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Networking for your disabled child/student

What it means to have a disabled student

Individuals with Disabilities Education ACT (IDEA)

IDEA is a law Passed that mandates public schools must identify and evaluate children with disabilities so they have access to an equitable education.

6 principles of IDEA

1. Free appropriate education

Eligible disabled students are guaranteed a free education just like non-disabled students, and any disabled-specific education and tools will be included in this free education.

2. Appropriate evaluation

Trained people must assess a student to determine if they meet a state’s criteria for receiving disability education. This will include gathering academic, functional and developmental information and use language the child understands in order to conduct the evaluation.

3. Individual Education Plan (IEP)

The law requires disabled students to have an IEP. Teachers and other support staff, parents or guardians and even the student collaborate to create the IEP.

4. Least restrictive environment

Disabled students will receive education alongside non-disabled students in the same classroom. Teachers will provide accommodations and modifications to support the disabled student.

5. Family participation

Parents and guardians are encouraged to be involved in all aspects of a students academic journey.

6. Procedural safeguards

This protects the rights of the parents/guardians and the student. It ensures transparency and if not followed, parents and guardians and students have a protocol to follow to resolve issues and concerns.

Special ed vs. disability ed

The Problem with the term Special Education

Many within the disability community find the term special needs and special education offensive. A common hashtag is “Disabled Needs Are Not Special.” The disabled community asks educators in disabled education to consider using disabled education or adaptive education to support what actual disabled people want.

Equal vs. equitable

Everything equal is not equitable.

Equitable Classrooms

It’s important educators understand the distinction between equality and equity , and employ both in the classroom.

Medical model vs. social model

There are three models of disability used and referred too. Most of you are likely familiar with the medical model. But how we embrace disability impacts how we understand marginalization, and view legislation, policies and practices.

Three Models of Disability

• Medical Model

Medical model views disability as a deficit, a problem to be fixed. It often considers disabled people not as whole or complete, and it works to cure or fix the disability in order for the person to function.

The medical model has a large influence when it comes to creating policies. Viewing disability as a problem and something to be fixed does not lead to robust, progressive disability policy.

• Social Model

The social model views society’s mindset towards disability as the problem and causing the biggest barrier to being able to function. It does not necessarily see disability as a problem to be fixed, but as a condition to be accepted and considered equitably.

• Identity Model

The Identity model is similar to the social but includes individual circumstances and intersecting identities.

Language

Special, exceptional, differently-abled are common terms used in disability education. These are euphemisms created largely by non-disabled people to sugar-coat disability, because use of the word disability or disabled is still considered something to shy away from.

It’s Important to Listen to Disabled People

Stigmas still exist about disability, leading people to use these terms instead. It doesn’t normalize disability though, which is why educators and doctors and parents often use these terms.

While not all students have IEP’s, most students have different learning styles and methods. Yet only disabled learning is referred to as special education. It doesn’t matter how or when a task is completed, it’s completed, and that is what matters.

Creating inclusive environments not only help normalize disability in the classroom, but teach children to be aware of the humanity in everyone. Segregating disabled students from non-disabled students perpetuates stereotypes and stigmas, and no one learns to be inclusive.

Individual disabled people choose how they identify their disability, and this will vary person-to-person. As a community as a whole though, the word disabled is used, and the following language is offensive.

Language the disability community doesn’t prefer:

• Special

• Impaired

• Differently-abled

• Wheelchair bound

• Visually impaired, instead, use Blind and low vision

• Hearing impaired, instead, use Deaf and hard of hearing

Identity-first vs. Person-first

Most in the disabled community prefer identity-first language versus person-first. In educational settings, the model is to use person-first, but many in the disabled community want our disability acknowledged, not shied away from. Our disability is not our only or defining aspect, but by down-playing or shifting focus away from, it impacts how policy and legislation and societal perceptions are approached.

Inclusive Design

Inclusive design creates both physical and non-physical spaces where people of all backgrounds and abilities can participate equitably.

Accommodations help remove barriers, but accessibility aims to create inclusive circumstances for everyone.

Consider how inclusive design can be incorporated into your classroom. How do you view participation? What can you do differently that allows students with all identities to fully participate?

Never assume what an individuals needs are. Even within a specific disability, needs will vary greatly. But Slide 17 here are some suggestions:

• If you plan to change the classroom, speak with your students ahead of time and prepare them.

• Always think about how arranging and rearranging a classroom will work for students in wheelchairs or with service animals or a walker or any other mobility device.

• Make material accessible, so all students can access it.

• Pictures or art displayed on your walls should be inclusive, thinking of images of people with all ethnicities, family types and abilities. Find images with disabled people and children, signaling to the entire classroom that this is how the world is.

• Find books to read to students that not only have disabled characters but are written by disabled writers.

Books for Early Ed Learners

• My Brain is Magic: A sensory-seeking celebration by Prasha Sooful

• The Mermaid with no tail by Jessica Long

• Dancing Hands: A story of friendship in Filipino Sign Language by Joanna Que

• The Boy with Big, Big Feelings by Britney Winn Lee

• Next Door by Deborah Kerbel

• Books about disability for all learners

• Ensure materials and toys and other items are easily accessible for all students to reach.

• Consider language, and don’t worry about using different language for a disabled student. If you have a blind student, there’s no need to point out differences in reading. When asking the class to raise hands, and you have a paraplegic student, don’t point them out. When you ask the class to sing and you have a nonverbal student, don’t need to give them different directions.

Experts vs. Community

It’s a long held belief that experts have the knowledge about disability. But if disabled people have been excluded from the process, little can be known about disability beyond the medical implications.

More and more disabled people are working in education and policy and this is helping to change systems, but it’s still not where it should be.

The best resource for disabled educators is to learn from the disability community, even when what the community says differs from what they’ve been taught by non-disabled people.

Questions to ask when seeking resources

1. What model of disability does this agency or organization adhere too?

2. Does this agency employ or use disabled people?

3. Does a resource allow disabled voices to lead the way?

4. How is a resource creating change for disabled people?

National Resources

RespectAbility

Autism Self Advocacy Network

National Federation of the Blind

National Association of the Deaf

The Arc

By Imperfection

Bridgit Kuenning-Pollpeter is a mom and writer from Omaha, Nebraska but recently relocated to Urbandale, IA. When she’s not chasing children, picking up messes or reorganizing the house, she enjoys yoga or reading to relax. In her spare time (A.K.A. her dreams) she’s a Broadway star. Kuenning-Pollpeter is a freelance marketer during the day, a creative writer at night. Her work has appeared in the Brevity blog, The Omaha World Herald, 13th Floor, Misbehaving Nebraskans, Hippocampus, Emerging Nebraska Writers and Random Sample Review. She has her BFA and MFA in writing from the University of Nebraska Omaha. Her essay “The Body” was a McKenna Fellowship finalist, and her essay “Imperfection” was a 2020 Best of the Net Nominee. She is blind and writes frequently about disability. She’s working on a memoir about the disabled feminine experience. With the kids though, expect it in stores in about a decade.

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Networking for your disabled child/student