Disability awareness week at Bay Middle School

The Bay Middle School eighth-grade girls basketball team took on the Wheelchair Cavaliers
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Students at Bay Middle School participated for a full week in May in a variety of activities that allowed them a chance to experience a special empathy for people with disabilities.

Whether it was watching a performance done in sign language, doing tasks while blindfolded, or listening while wearing headphones, students were immersed in a world very different from their own. Students learned how it might feel to be hearing impaired, orthopedically handicapped, visually impaired and to have reading disabilities. 

Students also welcomed visitors with a variety of disabilities, and they learned new skills to appropriately interact with people who have disabilities.

The entire school turned out to watch the Wheelchair Cavaliers play the Bay Middle School eighth-grade girls basketball team, with all players in wheelchairs.   

Bay Middle school staff and girls softball players also played the Cleveland Scrappers, a local team of visually impaired softball players who play "beep baseball," where the softball beeps and the bases buzz so that running players can find them. All players wore blindfolds.

Parent Jan Carpenter, Bay Middle School teachers Zorana Sindelar, Jill Battershell, Beth Gavin-English and guidance counselor Mary Urbansky arranged for the week's special events. 

Karen Derby is the Public Information Officer for the Bay Village City School District.