Section 3
Who Are These People with Learning Disabilities?
We need to focus on the person, not the disability. We also need to highlight the importance of looking at learners’ strengths as well as their weaknesses. Because most of the general characteristics of learning disabilities relate to difficulties, you can challenge tutors to consider how they can recognize, highlight and reinforce learners’ strengths.
Use this section for tutors who are unfamiliar with learners with learning disabilities, to give them a connection to a real person.
Activity A (optional activity)
The famous ones
This activity introduces the interview, video or learner story in Activity B.
Why choose this activity?
This provides an interesting introduction to the core activity that follows.
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STEP-BY-STEP PROCESS
- Introduce this section by saying that people with learning disabilities can be found in many parts of our society, including the ranks of the famous. Read off any of the names in the following list of famous people with learning disabilities that might be of interest to tutors.
- Hans Christian Anderson
- Harry Belafonte
- Alexander Graham Bell
- George Burns
- Cher
- Winston Churchill
- Tom Cruise
- Leonardo da Vinci
- Walt Disney
- Thomas Edison
- Albert Einstein
- Henry Ford
- Whoopi Goldberg
- Greg Louganis
- General George Patton
- Nelson Rockefeller
- Auguste Rodin
- Jackie Stewart
- George Washington
- Woodrow Wilson
- Virginia Woolf
- W. B. Yeats
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