Normalizing Disability Begins in School
Transcriber: yoojae lee
Reviewer: David DeRuwe
I’m in a wheelchair,
in case you didn’t notice.
I have a very visible,
very obvious disability,
but that is not the case
for most disabilities.
When I started college,
I was completely able-bodied.
My first encounter with another
student with a disability,
as far as I knew, was my freshman year,
and this other student
received extra time on tests
as an academic accommodation.
I couldn’t tell what his disability was.
I didn’t understand why
he was getting extra time on tests.
I thought this was really unfair.
He got extra time on tests
I could certainly use extra
time on tests. Why? Why?
And I think this came
from looking back at grade school.
I don’t think I knew
anyone else with a disability.
I didn’t know anyone else
receiving academic accommodations.
According to the National Center
for Education Statistics,
14 percent of students in pre-kindergarten
through 12th grade have a disability.
That’s one out of every seven students
require academic accommodations.
I knew more than seven
students, so statistically, yes.
Yes, I did know other people.
I was just not aware of that.
Fast forward a couple years,
and I’m the one now who needs
academic accommodations.
I need extra time on tests.
I need some assistance with notes,
whether it be from teachers
or other students.
And other students would say
the exact same thing to me
that I had said just years before,
that I’m so lucky,
“I can’t believe you get this.”
Well, I didn’t feel lucky.
You know, I would much rather
not need academic accommodations.
It wasn’t a matter of wanting them,
but I needed academic accommodations
in order to be successful at school.
So going back into grade school,
I can look at those other students.
According to a study I read
by Newman and colleagues in 2011,
out of 14 percent of students
who are identified with a disability,
37 percent of those students
don’t identify themselves
as having a disability
eight years after high school.
Now, when I’m saying identify,
I’m talking about the Individuals with
Disabilities Education Act
In order to receive
academic accommodations,
there needs to be a medical professional,
there needs to be teachers,
school administrators, the parents,
the students themselves.
All of these people need to agree
on what academic accommodations
are necessary in order for the student
to be successful in school.
With all of these individuals,
I find it very, very hard to believe
that these students
are somehow being misidentified.
And yet, according to the CDC,
adults between the ages of 18 and 44,
25 percent of them have a disability.
That’s one out of four adults
have a disability.
Now, these seem to be
contradicting statistics to me,
and I think some of that might come
between that concept
that I was mentioning
between want and need.
So some of these students might not want
to be viewed as having a disability,
but maybe they need
academic accommodations.
So go back into college now with me,
and once I’m finally comfortable
with my own disability, I’m OK with it,
I thought I could be one of those people
to help other students with disabilities
and make it a more inclusive environment
on a college campus.
So I joined a group
of other faculty members,
the goal of which was increasing
inclusion on a college campus.
So my idea, and this is going back
into the civil rights calls
for disability rights,
and the call was:
“Nothing about me without me.”
Pretty straightforward, I think,
is don’t make decisions
about students with students
or individuals with disabilities without
input from individuals with disabilities.
Seemed pretty straightforward
and made sense to me.
So I joined this group
and I’m listening to them
and I’m listening to them,
and I’m listening,
and finally, I just had to ask,
“What about students with disabilities?”
And they told me, “Yeah,
they’re an important group too,
but that’s not really who
we’re talking about with this group.”
Why is inclusion
somehow an exclusive idea?
(Applause)
Why are individuals with disabilities
not included in the idea
or discussions of inclusion?
So looking back into grade school again,
I think I can see this
in grade school as well.
And it starts way back there as well.
So there are these things
called inclusion classes.
I’m not saying that these are a bad thing,
so don’t get me wrong,
but stick with me for a sec.
So inclusion classes are bringing students
from special education
into general education courses.
This has been scientifically studied.
It’s been shown to be very beneficial
for individuals with disabilities.
So that’s not what my argument is,
but what I’m saying is what is it telling
the students with disabilities
when they hear, “Oh, this is the class
for you, go be over here.”
Or what is it telling
other students when they hear,
“Oh, you don’t need to be in this class,
you don’t have disabilities or academic
struggles, you don’t need this one.
These are for the other people.”
I think that idea is kind of brought forth
and brought forward as they grow up.
And so what I’m really talking about
is normalizing the idea and concept
of disability in society,
and I really think that this needs
to occur in grade school.
And so there are three groups of people
that I’ve talked about here:
One is the group of individuals
with disabilities.
Students with disabilities need to see
that they can have a disability
and be successful.
Second, students
without disabilities need to see
that an individual can be successful
and have a disability.
I don’t know where it comes from,
but disability is, in itself,
nothing to be ashamed of.
And third, the third group
is school stakeholders,
school stakeholders: I’m meaning teachers,
I’m meaning administrators,
and I’m talking about, yes,
even parents as well.
All of these individuals
need to see that some of their actions
and perhaps inactions, actually can be
harmful to individuals with disabilities.
Now, all of this, again,
is in the context of school.
School is a place for learning,
so I think the biggest thing
that can be done is to learn about it.
Ignorance, I think, is the biggest
contributor to this idea
of a divide between individuals with
and individuals without disabilities.
And so … learn about it.
For me, I am now a high school teacher.
I’m right in there, and I am contributing
to disability awareness
kind of by default, but I’m doing
it intentionally as well.
And so I guess my question for all of you
then is: “What are you going to do?”
Thank you.
(Applause)