Before taking a course on disability studies, I never really thought about the accessibility issues that the disability community could face in education. After doing research on this topic I realized there are various issues at universities worldwide. Many campuses do not have enough services available to students with disabilities to meet their needs. This makes it difficult for them especially when physical inaccessibility limits their ability to participate in school activities.
It is also common for many parents to be unfamiliar with the choices that are open to their children in special schools with regards to support services. Even if they were familiar with the choices, it can be difficult to know how to access educational services that their children need. There is rarely a process for planning a disabled student’s educational goals and how they are established, which can be used to better understand how quickly the student is progressing. One common and crucial issue is failing to recognize or diagnose a student’s disability. This can make it difficult for the student to understand the material and could result in frustration. Recognizing the disability too late can also lead to delays in the student’s education.
These are common accessibility issues for disabled students. Even when schools place a lot of effort in making all areas on campus accessible, they can still be inaccessible. For example, having a stall in the bathroom that is larger for students who need a wheelchair can be inaccessible if the door to get into the bathroom does not have an automatic handicap door opener. Issues such as these are common and it takes time and effort to think through all the possible conflicts that disabled people run into when trying to access resources.
As students, it is important to be aware of the accessibility issues on campus whether they affect you individually or not. To get schools to focus more efforts towards making all areas as accessible as possible, the disability community needs everyone, disabled or non-disabled, to help advocate for them. This will help the community voice its opinion as well as provide much needed support.
Category: Blogs
Paralympics Undervalued, Underfunded, and Overlooked
The Paralympics in London 2012 proved to be a huge success as nearly 2 million people visited http://www.paralympic.org to see how the games played out. The disability community, however, found the Paralympics to be successful for different, less obvious reasons. In 2012, Channel 4 made a conscious effort to include disabled presenters alongside established broadcasters. In addition, Paralympic athletes were beginning to be seen as extremely talented athletes in their own right rather than an inspiring and heartwarming store. These are among few of the reasons why the disability community viewed the 2012 Paralympics as a success. Disability activists argued that these games should be a celebration of fast-paced sporting excellence which inspires young disabled people to believe that they can live independent and successful lives. The 2012 Paralympics took a step in the right direction in achieving this image. The 2016 Paralympics, however, took a step backwards.
In 2016, the Paralympics was undervalued, underfunded, and overlooked. Paralympics in 2016 faced major budget cuts to event venues, workforce and transport. Funding for Paralympics was diverted to boost Olympics. Disabled athletes felt as if they were viewed as a poor relation to its able-bodied and higher profile sibling. Three-time Paralympic silver medal winning cyclist Jon-Allan Butterworth said it best: “I always feel second to my Olympic counterparts!” After considerable strides in the right direction for the disabled community in 2012, the Paralympics in 2016 did not improve upon its previous success and was nothing more than an afterthought.
The issues that have risen from the 2016 Paralympics need to be taken into consideration. These are common issues that occur within the disability community. Disabled individuals are often overlooked when compared to their “able-bodied counterparts”. Diverting money from the Paralympics to boost the Olympics is simply unfair. Having watched both the Olympics and Paralympics, the competition and intensity is similar across both events. There is no reason the Olympics should be prioritized over the Paralympics. This is a key issue in sports in the disability community and needs to be addressed right away.
Dream Crazy – Nike’s use of Inspiration Porn
This past year Nike released a new commercial that was titled “Dream Crazy”. It was intended to send a message, that despite any obstacles or challenges that are presented before you, no dream is big enough to achieve. It featured a wide range of athletes, across many sports and holding many different identities, including students with disabilities. When I first watched this video, I felt incredibly inspired. Seeing these athletes excel within their fields despite hardships they have faced is nothing short of amazing. The commercial was able to accomplish its goal of motivating its everyday viewer. However, now that I have gained a further understanding of disability justice and the issues that plague the disability community, I attempted to view this commercial again, with this new found lens. This time, I was able to point out a number of concerns that were present within the commercial. The most glaring one is the use of athletes with disabilities as a means of inspiration porn, to motivate the “normal” individuals. It also presents there disabilities as obstacles that must be overcome. With this new perspective, this commercial becomes just yet another exploitation of athletes with disabilities.
Athletes with disabilities are often times given this spotlight in the media only when it is convenient for this companies to use them as ways of furthering their brands and marketing. However, this does little to help shed light on many of the everyday struggles that these athletes face in being apart of sports team. From middle school to the pros, there are countless barriers in place that discourage and make it difficult for these students to participate in everyday sports. They are constantly othered as if they are not capable of competing due to their “disabilities”. As an able-bodied person, I don’t have any personal experience with these struggles as I myself never faced them. Through research and learning about the experiences of others I became aware of these issues. I’d be interested to hear more about your thoughts on this, especially from those that have personal experience. Please feel free to comment with your insight below.
Implications of Special Education
Special Education programs are designed to help disabled students learn in a comfortable and niche environment. However, there are many problems that arise with them. The very first problem with these program lies in the name itself, specifically the term “special”. This term creates negative implications for the disabled population. The word “special” is commonly used to sugar-coat segregation and societal exclusion.” In fact, it is non-inclusive, discriminatory language that is based on the medical model of disability. It considers disabled students as needing “special” education. In doing so, it aggregates disabled persons into one group, despite the differences and diversity that they may possess. It is clear to me that segregation creates many divides rather than creating collective efforts to achieve collective liberation, a key principle of disability justice. Rather than people coming together and collaboratively moving forward, language like “special” categorizes the disabled population as separate and exotic. Thus, segregation creates a misrepresentation of who these people actually are, and this plagues their lives and even the lives of those around them.
Segregation is an extreme problem; however, there is a solution that can overcome these issues. Inclusion can help accelerate the path towards disability justice by emphasizing the importance of intersectionality and diversity. People often believe that Special Education is a form of inclusion, but it falls short. Instead, it is a form of integration. The difference can be explained in the behaviors of schools. In schools, special education programs are within school systems, but the kids are still grouped together and isolated from their nondisabled peers. Inclusion means that all students work and learn together regardless of their ability status. Until full inclusivity can be established, special education programs are exacerbating these challenges even more. In the near future, it is imperative that educators redesign these programs and school systems overall to be more inclusive to students of all identities.
How Disability is Being “Created” in Schools
When most people hear the word “Disability,” they likely think about it in a medical context. They might see it as a medical disorder, illness, or impairment. While these things are technically true (in their naming), disability often goes overlooked by many institutions, particularly schools. Schools generally have different resources for disabled students, but these often are problematic as well. Disabled students are thus often put at a disadvantage in school settings.
This paragraph is how disability is commonly viewed and expressed as. It is one that relies on the medical model of disability. That is, the impairments and disorders of these individuals create disadvantages for them. However, a contrasting view – social model of disability – states that it is often society that creates disadvantages for persons regardless of their (dis)ability. In talking about the social model of disability, I will be explaining various examples of disability can actually be created for those without disabilities. As a student without a disability, I typically go about my day without facing any noticeable restrictions on my ability to learn. However, when I dive deeper into this idea, I think about various moments where my ability to learn was severely impacted. For example, sitting in the back of a classroom with a professor who speaks faintly and quickly makes it harder for me to hear than those sitting up in the front. This difference in perceiving audio created disability for me. Another example is sitting in a super bright classroom when I’m having a severe migraine. In this instance, I am unable to concentrate and do not pick up on important information. In these cases, it was design components of classes and instructors that hindered my ability to learn. Likewise, these issues exist for disabled students as well.
A physically disabled student might experience a similar hearing issue as me. A neurodivergent student might experience a similar lighting issue as me. Again, in these cases, the design is creating disability. In fact, it is increasingly common that the design of classrooms and components of instruction exacerbate disability for all students. This is partly due to the fact that many people still adopt the medical model of disability, resulting in solutions that focusing on fixing a specific impairment. Using a social model, we might create more inclusive solutions that focus on multiple parts and intersectionality of different abilities. This means perhaps providing a variety of solutions to various challenges – providing a recording with subtitles of presentations for those struggling to hear, having different lightings in classrooms, etc. Ultimately, educators need to begin considering all forms of disability and access in order to create equal opportunities for all.
Would love to hear your thoughts and reactions in the comments below!
Disability in Sports and Education 