Monday, July 22, 2013

Interview Assignment

For our interview assignment, we had to go out to the public of Spain and conduct three interviews. We had to seek out three different types of people, an older generation opinion, a family opinion, and younger generation opinion. While unlike a lot of my classmates I didn't have a huge language barrier, the idea of approaching a stranger and asking their opinion about a potentially sensitive topic was nerve wrecking. I started every interview by introducing myself. "Hi my name is Ileanna Zaballa, I am a student at the University of Washington. I'm doing research in Spain about autism in the classroom."  I generally followed that up by asking if they know what autism was.

Older Generation

This interview turned out to be far less scary than I imagined. I decided to interview the cleaning lady in the dorms. A very sweet grandmother that I got along with fabulously. When I asked her if she knew what autism was, she only broadly recognized it. She apologized for not being able to be of more help, but she said she didn't know anyone who had autism or who had a child with autism. Even though she didn't know very much about my topic, that didn't mean she wasn't opinionated.  She said private schools would be the best route because class sizes are smaller and the student could get more 1 to 1 attention. From my interview with the cleaning lady I found that autism seemed a lot less prevalent in Spain, or perhaps just less well recognized. Some of the quotes that she said really struck met. " Those kids.. it's a pity... But we all hope it doesn't happen to our kids.."  "Those poor parents, the child will always be dependent on them.. What will happen after the parents die?"  The last question particularly got to me because that is actually a common concern, parents worry about the welfare of the children after they pass, especially if they have a special needs child.  When I asked her about employment resources she said there really wasn't any, which didn't surprise me because the state of the economy has eroded resources. 

Family:

  This interview was rather serendipitous, Tarra happened to be buying a plate from a street vendor and I went over to join her. Fet de Vidre- Centro especial de empleo.  The vendor and her family were part of the employment center for individuals with disabilities. When I told her about my research and my career aspirations she really commended me and said that a person had to have something really special inside of them to want to go into that field. She said it was an injustice that there were no resources for special needs students. And injustice that "God would right." She told me about her center and how the state had only given them money 6 times since 2011, granted the state was supposed to be giving continuous and constant support. She also told me how autism is less well known in Spain, it is often more broadly categorized as a psychological disability. She also informed me how special needs students often go to trade schools that better capitalize on their abilities and prepare them to potentially enter the work force. 

Youth:

On my train to Valencia I found myself sitting next to a young man who was reading a book about medicine. 30 minutes before the train ride was over, I worked up the courage to ask him about what he was studying and then I worked into the conversation my research. He was a medical student studying to be an ER doctor.  When I asked him about whether he knew what autism was, he said that he recognized it, but didn't know exactly what it was. He said that in Medical school there was no formal training to work with individuals with autism. He told me about his encounters when he was younger. He said that at his school he had some high functioning special needs students (like students with ADD), integrated for some subjects like art and gym, that were taken out for the basic subjects like math, language, and science. He explained that the moment in which the students were taken out of class, it created a divide between the two groups. Having a disability or special needs became a social stigma.


Overall in all of my interviews I was so surprised the willingness of people to have a conversation with a stranger. I also realized how many people I pass on the day to day that potentially are such valuable resources that I have overlooked. All the people I interviewed were greatly astounded when I told them that 1 in 88 children in the United States are diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder.

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