sounded impressed.

When Goodmans house manager / accessibility coordinator Andy Wilson greeted me in the lobby, he explained they save those box seats for people who might find accessing regular theater seats difficult.

Your box is on the main floor, he explained. No stairs! Bonus : Box seats are great for social distancing, and Black Lab Luna could sprawl during the show without bothering anyone else.

Anita and Kelly showed up in time to enjoy some of the costumes, and from there the two of them escorted me into the theater to meet some of the main actors in the play for the pre-show.

One of them was the one playing the Ghost of Christmas Present the one whod be wearing the hoop skirt. Im supposed to look like a Christmas tree, she laughed, then went on to explain the real reason behind the hoop skirt.

It hides the harness I have to wear.

Yes, harness. She wears it to hold up the weight of the Christmas tree hanging off her shoulders. A couple other actors wear harnesses under their costumes, too, she added, explaining that Scrooge and the Ghost of Christmas Past actually fly during the show.

They need harnesses on to do that. My mind went right to my childhood, when I marveled at the TV presentation of Sandy Duncan flying in the Broadway revival of Peter Pan.

The actors chatted briefly about their role in the play, their appearance and / or physicality and how they might approach that in their portrayal.

The Ghost of Christmas Present described herself as having brown skin and black hair and told us she plays a charwoman near the end of the play, too.

Each actor gave us a few lines from the play