Lesson 5: Dignity for those living with a Disability

• Clip: #WeThe15 campaign video (1:50)

Show the clip and discuss the student’s response to it, including what they think the main message is.

Students find and read a recent Australian news article that relates to those living with a disability. They do then do ‘Word, Phrase, Sentence’ activity to identify and explain what they found significant in the article.

The class discusses what they discovered about the way those living with a disability are treated in Australia.

• Clip: Disability, inclusion, belonging, and faith (3:27)

Students watch the clip and summarise what John Swinton says about the difference between inclusion and belonging, giving examples of each.

Display the Swinton quote and discuss what it could mean, and how much they agree with it. (Lesson 5 slides.)

• Podcast Extract: Not an Inspiration (4 min)

Students read the podcast extract ‘Not an Inspiration’ and write down two things they noticed or learnt.

Display the Clifton quote and discuss how our society’s treatment of people with disabilities would change if everyone practised that? (Lesson 5 slides.)

• Article: Baby Gammy and the complexities of moral outrage (3 min)
• Article: Disability and humanity (5 min)

Students read the articles then complete the ‘Values, Identities, Actions’ thinking routine:

1. What values do these articles invite us to think about?
2. Who are these articles speaking about? And who are they trying to speak to?
3. What actions might these articles encourage?

• Article: A glorious, fragile vision (3 min)

Students read the article and answer the following questions:

1. How does the story Simon Smart tells make you feel?
2. What would you say is Simon’s main point? Do you agree with it?

In the podcast extract, Shane Clifton says “It’s interesting to think of Jesus as somehow disabled on the cross.”

Students read Isaiah 52:13-53:4 (an Old Testament prophecy that Christians see as fulfilled in Jesus).

1. What image do we get of Jesus in this passage?

2. How might this be powerful for people with disabilities?

Students read John 9:1-3 and Luke 5:11-13.

3. What is striking about the way Jesus responds to disability in these passages?

Students read the parable of the great banquet in Luke 14:15-24.

4. What might this story reveal about how God sees people with disabilities?

• Article: How young disability activists are using TikTok to make a difference

Students read the article and then create their own TikTok-style video campaign promoting the dignity and equality of people with disabilities, drawing on the ideas explored in this lesson.

Students write a personal journal entry reflecting on the issues explored in this lesson. The points that resonated, things they want to know more about, questions or concerns they have around this topic?

• Clip: I’m not your inspiration, thank you very much (9:16)

Students watch Stella Young’s TED Talk that was referenced in the extract of the podcast interview with Shane Clifton.

After watching, they write a postable comment, sharing their reaction to the clip.