MAPLE GROVE, Minn. — They can be obvious, or invisible to others. For those who haven’t lived with a disability, it’s difficult to know what someone with one is going through.
Sophia Vignali has accutane embryopathy. And she’s passionate about sharing her disability with others.
“We are just like everyone else. We have wants, desires, interests,” says Vignali.
Vignali is practicing for her next presentation in her role as an ambassador with the Ambassadors for Respect program, which pairs groups of adults with developmental disabilities who go into fourth grade classrooms and teach violence prevention skills.
“Instead of saying ‘disabled person,’ it’s much better to say ‘person with a disability’,” says Vignali.
Giving tips and tricks like this to fourth graders is helpful as the program says most bullying happens in later elementary and middle school years.
Run by nonprofit PeaceMaker Minnesota, Ambassadors for Respect hopes to teach roughly 150 classrooms and 4,000 students in 2025.