By Shirley Blaier-Stein | May 07, 2011 at 05:44 PM EDT |
4 comments
Last month the Milford Mirror published a letter from the mother of a 21 year old girl with autism telling how a zumba studio in CT banned her girl from participating in classes. Can you believe this? The reason was safety. But when the mother assured them that she will provide the young woman with an aid, they said that they are afraid that their clients will not feel comfortable having a person with disabilities in the class.
Get it? They were afraid to lose business because they have a girl with autism in the class.
Now the girl has already participated in the demo class with much success and was so excited about starting to do zumba that she purchased special zumba pants (I love those!). She was completely devastated. And her family too.
A week after that, it was published that a few studios in the area have contacted the family to offer their studios for her to join. Mary Rose from Studio Z Fitness, where we had our parties, spoke to the girl personally and offered her a spot. “She was so sweet on the phone with me,” Mary Rose told me, “I really hope she comes to dance here!”
Mary Rose also interviewed with the paper for an additional article and told them about our party and how our kids did great and had a blast.
I am so glad that while we are having a great time dancing and enjoying each other’s company - and the kids are enjoying themselves dancing and running around with their friends - we are creating awareness: We are showing that our kids can do this! They can participate in different activities that people would not normally think they can – and have fun!
Awareness is not just letting the world know how many kids have autism and what signs to look for. Awareness is telling how great our kids are and what wonderful things they can do.
This is wonderful to hear that other studios offered this girl a spot. This story reminds me to never feel down when people respond negatively to my children but to remember the people out there who DO want to get to know them and treat them well. Thanks Shirley!
Wow. The timing of our special needs Zumba party was perfect to counter this story. It shows the world that you can have 2 factors equally the same (Zumba & Special Needs) and have completely different experiences. The difference in peoples *attitudes* made ALL the difference in these 2 stories. Which story would you rather live in?
The Americas with Disabilities Act prohibits businesses for not making \"reasonable accomodations\" for persons with diabilities. I came across this myself when a popular gym in CT would not allow my son to attend a class with an aide when he was over 3 1/2 and too old for the mommy and me classes. I was enraged and contacted my lawyer. After reviewing the law we found out that since I was providing an aide for my son, at no additional cost to them, that is was a reasonable accomodation that they needed to accept. We sent a letter from the lawyer. Then they allowed him to attend but treated him like he was not part of the class out of spite. I sent ANOTHER letter stating that although he is there with an aide it is there responsibiity to instruct him as they would any other customer. I was paying the same amount as everyone else and expected equal treatment. I then observed them to make sure they were treating him equally, which they hated. I believe I kept him there for 1 more year and we went on like this. I should have pulled him out because he was a pawn in the hole mess, but felt so strongly that I needed to stand my ground and fight them on behalf of parents with children with special needs. This was 10 years ago and I'm sure things have changed since then, well hopefully anyway!
Thanks Shirley for sharing this story. It is up to us (parents) to prove to the world that our Autistic Children may be a little different but they are able to do most anything other typical children can do. We have a long and tough battle ahead of us, but I know we can do it!!!