Janice Fialka’s 40-year career as a social worker has been profoundly influenced by the concept of dance. Not as a therapeutic technique but as a metaphor for partners who truly listen to each other in a way that synchronizes and transforms their relationship. She is an internationally recognized lecturer, author and advocate on disability, parent-professional partnerships, inclusion, raising a child with disabilities, sibling issues, and post-secondary education.
Her entire family — husband Richard Feldman, son Micah, and daughter Emma — has worked to create more just treatment for disabled people, work informed, in part, by Micah’s intellectual disability. Micah, 27, meanwhile, is a leader on disability issues in his own right. In 2009 the family received a Lifetime Achievement Award from Family Voices, a national organization that promotes family-centered care for children with special healthcare needs or disabilities.
Fialka approaches the subject with humor, poetic vision and a powerful sense of inclusion. She will be discussing the issues involed and signing copies of her book Partnering for Children with Disabilities, A Dance that Matters on Saturday, May 19, from 5 to 6:30 p.m. at the Source Book Store (4201 Cass in Detroit). Call 313-832-1155 for more information.
This article appears in May 16-22, 2012.
