SCOUTING OFFERS 134-PLUS merit badges, and almost all of them focus on enhancing a Scout’s knowledge and abilities. One badge is different: Disabilities Awareness
Disabilities Awareness Merit Badge
Disabilities Awareness
Merit Badge
Scouting America Merit Badge Hub
Scouting America
Merit Badge Hub
Disabilities Awareness Merit Badge Overview
Understand various disabilities and how they affect your friends, family, and community members with the Disability Awareness Merit Badge. Scouts will learn about the experiences of someone with a disability, explain the significance of disability etiquette, and how it may differ depending on the specific disability.
Disabilities Awareness Merit Badge Requirements
The previous version of the Merit Badge requirements can be found in Scoutbook
The requirements will be fed dynamically using the scout book integration 37
NOTE: The official merit badge pamphlets are now free and downloadable HERE or can be purchased at the Scout Shop.
1.
Do the following:
- (a) Explain and discuss with your counselor the following disabilities awareness terms: disability, accessibility, adaptation, accommodation, invisible disability, and person-first language.
- (b) Explain why proper disability etiquette is important, and how it may differ depending on the specific disability. Give three examples.
2.
Visit an agency that works with people with physical, mental, emotional, or educational disabilities. Collect and read information about the agency's activities. Learn about opportunities its members have for training, employment, and education. Discuss what you have learned with your counselor.
3.
Do TWO of the following:
- (a) Talk with a Scout who has a disability and learn about the Scout's experiences taking part in Scouting activities and earning different merit badges. Discuss what you have learned with your counselor.
- (b) Talk with an individual who has a disability and learn about this person's experiences and the activities in which this person likes to participate. Discuss what you have learned with your counselor.
- (c) Learn how people with disabilities take part in a particular adaptive sport or recreational activity. Discuss what you have learned with your counselor.
- (d) Learn about independent living aids such as service animals, canes, and augmentative communication devices such as captioned telephones and videophones. Discuss with your counselor how people use such aids.
- (e) Plan or participate in an activity that helps others understand what a person with a visible or invisible disability experiences. Discuss what you have learned with your counselor.
4.
Do ONE of the following options:
- Option A. Visit TWO of the following locations and take notes about the accessibility to people with disabilities. In your notes, give examples of five things that could be done to improve upon the site and five things about the site that make it friendly to people with disabilities. Discuss your observations with your counselor.
- (a) Your school
- (b) Your place of worship
- (c) A Scouting event or campsite
- (d) A public exhibit or attraction (such as a theater, museum, or park).
- Option B. Visit TWO of the following locations and take notes while observing features and methods that are used to accommodate people with invisible disabilities. While there, ask staff members to explain any accommodation features that may not be obvious. Note anything you think could be done to better accommodate people who have invisible disabilities. Discuss your observations with your counselor.
- (a) Your school
- (b) Your place of worship
- (c) A Scouting event or campsite
- (d) A public exhibit or attraction (such as a theater, museum, or park).
5.
Explain what advocacy is. Do ONE of the following:
- (a) Present a counselor-approved disabilities awareness program to a Cub Scout pack or other group. During your presentation, explain and use person-first language.
- (b) Find out about disabilities awareness education programs in your school or school system, or contact a disability advocacy agency. Volunteer with a program or agency for eight hours
- (c) Using resources such as disability advocacy agencies, government agencies, the internet (with your parent or guardian's permission), and news magazines, learn about myths and misconceptions that influence the general public's understanding of people with disabilities. List 10 myths and misconceptions about people with disabilities and learn the facts about each myth. Share your list with your counselor, then use it to make a presentation to a Cub Scout pack or other group.
6.
Make a commitment to your counselor describing what you will do to show a positive attitude about and toward people with disabilities and to encourage positive attitudes among others. Discuss how your awareness has changed as a result of what you have learned.
7.
Name five professions that provide services to people with disabilities. Pick one that interests you and find out the education, training, and experience required for this profession. Discuss what you learn with your counselor, and tell why this profession interests you.
Get the Disabilities Awareness Merit Badge Pamphlet
Merit Badge Pamphlets are now free and publicly available. Note: Always check www.scouting.org/skills/merit-badges/all/ for the latest requirements.
Discover more about "Disabilities Awareness"
Sandy Payne, a member of the Scouting America’s National Special Needs and Disabilities Committee, begins her presentation on how to include those with special needs
Madison Trimble is slowly but confidently making her way around a simple maze of PVC pipes laid out on the ground.
Every few steps, her feet or her bright yellow cane bumps against a pipe, and she shifts her direction slightly.
When she gets to the end, Madison, an 18-year-old Venturer from Crew 5275C of the Alamo Area Council, takes off the blindfold. She looks behind her.
“That was hard!” she says. “You have to use your other senses, like hearing and feel.”
That’s exactly the point of the disAbilities Awareness Challenge area at the 2017 National Jamboree. Venturers and Scouts experience the challenges faced by individuals with disabilities or special needs.
When Noah White became aware that there was a lack of inclusion for people with disabilities in some public venues within his community, it hit different. Noah, from Troop 107 in Cincinnati, has a sister who has Down syndrome and is hard of hearing.
For his Eagle Scout service project, Noah came up with the idea to install a sign at the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden — a place he visited frequently — that would make it easier for visitors of different abilities to enjoy the exhibits.
Noah, who took an American Sign Language class in school, wanted to include information on his sign in ASL and a handful of foreign languages. And he wanted to include a section that used the Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS), an alternative communication system designed for people with cognitive, physical and communication challenges.
“I noticed that animal exhibits did not have any forms of communication on them aside from English,” Noah says. “A sign was the perfect way to place these forms of communication because it offers a space for colors and multiple communication methods to be displayed in one spot.”
As the project progressed, the Cincinnati Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired hopped on board and offered to add Braille.
It’s the kind of question every parent dreams of hearing: “Dad, do you know anywhere I can volunteer?”
Two years ago, Trenton Doherty directed that query to his father, and Rich Doherty had a ready answer.
Rich told Trenton about The Angelus, an assisted-living facility for people with disabilities such as autism, cerebral palsy and Down syndrome.
As a Scout, Trenton welcomed any opportunity to help other people at all times — whether those times earned him service hours for rank advancement or not. To Trenton, The Angelus seemed like a place where he could do a lot of good.
One day while volunteering at The Angelus, Trenton met Chris, who has been a resident at the facility for 15 years. Through their conversations, Trenton learned that Chris had been a Scout in Hudson, Fla., in the early to mid-2000s. But that Scouting story ended in a cliffhanger: When Chris was a Life Scout, the troop “up and left,” Rich says.
“On the ride home, Trenton said, ‘It wasn’t right that Chris is so close and won’t get his chance to become Eagle!’” Rich remembers.
For more than four decades, Scouting America and the Woods Services Foundation have honored Scouters for their exceptional service for Scouts with special needs
