Disabilities Awareness Merit Badge
Seven requirements, and requirement 4 prints the same four places under both of its options, so the choice is not where you go but what you look for: physical access, or how a place accommodates invisible disabilities. Only one of the two needs a member of staff to stop and talk to you. Requirement 5 hides a whole requirement above its menu, and its most research heavy option ends with a presentation nobody notices in the final clause.
Elective Merit Badges Merit Badges Requirements Special Needs Teaching
The plan behind this
Requirement 4 is not a choice of where to go
The badge offers two options and prints four locations under each one:
| Option A, Access | Option B, Accommodation | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | your school | your school |
| 2 | your place of worship | your place of worship |
| 3 | a Scouting event or campsite | a Scouting event or campsite |
| 4 | a public exhibit or attraction | a public exhibit or attraction |
The lists are identical. Whichever option you take, you visit two of the same four places. The choice is entirely in the paragraph above each list, and it is a choice about what you are looking for:
| what you look for | what you write down | |
|---|---|---|
| Option A | physical accessibility | five things that could be improved, and five things that make the site friendly to people with disabilities |
| Option B | features and methods that accommodate people with invisible disabilities | anything that could be done better, having asked staff to explain features that are not obvious |
That last cell is the practical difference. Option A is a walk round with a notebook and can be done on any visit you were making anyway. Option B needs a member of staff at each of the two sites to stop what they are doing and talk to you, which is an appointment rather than a visit. At a school or a place of worship that is usually easy; at a museum on a Saturday it is not.
One ambiguity worth settling before you start. Option A says to visit two locations and then asks for five improvements and five friendly features of "the site", in the singular. Ask your counselor whether that means five and five for each of the two, or five and five overall. It is the difference between ten observations and twenty, and it is much easier to ask than to redo.
Requirement 5 has a requirement above its menu
5 Explain what advocacy is. Do ONE of the following.
That first sentence is not a heading. It is a piece of work that everybody does, whichever of the three routes they then take, and by requirement 5 the eye has learned to skip the line above a list.
Requirement 5's three routes, honestly compared
| route | what it actually contains | needs an audience |
|---|---|---|
| 5(a) present a disabilities awareness program | the program must be approved by your counselor first, and you must explain and use person-first language during it | yes |
| 5(b) volunteer eight hours | find the program or agency, then eight hours. No presentation, no approval of content | no |
| 5(c) ten myths and misconceptions | ten myths and the facts behind each, so twenty pieces of research, share the list with your counselor, then use it to make a presentation | yes |
5(c) is the largest of the three and it does not look it. It reads as an evening of research, and its final clause is a presentation to a Cub Scout pack or other group. So it is 5(a) plus twenty pieces of research, not an alternative to it.
If you do not want to stand in front of a group, 5(b) is the only route, and it costs eight hours. If you are happy to present, 5(a) is much the smaller of the two presentations, and its approval requirement is on the program rather than on the delivery, so get the content agreed before you build it.
Three requirements, one organisation
| requirement | what it needs |
|---|---|
| 2 | visit an agency that works with people with disabilities, read its material, learn what training, employment and education opportunities its members have |
| 3(b) | talk with an individual who has a disability about their experiences and what they like to do |
| 5(b) | volunteer eight hours with a program or agency |
These are three separate pieces of work and each has to be done on its own merits. They can all happen at the same organisation, and the first one is where you meet the people who make the other two straightforward. Requirement 2 is numbered second and is the natural first move on the badge for exactly that reason.
A caution worth stating. Requirement 3(b) is a conversation with a person, not an interview of a subject. Ask the agency how to go about it rather than approaching somebody cold, and take requirement 1(b)'s etiquette seriously before you do: it is on the badge because it matters, not as a preliminary.
Requirement 3: five options, and two need nobody
| option | what it needs |
|---|---|
| 3(a) a Scout who has a disability | a specific person, willing to talk about their Scouting |
| 3(b) an individual who has a disability | a person, and an introduction. Requirement 2's agency is the way in |
| 3(c) an adaptive sport or recreational activity | research, and it can be done from a desk |
| 3(d) independent living aids | research: service animals, canes, captioned telephones, videophones |
| 3(e) an activity that helps others understand | plan OR participate in, and participating in an existing one is much the smaller job |
You do two. 3(c) and 3(d) are the pair that needs nobody, which makes them the safe answer if arranging conversations is hard where you are. But this is a badge about people, and 3(a) and 3(b) are where it is actually earned. If you can manage one conversation, make it one of your two.
3(e) says "plan or participate in". Those are very different jobs. Planning an awareness activity is a project; taking part in one your school, unit or council is already running is an afternoon.
Two of requirement 1's six terms come back
| term | where it comes back |
|---|---|
| disability, accessibility, adaptation, accommodation | vocabulary for the rest of the badge |
| invisible disability | the entire subject of requirement 4 Option B, and named again in 3(e) |
| person-first language | 5(a) says to explain and use it during your presentation |
Person-first language is the one to get right rather than to memorise, and it is worth knowing that not everybody prefers it. Identity-first language is the stated preference of parts of the autistic and Deaf communities. The requirement asks you to explain and use person-first language, and knowing why some people choose otherwise is what turns a definition into an understanding.
Requirement 6 is the one that cannot be done early
6 Make a commitment to your counselor describing what you will do ... Discuss how your awareness has changed as a result of what you have learned.
The second half of that requirement needs the rest of the badge to have happened. It is numbered sixth of seven and it belongs there. Keep a note as you go, because the honest answer to "how has your awareness changed" is easier to give from something written down in week one than reconstructed at the end.
What to arrange, and when
| when | what |
|---|---|
| first | requirement 2's agency visit. It is the introduction that makes 3(a), 3(b) and 5(b) possible |
| before you choose requirement 4 | decide whether you can get a member of staff to talk to you, which is what Option B needs |
| before you build anything for 5(a) | get the program approved. The approval is on the content |
| early, for 5(a) or 5(c) | book the Cub Scout pack or other group |
| as you go | note how your thinking changes, for requirement 6 |
The Disabilities Awareness merit badge, drawn so the choices are visible for what they are. It is not a copy of the requirements: each step is a short label with a link to the official requirements, which are what actually governs and which change from year to year.
Sources for this page
- Disabilities Awareness Merit Badge Requirements, Merit Badge Hub, last modified 2025-09-19 · The requirements themselves, and the free official pamphlet linked from them.
- Guide to Advancement, 2025, Section 7.0.0.3 · The process every merit badge is earned through, which this page does not repeat.
- Guide to Advancement, 2025, Section 7.0.4.3 · Which version of a changed requirement applies to a Scout who has already started.
- Guide to Advancement, 2025, Section 4.0.0.1 · Why the requirements are not in the Guide to Advancement and are expected to change annually.
Last checked against its sources on .