Over, under and through — that’s how islander Deborah Anderson instructs parents of children with disabilities to help their children discover and connect with their inner strength, the part, she said, that is not challenged.

And Anderson should know. As a person with a disability and as a longtime teacher of special needs students, Anderson recently teamed up with Vashon Allied Arts to put on in a series of drama and writing classes called Equally Artistic Classes designed for special needs students plus siblings and friends. Classes begin March 1 at The Blue Heron.

Anderson came to Vashon in the 1990s when the Burton Community Church hired her as its pastor, making Anderson the Northwest’s first woman solo pastor in an American Baptist Church. Not one to stand on the sidelines, Anderson jumped into the community, becoming PTSA president, a singer in the Vashon Island Chorale and performer in Drama Dock productions. Once her tenure as pastor ended, Anderson returned to her previous profession teaching and helping students with a range of physical, cognitive, emotional and psychological challenges.

Anderson currently serves on the King County Developmental Disabilities Advisory Board.

Through her work as a pastor and educator, Anderson came to believe that there is an artist inside everyone, even those who, in her words, are differently abled. As a parent of two special needs children, Anderson commiserates with parents overwhelmed by the daily tasks of supporting a child with disabilities. There is often little room to help the child develop any artistic expression, which is where the Equally Artistic Classes come in.

“It is best to start with writing and drama,” said Anderson. “They are concrete and specific and easier to narrow into a single focus.”

Anderson described Imagination Exploration, the drama class for children grades one through five, as helping students to explore their talent and differing abilities through the dramatic forms of improvisation, story acting and scene preparation.

In All Kinds of Writing, the class for teens with challenges, Anderson plans to use parent input to maximize the classroom experience for each student. Classes will focus on understanding form, structure and purpose for different genres, including poetry, fiction, nonfiction and memoir. Students of all writing and reading levels are welcome, including non-readers.

Anderson hopes the classes will grow and become a regular branch of Vashon Allied Arts’ educational programming. She has her sights set on adding dance for the next series.

Anderson finds human development fascinating and said she will bring her knowledge of it along with her own experience into the classroom. In her personal struggle with a physical disability, Anderson said she approached her limitations with a “can do” attitude, choosing to find the way over, under and through them by experimenting with what was possible.

“Everyone has a part that is not challenged,” said Anderson. “Find that and you find the strength. That’s the way in.”