Week 10- Eliminating Ableism in Education

Going into this reading, I wasn't sure what to expect. I had heard the terms "ableist" and "ableism" thrown around before, but I didn't really have the context for those words. I understand now this relates to disabilities and how disability is treated in our society. I am certain this reading has more to do with how it is presented in a classroom setting and interpersonally, but I was also thinking about how navigating around a school is a possible issue promoting ableism. In my school alone, there are no ramps or elevators inside the building-- students who have an injured leg have to stay in a single room all day. I know these Rhode Island schools were built many years ago, but the fact that such considerations were not standard or to code, even in the 1950s and 1960s, is honestly mind boggling. It really wasn't that long ago!!

"Ableist Assumptions"

• "Penny was quickly developing the view, held by most disability advocates, that while disability is not a tragedy, society's response to disability can have tragic consequences for those who have disabilities" (p. 2)
• It's clear from this parent's experience that society's expectations of the disabled are not of success, but of failure. If students are placed in this mindset or set against such low standards, how do our systems ever expect them to succeed?
• From this same section, it's clear too that not only does society not offer the same protections to disabled students as regular ones, but any protections that are in place are completely obfuscated. Why did Penny have to learn about laws protecting her child from discriminaiton from a second-hand source? Shouldn't this have been one of the first things presented to Penny by her doctors or local school district?

"Ableism and Schooling"

• "In short, in the eyes of many educators and society, it is preferable for disabled students to do things in the same manner as non-disabled kids" (p. 3)
• Somehow, society both places low expectations on disabled students, while at the same time expecting them to act and perform in the same way as non-disabled students? There should be a greater focus on the strengths of the student, not the so-called "weaknesses". How can we help disabled students succeed in their own way, express themselves in their own way?
• "Both of these dominant stereotypes of disability, "Tiny Tims" and "supercrips," have at their core ableist perspectives, the failure to accept and value disabled people as they are" (p. 4)

"Education of the Deaf"

• "...there is significant history and research to draw on that should guide our efforts to improve education for the deaf" (p. 5)
• Again I see the recurring theme of applying societal, ableist standards onto disabled youth. Oralism was clearly a pushback against the success of sign language and other such programs. To read that the inventor of the telephone--who had a deaf wife-- fighting to BAN sign language is... shocking. There must have been lead in that 1800s water, I swear.
• "...only 30 percent of speech can be read from lip movements" (p. 6)
• I'm glad that ASL became commonplace in the later half of the 1900s. It allows deaf students to succeed in their own way, as opposed to applying our own standards.

"Toward Ending Ableism in Education"

• "As is the case with racism and sexism, progress towards equity is dependent first and foremost on the acknowledgement that ableism exists in schools"
• "Though students with disabilities have individual needs, by and large their education should be based on the same cirriculum as that of nondisabled students"
• The big takeaway I am gaining is that awareness is a large factor in removing ableism, but also having resources to assist disabled students in their goals and education is paramount. There is no one size fits all solution-- each student must be given specialized assistance

Heir argues that ableism projects unrealistic expectations onto students with disabilities. Society's failure to prop up and support individuals who are disabled starts in the schooling systems. The best way to combat and change this mentality is to better specialize education to support the needs of disabled individuals, as well as promoting general diversity among student populations.

Reading this, I was reminded that former president of the US FDR was in a wheelchair. I was shocked to learn that his presence in a wheelchair was totally hidden from the American public until after the fact-- I wonder if he had publically spoken about it, it would have promoted a more inclusive mindset in the American populace. Such struggles could have been normalized and supported... but those were different times. His team may have worried that he wouldn't be taken seriously in a wheelchair.