Catriona Johnson

When Asher's mom came to talk to our class about Asher, I felt very inspired.  I had never really considered the value of ability integration.  Of course, I had always known that it was important to not discriminate against those who are differently abled, but I hadn't considered the negative effects of segregation.  When I used to live in Regina, I had a friend who has a severely autistic sister, Lindsay.  Had she been forced to segregate with the special education classes at her highschool, she would not have made nearly as much progress to living a comfortable lifestyle as she has today.  Her parents involved her in programs where she could make friends with people of all levels of ability, and this provided her with a progression in comfortability in social situations.  Lindsay's parents also encouraged her to strive to take an interest in learning new things and to push herself to learn new operative skills and techniques.  Because of all of the encouragement she has had behind her, Lindsay is now going to SIAST (Regina's equivalent to Camosun), taking art classes, and is working towards living on her own.  Asher's mom had mentioned that she is very involved in the kinds of social programs that Lindsay went through, and a few of my peers and I have decided that we would find it very rewarding to volunteer with an organization that Ms. Johnson is associated with.