I feel a strong connection with the world of disabilities. It was never my intent to work with individuals with severe intellectual disabilities, however that was my first job right after college and I would not change my experience for anything in the world. Now the reason it was not my intent was not because I was not interested, it was because I did not know it existed. How crazy is that?! I had no idea there were jobs in public schools for teachers who were interested in working with student who had significant needs. Now that still baffles me. I don't believe it is because I was ignorant, it is truly because I only knew one or two students in my entire high school of 2,000 students that were identified as having a disability.
As I entered this miraculous world of disabilities, it changed my life forever.. in the best way possible. The article 'Disabilities Study in Education' was very relate-able for me. It stated that "Today's special education programs in American public schools emerged in a time when children and young people with disabilities were routinely denied the access to education that their "non-disabled" peers could take for granted." Thinking about the students in my classroom being denied access to any other child, solely based upon their ability to learn at the same rate as their peers is RIDICULOUS. If there is one thing that I have learned, it is that these children will surprise you every single day with what they are able to do. They work harder than almost any typical student I have met. Things that we take for granted, like communicating... take practice and technology, and communication devices for some of these students to effectively express a basic want or need.
I had the opportunity to have Dr. Tony Antosh as a professor who blew me away when he told me he was hired in the LAD center back in the 70's in Rhode Island. This was essentially an institution for those who were considered "mentally handicapped". When he worked the night shift, he was instructed to "make sure no one dies".... works like that shook me to my core!!! They still stick with me today when I am teaching.
You can listen to him here!! Dr. Tony Antosh SPITTING WISDOM
Something that I often find interesting is the criteria for what qualifies a student to fit into a specific disability category. Now, under IDEA there are 13 different possible diagnosis. However, you are only supposed to qualify a student under one of them, which is the one that primarily inhibits their ability to access the general curriculum. They include: Autism, Deaf-blindness, Developmental delay, Emotional disturbance, Hearing impairment, Intellectual disability, Multiple disabilities, Orthopedic impairment, Other health impairment, Specific learning, disability, Speech or language impairment, Traumatic brain injury, and lastly, Visual impairment (including blindness). However a quote in the article stated "eligibility criteria for high incidence disabilities may vary from state to state or even district to district. In other words, a student may become "disabled" or "cured" crossing a state or district line. If these disabilities were anything other than interpretations about certain context-dependent differences, crossing state or school district lines would not, and could not change a student's disability status". This does pose a problem because although IDEA was put in place to help individuals with disabilities, a lot of it was left up to interpretation. This is something that causes problems when students move schools, which effects their social security, insurance, benefits from the state, and the way they may access adult services after the exit school.
I find that although we have come a long way from the past, we are still running into issues with students who have significant needs, especially when it comes to employment in their adult lives. The employment is THE biggest discrepancy among those with and without disabilities. This all starts within school. The article talks about UDL (Universal Design for Learning) where "instead of tediously piecing together accommodations or modifications based on what we believe a learner can or cannot do (should or should not do), we design in ways that offer a spectrum of possibility. We structure out teaching always and already designed for the many ways that learners can engage learning, thus allowing opportunity to emerge in each new moment, in each new day." I have found that school mimics the real world. Self-contained classrooms should NEVER exist. The problem isn't the student or child. We need to ask ourselves, what can we do to change the environment for the child to make them successful. Everyone should be given that opportunity. When you go out in the world, is there a grocery store just for people with disabilities? What about a gym, a park, a restaurant or a movie theater? I could keep going.. The reality is, we need to prepare these individuals for what life is going to be like after they leave school. It is our responsibility to make sure they are treated equally, that they learn from their typically developing peers and that they are able to access public education in a way that will make them successful.
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