Ema's Insights

        The medical model of disability  is a scientific diagnosis given to someone at some point. The medical model of disability is a matter of fact and not what people assume about the disabled. Doctors and people in the medical field focus solely on the diagnosis and how that affects the person. They don't assume that a person can or cannot do something or feel some way because they know the intricacies of the disability. On the other hand, the biopsychosocial model of disability is a more intricate way of looking at disability. Society has a bad habit of creating preconceived notions about people with disabilities even though they most likely know little to nothing about the disability someone has. The biopsychosocial model allows us to take a deep dive into the different aspects of someone's disability like culture, age, and cognition. Those are just a couple of things that the model looks into. Instead of just saying this is the disability someone has it ...

      Technology is a major part of our modern society, always evolving and changing. Adaptive technology has been used in disabled sports for a while and is also always changing. I do think that adaptive technology should be allowed in disabled sports. For practice athletes should be allowed to use whatever type of technology they want or are comfortable with. On the other hand, I think that there should be some type of regulation on the technology that is allowed to be used in competition. With all of the new technology coming out, it's going to be common that one athlete could come in with state-of-the-art equipment, while another athlete has adaptive technology from ten years ago because that is all that they can afford. Major competitions like the Olympics should be putting regulations on what can be used like everyone has to have devices from the same year or manufacture. Athletes competing in the games who come from disadvantaged nations that cannot afford the tech...

      Increasing media coverage of the Paralympics and other disabled sports could be done in a number of different ways. Firstly, since both of the games are aired at the same time then their commercials should be filmed together. It's common knowledge that the Olympic games have a bigger following than the Paralympics. If the commercials were filmed and aired with both competitors, it would draw more attention to the Paralympics. Every commercial for the Olympics should also have a snippet letting the viewers know that they could simultaneously be watching the Paralympics as well. Secondly, I think that the TV schedule for the games should be used changeably between the two games as they are going on. For example, the Olympic 500-yard dash is aired and then the Paralympic 500-yard dash is aired. Using the games literally simultaneously for people to be able to watch both of the games with the different athletes. Lastly, I think that the Paralympics should be getting mor...

Blog #2 - Paralympic     Originally, when I first thought of the word Paralympic, I immediately thought of the word paraplegic. A paraplegic is someone who has little or no ability to move the lower half of their body. At first, I thought that the Paralympics were for people who had paraplegia and that was the only way that you would qualify to be able to compete in them. I never gave the word or its meaning much thought either because if it doesn't affect me personally, why squander over it. After looking at videos, reading articles, and conducting a little bit of my own research I realized that I was missing the entire meaning of why 'Para" is in the word. I didn't realize the history of the games and how deep the information actually goes when discussing the Paralympic movement.     With a simple Google search, I learned that the word paralympic contains the Greek preposition 'para', which means beside or alongside . The word Paralympics is used bec...

      Throughout my entire life, I have been around people with all kinds of disabilities. I have seen people in wheelchairs, people with missing limbs, and Down Syndrome. Growing up I had more experience being around Autistic people though because I have a lot of family members who have it. Some of my family members have high-functioning autism and you would barely even be able to tell that they have it. I also have family members whose autism affects their everyday life and they need help to be able to navigate.      My little cousin, Connor, I have been around since he was brought into this world and I was able to understand his disability so well because I was almost ten years older than him. It's amazing how over the years I have noticed the little independent man he has become. He has gone to endless amounts of speech, occupational, and physical therapy over the years, but they have greatly helped with his independence. When he was little he would onl...

 Hello Everyone, My name is Ema Finegan and I am a Senior this semester. I just had a baby in September and took the Fall semester off, but I am back and ready to finish strong. Although my life has been very busy while caring for a newborn, I enjoy things like music, spending time with family, and binge-watching Netflix series. I look forward to a great semester with all of you! :)