In our disability and literature class, we have discussed the social model and how important it is to acknowledge that disability is not just an individual problem, but is the outcome of an environment that fails to include those who are disabled. These barriers found in these environments are written about in the article “Academic Ableism: Disability and Education,” written by Jay Timothy Dolmage. He discusses the exclusion of disabled people in higher education and how it is inaccessible both physically and socially for those considered intellectually or physically weaker than the idealized able-bodied. Exclusion in education can start as early as elementary school, especially when people argue that children with disabilities cannot properly learn in what is considered the “normal classroom”, and instead be separated into Special Education classrooms away from their peers. This leads children with disabilities to have an education that does not set them up for success and gives them an unequal opportunity to access the general curriculum and higher education. I argue that children with disabilities and impairments should be integrated into an inclusive classroom because it supports all children despite their personal differences and capabilities.
The exclusion of students with disabilities and impairments can happen as early as kindergarten. If a child is diagnosed with being on the autism spectrum, a learning disability, or any type of impairment, one of the first things considered is whether or not they need to be in a Special Education classroom full time. Many people decide that it is appropriate to have a classroom just for children with disabilities. They say it is because the general classroom and its curriculum is not set up for those kids to be successful learners. This leads to teachers having no idea how to properly teach any type of diverse learner, and it leads to the overall exclusion of children with disabilities. This mindset that we need a separate classroom and program altogether, not only deprives those children from accessing the general curriculum, but it deprives all children of a diverse learning environment. This form of separation takes away the representation of disability in the classroom and prevents students from having different forms of learning and social interaction. The belief that there are special ed teachers and general education teachers, creates barriers in the classroom when a “normal” education teacher is not taught how to properly engage all learners. Teachers are not usually taught how to effectively teach students with these impairments and can oftentimes get frustrated, which leads to an unsuccessful learning environment for everyone. A lot of the time, teachers will only notice visible disability and fail to look closely at “invisible impairments” that affect how a child thinks and perceives information. This leads to discrimination in the classroom.
Even though there have been laws passed to protect students with disabilities from discrimination in the classroom, such as the federal law IDEA, many teachers still bully and neglect their students. When my sister was in third grade, she was recently confirmed with having dyslexia and ADD. She had a hard time reading, writing, and paying attention in her classroom. She was in an environment that was constantly distracting to her and it led to negatively affecting her grades. She was in a Special education part-time, while the rest of the day was spent in her 3rd-grade teacher’s classroom. Because my sister had a hard time keeping up, her teacher would often get frustrated at both her and another student with dyslexia. This teacher bullied them, yelled at them and even slapped a ruler across one student’s knuckles. My sister’s teacher didn’t understand why they could not pay attention or why they needed more time on assignments because she did not think they had these impairments but that they were lazy. Her teacher didn’t bother to help those students, and instead, she isolated them from other kids and gave them failing grades. This 3rd-grade teacher was never taught how to teach diverse learners or create a safe and effective learning environment for her students. My sister attended this school in the early 2000s, and even though classrooms are a lot better for children with disabilities, things like this still happen. There are teachers out there who disregard the need to change their own way of teaching, and instead place blame on their students. This is where the importance of the inclusive classroom comes in.
The inclusive classroom is an environment that allows all children, both disabled and non-disabled, to thrive in a setting that takes account for diverse learners. Teaching inclusively allows for an equal opportunity for all students to become successful and engaged learners. Not only does it help non-disabled students access the curriculum through multiple ways of learning, but it also gives disabled students a sense of belonging in the classroom. Examples of some of these learning methods are encompassed within the Universal Design Principles. They deal with different ways of teaching information, testing formats, and setting up reasonable goals and expectations for all students. At first, this was a method created to integrate children with disability in the classroom effectively and allow them to be successful learners. Now it is a reform for all students and supports different ways of learning, and reduces barriers in the curriculum for all children. These design principles take into account how diverse everyone is, and how we should try to accommodate students as best as we can. Without these principles and the inclusive classroom, we are left with students excluded from the curriculum and hidden away from their peers.
There are a few arguments against inclusive classrooms, while some may think they are thinking of the wellbeing of the children with disabilities, most of them are more concerned about the wellbeing of the able-bodied student. Many people argue that inclusive classrooms are not beneficial at all. They say that students with disabilities will be set up for failure if they are put in a general education class and that they need a more individualized education in order to be successful. Another argument they make is that they think non-able bodied students will disrupt the class too much and negatively impact “regular” students’ education. This is a very ableist mindset that sets the blame on the students with the disability, instead of the blame on the classroom itself. If the environment is not able to support disabled students, then it’s not supporting diverse learners in general. The diagnosis of the student is never the barrier, it is ineffective teaching and a poor learning environment that leads to unsuccessful outcomes. A way to improve the classroom learning environment is to redesign it and include more flexibility in learning. UDL creates a redesigned classroom that supports engagement, representation, and expression in teaching the general curriculum. I know that it is easy to say that we should do all these things and that the hard part comes through actually implementing them. Changes like this cannot happen overnight, especially if money is a problem accessing things such as more aides, technologies, and other resources to improve accessibility. However, it is something that definitely proves its worth and allows more equitable access to education. Through modifications and accommodations, all students are able to reach their goals and attain higher education, something that is not very accessible for students with disabilities. Historically, higher education has been a disabling environment for students with impairments because of disability discrimination throughout education as a whole.
Higher education was built in a way that kept people with disabilities from entering the building, let alone accessing education. Jay Timothy Dolmage quotes Ellen Cushman saying this, “Even as universities have become more accepting of diversity, academics tend to stay “inside,” as Ellen Cushman suggests. And the steps are not the only way in which the university is inaccessible, even if they might be the most physically arresting and apparent.”(Dolmage) What she means by this is that as a society, we often glorify those big sets of stairs that lead up right to the doors of possibility, without giving accessibility another thought. The architecture of these higher education buildings represents the exclusion of people with disabilities and how they are left out of these opportunities so many able-bodied people have. This is just another example of an environment that is disabling to those with impairments, and show how inaccessible the general curriculum can be without any effort to support inclusion. This history of stigma has lead to this ableist mindset that if you have any physical or mental impairments, then there’s a very small possibility you’ll be able to go to a university that glorifies perfect bodies and minds. Dolmage discusses this idealized ableism in his article, which explains further why this inaccessibility is heavily implemented, especially in education. He states, “Further, the ethic of higher education still encourages students and teachers alike to accentuate ability, valorize perfection, and stigmatize anything that hints at intellectual (or physical) weakness”(Dolmage).
Going off on what Dolmage wrote, this idea that higher education is limited to this able-minded students is only further implicating that this is not trying to protect the disabled students from a non-beneficial education, but that they are being ruled out from attending completely. This is because they don’t follow that able-bodied model that most universities accept. By using principles that support inclusivity, as a society, we can break away from those ableist ideas and create a more accessible education for all.
Students with disabilities should be able to access the same education that is attainable for everyone else. It is important to take into account just how much needs to be changed in order to accommodate all students and create successful learners. Environments that are non-inclusive end up negatively affecting all children, especially ones with impairments. It is time to recognize these ableist beliefs that education is not built for those who don’t fit into this idea of a “normal learner”. Trying to separate or exclude people with disabilities from the same educational opportunities as able people is not solving the problem. Depriving these students from the general curriculum creates barriers from getting into higher education successfully. There needs to be more focus on creating an inclusive environment that takes into account the needs of all diverse learners and preventing barriers in the curriculum, as well as barriers that could inhibit them from being prepared for college. By utilizing tools such as the UDL principles, all teachers and students can benefit from incorporating them into the classroom. Not only does it promote the representation of disability in the classroom, but it diversifies learning environments and interactions with other students.
Word count: 1775
I pledge -Kenzie Ward
Work cited:
T., Jay. “Literary Studies: Literary Criticism and Theory.” Fulcrum, University of Michigan Press, 1 Jan. 1970, doi.org/10.3998/mpub.9708722.
“The UDL Guidelines.” UDL, 31 Aug. 2018, udlguidelines.cast.org/.
