Disabilities Awareness Merit Badge

1. Do the following: the words, and the manners Requirement

Both parts required, and neither is the warm-up it looks like. Two of 1(a)'s six terms are instructions rather than vocabulary, and 1(b)'s etiquette is what makes requirement 3's conversations go well or badly.

2. Visit an agency, and learn what it offers its members Often forgotten Requirement

THE FIRST MOVE ON THIS BADGE, whatever the numbering says. Four jobs in one paragraph, and the introduction it gives you is what makes 3(a), 3(b) and 5(b) arrangeable. Physical, mental, emotional or educational disabilities all qualify, so the choice of agency is wide.

THIS IS THE FIRST MOVE ON THE BADGE WHATEVER THE NUMBERING SAYS, BECAUSE IT IS AN INTRODUCTION. The agency you visit here is the natural way to arrange 3(b), a conversation with an individual who has a disability, and it is the obvious place to ask about 5(b)'s eight hours of volunteering. Those are three separate pieces of work and each has to be done properly, but they can all happen at one organisation and with people you have already met, which is a great deal easier than arranging three things cold. Note also that this requirement is four jobs in one paragraph: visit, collect and read the agency's material, LEARN WHAT OPPORTUNITIES ITS MEMBERS HAVE FOR TRAINING, EMPLOYMENT AND EDUCATION, and discuss it with your counselor. The third is specific and is the one most often skipped, because it arrives after a sentence that sounds like the end of the requirement.

3. Do TWO of the following Often forgotten Requirement

Five options, and they split cleanly: two need a specific person willing to talk with you, two are research needing nobody, and the fifth is either a project or an afternoon depending on which of its two verbs you take.

TWO OF THESE FIVE NEED A PERSON AND TWO NEED NOBODY, AND YOU PICK TWO. 3(a) needs a Scout who has a disability and is willing to talk about their Scouting; 3(b) needs an individual who has a disability and is willing to talk about their life. 3(c) and 3(d) are research and can be done entirely from a desk, which makes them the safe pair if arranging conversations is hard where you live. 3(e) sits between them, because "plan or participate in" are two very different jobs: planning an awareness activity is a project with an audience, while taking part in one your school, unit or council already runs is an afternoon. THIS IS A BADGE ABOUT PEOPLE, THOUGH. If you can manage one conversation, make it one of your two, and go through requirement 2's agency to arrange it rather than approaching somebody cold.

4. Do ONE of the following options Often forgotten Requirement

TWO OPTIONS, AND THE SAME FOUR PLACES PRINTED UNDER EACH OF THEM. Everything that separates Option A from Option B sits in the paragraph above each list rather than in the list itself, which is exactly why this reads as a choice of destination and is not one.

THE FOUR PLACES ARE THE SAME UNDER BOTH OPTIONS, SO THIS IS NOT A CHOICE OF WHERE TO GO. Your school, your place of worship, a Scouting event or campsite, and a public exhibit or attraction are listed twice, once under each option, word for word. The choice is entirely in the paragraph above each list, and it is a choice about what you are looking for: Option A is physical accessibility, and Option B is how a place accommodates people with invisible disabilities. THE COST DIFFERENCE IS IN THOSE PARAGRAPHS TOO. Option A is a walk round with a notebook and can be done on a visit you were making anyway. Option B says to ask staff members to explain any accommodation features that may not be obvious, so it needs somebody at each of the two sites to stop work and talk to you. At a school that is easy; at a museum on a busy Saturday it is not. Decide on that sentence, not on the lists.

5. Explain advocacy, then do ONE of the following Often forgotten Requirement

ONE COMPULSORY EXPLANATION AND THEN THREE ROUTES, and neither half is what it looks like. The line above the menu is work everybody does, and the three routes below it run from eight hours of volunteering to twenty pieces of research followed by a presentation to a booked audience.

THE FIRST SENTENCE OF THIS REQUIREMENT IS A REQUIREMENT, NOT A HEADING. "Explain what advocacy is" applies to everybody, whichever of the three routes follows, and by the fifth requirement of a badge the eye has learned that the line above a list can be skipped. AND THE THREE ROUTES ARE NOT THE SIZES THEY LOOK. 5(c) reads like an evening of internet research, and it is ten myths AND the facts behind each, which is twenty pieces of research, followed by sharing the list with your counselor, followed, in its very last clause, by a presentation to a Cub Scout pack or other group. So two of the three routes end in front of an audience, and the one that appears to be desk work is the largest of the three. If standing in front of a group is not for you, 5(b) is the only route, and it costs eight hours.

6. A commitment, and how your thinking changed Often forgotten Requirement

THE ONE REQUIREMENT THAT CANNOT BE DONE EARLY. The commitment describes what you will do to show a positive attitude and to encourage it in others. The second half asks how your awareness has changed as a result of what you have learned, which needs the rest of the badge behind it. Keep a note as you go.

7. Five professions, then one researched Requirement

Name five professions that provide services to people with disabilities, pick the one that interests you, and find out the education, training and experience it requires. Then discuss it and say why it interests you. The five are wider than the medical ones: teaching, therapy, law, design and technology all qualify.

Counselor signs it off Milestone

The completion date is the date you met the requirements, not the date of the signature.

Usually comes after 7. Five professions, then one researched.

Merit badge requirements are republished annually. A Scout beginning work uses the requirements as they stand then; a Scout already working may finish under the ones they started with. Guide to Advancement 7.0.4.3 governs which applies. This page records the date its copy was read. Check it against the official page before relying on it.