I'm working on a health & medical writing question and need a sample draft to help me learn.

Case Study # 2 – AFTER SCHOOL SPORTS

Christopher was an athletic seventh grader, and he loved sports. Christopher, or Chris as most people call him, has a visual impairment, and he is at risk for a detached retina, so he is in a modified physical education (PE) class at his school. Chris had a wonderful multidisciplinary team that met several times during the year to ensure he had appropriate accommodations in his PE class for his retinal detachment issue. Chris did not want any special treatment due to his visual impairment, so the team had to make some compromises with him so he could participate safely. Chris directed his own disability awareness program with his classmates. With the help of his teacher of the visually impaired and his PE teacher, his friends got to wear occluders to see what he sees and do some of the sports they were doing in PE. They said that they had no idea what it was that he saw and that the awareness activity was very helpful for them (Lieberman, Ponchillia, & Ponchillia, 2013).

Chris went to a sports camp each summer and did many sports, both after-school sports and Paralympic sports. He knows that he is a good athlete and was beginning to teach the younger campers at his summer camp. Chris wanted to be on his after-school modified soccer team, but the athletic director and the coach felt that it was too dangerous due to his visual impairment.

Chris’ mother encouraged him to be on his school cross-country team. Again, the athletic director and the coach of the cross-country team felt that he was going to get hurt or hurt somebody else and were reluctant to let him join. Chris was adamant about joining the team, as he loved to run and had done very well at his summer sports camp. The coach was worried, as he had no guide for him at the time. The coach said that he could join the team if he ran with one of his parents. So, for the first week, Chris’ mother came to his practices with him. There were several issues with this and one of them was that Chris was fast and his mother was holding him back. The other was that nobody else had to bring a parent to run with them, and this was just not appropriate or legal (US Department of Education, 2013).

The athletic director called Chris’s camp director and asked her to help him find someone to run with Chris. He was still very reluctant and was feeling that it was not going to work. The coach also agreed about people getting hurt and liability. The camp director helped them connect with one of Chris’s former counselors, Mr. Wood, who was student teaching nearby. They hired him to run with Chris. This was a good and comfortable solution for the moment. Mr. Wood and Chris held a tether, a short rope between them, so Chris could be guided safely. This is the same system used in the Paralympics and big races like the Boston marathon with blind runners (Davis, 2011; Depauw & Gavron, 2005). Fortunately, the New York High School Athletic Association had guide running as one of the acceptable forms of modifications for cross-country. Many athletes in the state of New York use tethers in cross-country and in track and field.

In the first race of the season with 66 runners, Chris placed third. He was elated, as were his parents. He made a personal best time, and he knew that he belonged on the team. Then, two races later came another problem; Chris was too fast for Mr. Wood at this point. They had to do something and fast. They put out an ad for a guide runner, and fortunately there was a cafeteria worker who had run on his college cross-country team. He was fast and available at practice and meet times. Chris continued to come in the top five in his meets. He had shown the athletic director and the coach that, yes, he could run and be competitive despite his visual impairment. Chris was elated as he had found a sport he loved and that was accessible for him.

Chris did not want the season to end. He decided to go out for the swim team. The swim coach, Ms. Potenza, was reluctant to allow Chris to be on the team. She had never coached a swimmer who was visually impaired. She called the camp director and got information on the instructional techniques to use with Chris and ways to help him know when the lane ended (Camp Abilities, n.d.). The instructional techniques were tactile modeling, where Chris felt her body move through the motions, and physical guidance, where she moved him through the motion of each new stroke. Chris also excelled on his after-school swim team. Chris now has his eyes set on track and field and already knows his distances and has his guide set for the season.

Facilitation Questions

1. What is the critical issue in this case?

2. Are there related issues? If so, what are they?

3. What are some of the specific elements that contribute to these issues?

4. Who are the characters in the case?

5. What role did the characters play in creating and solving these issues?

6. What are some of the suggested strategies you might try to address these issues in your school OR program(s)?

7. What accommodations are required, if any?