Disability Culture Plunge Portfolio

For this assignment you are required to develop a portfolio that showcases your experience through a disability culture plunge (You can find a list of activity and event options on Blackboard). A culture plunge can be defined as exposure to a culture that is different from our own and in this class specifically, the culture of disability. For some of you, you may already identify as being familiar with disability culture. If so, you will need to explore an arena of disability culture that you are not as familiar with. For many of you though, this may be your first time interacting or being involved with the disability community, and we are very excited to read about your experience! It is normal for you to feel nervous, intimidated, and fearful about this assignment, but we hope that this assignment is a valuable and memorable experience that transcends beyond your time at SDSU.

What is required for this portfolio?

  • Student Self-Scored Checklist
  • About the Organization/Activity/Event/Person
    This portion of the assignment includes background information about the Organization:
    • Name, Location, Date of Culture Plunge, website (if applicable)
    • Contact information (i.e., website, email, and name of contact person if applicable)
    • A brief 300-word description of what you did during your time and the types of disabilities that were represented at the event.
  • Photos of the event/activity. Please include a caption with each photo.
  • Reflection:
    Please answer all 4 reflection questions to receive full 10 points. No less than one page, double spaced, 12 pt. font response. Indicate A, B, C or D for each part of this response.
    • What were some assumptions you had before participating in your disability culture plunge activity? Your assumptions can be positive, negative or both.
    • What was something new you learned during your culture plunge?
    • How did this experience change your views about people with disabilities?
    • How might you see yourself contributing to the lives of people with disabilities in the future?

The name of the organization I attended was The Arc of San Diego Group, which is located at 1280 Nolan Ave, Chula Vista, CA 91911. This culture plunge was done on October 6, 2018 from 8:30am- 12:00pm.

https://www.arc-sd.com, mmather@are-sd.com, 858-395-0734, Michael Mather was the person who helped us sign up for this even

I attended this event with two of my classmates Aylin Karoomi and Nirmeen Jabouri. We arrived at 8:30 am to the event. We attended three classes; at 9:00am we attended a music class. Victoria was the instructor for this class. She started her class with an opening song that was asking the attendees about what are they in the mood for. This song was very joyful and everyone was happy and excited to share his or her moods. After that she taught the class how to use the drums. Victoria also used her guitar and sang few songs such as ACB, over the rainbow and much more. This class was very interesting and everyone had so much fun singing and dancing. At 10:30 we attended an adaptive fitness class. Lovely M was the instructor for this class. She was very sweet with her students. In this class we did some yoga, pass the ball, people were able to use bikes and treadmill machines to get their activities done. The last class we attended was a Zumba class. This class was super fun and active. We danced and helped other people enjoy their time through dancing. There were different types of disabilities that were represented at the event some people with mental health conditions, intellectual disability, acquired brain injury, autism, and physical disability.