Roseville Press Tribune :

Students at Success High School in Roseville got a crash course in overcoming challenges Friday as part of a hands-on disability awareness program.

Rolling around in wheelchairs, writing their name by looking in a mirror and walking with their eyes closed using only a white cane are some of the activities students participated in to increase their understanding of what it is like to be disabled.

They also listened as three representatives with disabilities spoke, sharing their stories, exposing their fears, and relating how they overcome the daily challenges of their disability.

The program, called A Touch of Understanding, is comprised of volunteers from the area. It seeks to increase tolerance for and understanding of people with physical disabilities, and strives to downplay the differences between people and focus on the similarities.

Students in the back of the classroom craned their necks and stood on their tip-toes to see the prosthetic legs and feet of a man whose legs had been amputated due to gangrene.

Dan Adragma pulled up his pant leg to his knee and popped off his prosthetic leg.

“This leg and the foot it’s connected to cost $10,000. It has shock absorbers just like you’d see on a dirt bike, to help absorb energy and propel me. I’d pass it around, but I’m afraid I wouldn’t get it back,” he joked.

Several years ago, Adragma was diagnosed with Septic Shock Syndrome, which sent his body into a coma for several weeks. The only things working during that time were his heart and his kidneys.

Gangrene set in his fingers and toes. While he only lost the tip of some of his fingers, the doctors decided it was necessary to remove his legs to prevent the deadly gangrene infection from spreading.

“Boy, it felt good to get this and get back on my own two feet again,” he joked. “It really gave me a leg to stand on.”

During the time after his surgery, as he was adjusting to life as a disabled person, Dan said he learned three important things.

“After three months in the hospital, I quickly realized how lucky I was to be alive,” he said. “I also realized there were going to be some minor inconveniences, like showering in the morning and just getting around.

“But then I realized how much I could still do and chose to focus on that instead of what I couldn’t do. I can swim, play basketball, and bowl. I even got remarried!” he said with a twinkle in his eye.

Another ATOU volunteer named JDD Doran-Jammer, who has been blind since he was age 3, said he learned he could do anything he sets his mind to.

“I was over at somebody’s house and they had this Bop-It game,” he said. “When they told me I wouldn’t be able to play it, I sat there for hours figuring it out. Now I’m better at it than a lot of people.”

Doran-Jammer, who sees nothing out of his left eye and can just vaguely perceive light and dark in his right eye, loves to roller blade and downhill ski.

“You’ll find that if you put your mind to something, you can do almost anything,” he said.

To help them relate better to people with disabilities, volunteers helped students push themselves around in wheelchairs, use white canes to walk with their eyes closed, and write their names in a mirror.

After she tried rolling around the room in a wheelchair, freshman Lisa Samlot said she could better understand the challenges disabled people face every day.

“It makes you sympathize with them more, and admire them, too,” she said. “This is hard work.”

Another freshman, Demetrius Dixon, agreed after he participated in the white cane walk that had students close their eyes and be led out of a classroom and down a ramp with only the white canes for guidance.

“It’s not easy to find which direction to go,” he said. “It helps you understand a lot better.”

Because Success High is a continuation school for ninth- and 10th- graders, the students there know perhaps better than anyone the difficulty of overcoming challenges.

Some are there because they are behind due to a learning disability. Others have behavioral problems, and still others just need to catch up in school.

But all face difficulties every day and share the common goal of getting back into regular high school.

Anthony Papic, who has taught everything from math, world studies and physical education at Success for seven years, said the students really need to hear more of these kinds of presentations.

“This presentation gave them opportunities to see that challenges can be overcome,” Papic said. “Some of our students think they can’t do it, they can’t catch up and overcome whatever difficulty is keeping them out of regular school. This shows them that they can, and that our challenges make us stronger.”

Jay Olson, a teacher at Success and member of the Granite Bay Rotary Club, said the members of his club sponsored ATOU’s by personally donating anywhere from $10-$20 each.

“We thought it was something our students would really be able to benefit from,” Olson said. “The main point is not necessarily about disabilities, though that’s part of it. It’s about overcoming any challenge that is in your way, and not letting it get the best of you.”

A Touch of Understanding was started in 1996 by Leslie DeDora. Eighty-six percent of teachers said the respect level in their classrooms went up after the students participated in the presentation, DeDora said.

“People are always hesitant to treat disabled people like regular people, because they are unfamiliar with them,” DeDora said. “But the only difference between them and you is that they face different, sometimes greater challenges in life.

“We all have challenges. It’s just a matter of making the choice to overcome them, whatever they are.”