The Importance of School Inclusion (Success Story of an Artist with a Disability, and How being Included in Mainstream Schools as a Child Impacted her Life)

Even though Katherine had broken over 500 bones by the time she was just ten years old, Katherine's parents pushed for her to attend a mainstream school her entire life. Although she had to function a little bit differently than her peers, her teachers were always impressed with her academic abilities and she was challenged like any other able-bodied student.

Katherine's disability, Osteogenesis Imperfecta, causes her bones to break easily and grow abnormally, but she is not mentally compromised in the slightest. It was clear even at a young age that she needed the mental and social stimulation that only a mainstream school with "normal" kids could provide. Without the normal experiences she had growing up with her peers, she would never be where she is today successfully running her own art and design business.

Not only did growing up in a mainstream school teach Katherine valuable lessons, it also taught her classmates how to treat people who are a little different than them. As adults, the kids that grew up around Katherine are not awkward around other people with disabilities and understand how to include them in their lives.

Listen as Katherine maintains that school inclusion is the simple solution to ignorance of the disabled community present in society today. She believes that by simply including disabled kids in mainstream schools, we can abolish many of the misconceptions society has about disabled people.

Why you should Attend

New perspectives, learning about how to treat someone with a disability, how to handle your kids' reactions when they see someone with a disability, how to create an educational environment where everyone is included

Areas Covered in the Session

How to create an educational environment where everyone is included
Social advantages to including disabled kids in the regular classroom
How to react (and how not to react) to a disabled person in public

Who Will Benefit

Educators
Parents
Teachers
Business Owners

Speaker Profile

Katherine Klimitas is a New Orleans-based artist and designer who sold her first watercolor at age 10. As the daughter of veterinarians, Katherine expresses her family’s life-long love of animals through her meticulous life-like paintings. She earned a B.A. from Loyola University in 2011, and today at age 35, runs her multifaceted business KAK ART & Designs from home. When clients learn that Katherine has Osteogenesis Imperfecta, also known as brittle bone disease, they are captivated by her unique perspective. She and her parents stopped counting her broken bones at 500 at age 10. She’s 2 feet 7 inches tall, gets around in an electric wheelchair, and creates all of her art, jewelry and commercial graphic design while lying on her side.

“Looking Up” is a glimpse into Katherine’s world, a world unlike most. Because she spends most of her time in an electric wheelchair due to her physical condition, she spends a lot of her time looking up. Though the book began as her college senior project, it evolved shortly thereafter into her story, complete with anecdotes, humor, and powerful photography.

Katherine speaks to a variety of audiences, including high school and college students, medical professionals, and education professionals, spreading her message of perseverance and creativity.