The Ability within Disability
My blogs on this site deal with all aspects of yoga, even if I don't specifically say, "This is yoga." We need to know how our minds and bodies work and how our souls connect with the larger universe around us. But, we also need to know how the minds, bodies, and souls of other people work and connect to the world around them. In particular, I'm thinking about people who have disabilities and are in the public education system.
This yogic lifestyle that I live has made me aware of those little intuitive nudges that I feel pushing me to become a better version of myself. Last year, it led me down the path of pursuing my Special Education Alternative Licensure. Boy! That has been a whirlwind of activity and learning.
I chose special education rather than general education, because I think that special education teachers are taught more balanced skills on emotions, content, and learning strategies than what I would have received if I had pursued a degree that was meant for general education teachers. That is what this accelerated program that I am in is teaching me--we can't address just one aspect of any situation and expect to excel in life.
In this blog, in particular, I collaborated with my colleagues, Andrea, Casey, and Tania to share a deeper look into what we are learning in our program. The four of us are part of a larger group of people who are passionate about working with students of all learning abilities. This program has been especially nice because we have been exposed to the lurid history of special education in the United States and taught methods in which to avoid having history repeat itself.
Y'all it was down-right criminal the things that happened before President Gerald Ford signed the Education for All Handicapped Children Act into law, in 1975. Thankfully, we've been moving away from asylums and hiding people with differences away from the rest of the world and we have been moving to place of "Inclusion" where society is realizing that people with different needs, especially those with low occuring disabilities, are deserving of being in the same spaces as anyone else can expect to be. Inclusion, for this program, and for the intention of the law, is educating students with disabilities in the general education classroom using a variety of services to support their learning of the same curriculum (IRIS).
This movement away from segregating students who receive special education services to a doctrine of inclusion is making our world an equitable place to live so that all individuals can reach the same goals, like living joyfully and independently.
Though President Ford had good intentions, today we wouldn't consider the term Handicapped to be a word that is appropriate for people to use. This law later became known as the Individuals with Disabilities Act of 2004 (IDEA). That terminology is much more appropriate, because it puts the word Individual in front of the word Disability. President Ford's wording emphasized the disability rather than emphasizing the person. It didn't support the humanity within the person.
In our lives, we should be working to see the humanity and respect the beautiful souls that are within people rather than being distracted by the differences that we see on the outside. That is how our school systems are evolving. It's a slow process, but a far cry from the atrocities that use to occur to people who had disabilities.
Through our special education alternative licensure program, we are focusing on what the everyday things are that can be done to make life more equitable for people who may be having difficulties achieving the same goals as most of the people in our society. We are working to create an inclusive world around us.
We're all connected--even with people who seem dramatically different from us. Hopefully this blog will shed light on some areas that you might not have known about. Below are some images and definitions that may be helpful for becoming more aware of what my colleagues and I have learned. The bar graph immediately below this text shows some statistics for people living with disabilities.
The project that my colleagues and I are working on has asked us to share information about what Low Incidence disabilities are. They are the disabilities that are less common to see in our society, such as: Autism, Deaf/ Hearing Impaired/ Hard of Hearing, Blind/ Visually Impaired, Deaf-Blindness, Traumatic Brain Injury, Physically Impaired, Developmental Cognitive Disabilities, and Other Health Disabilities.
In case you would like to read the definitions associated with these disabilities, you can look here:
Autism (ASD): A spectrum of disorders that interfere with communication and social interaction and functioning, typically characterized by repetitive behaviors and gestures, echolalia, limited but obsessive interests, sensory issues, lack of self regulation, and poor eye contact.
Deaf/ Hearing Impaired/ Hard of Hearing: A range of hearing impairments that include no functional hearing to hearing loss that may be improved with the use of auditory devices.
Blind/ Visually Impaired: A range of vision impairments that can range from inability to see anything including light, to vision loss that cannot be corrected with glasses or contact lenses.
Deaf-Blindness: Combined condition of hearing and vision impairments. Causes severe communication and developmental challenges.
Traumatic Brain Injury: Caused by a concussion that leads to permanent brain damage that can affect learning and cognitive function.
Physically Impaired: A wide range of conditions that affect a person's function and mobility.
Developmental Cognitive Disabilities: Conditions that cause deficits in intellectual functioning and associated behavioral challenges.
Other Health Disabilities: Covers “a variety of conditions, diseases, disorders, and injuries that substantially affect a student's strength, vitality, or alertness” that detrimentally affect a student’s educational progress.
https://www.verywellfamily.com/other-health-impairments-2162517
In our program, Andrea, Casey, Tania, and I are learning practices for including students with low incidence (LI) disabilities in the general education classroom. You'll see in the above image that there are a group of students near the teacher, and one student separated from them. Our classrooms are moving to avoid that situation. Some practices for teachers to become familiar with are alternative communication devices, knowing which peers in the class would be the best for students with LI to collaborate with, and to make respect and social relationship building skills a priority.
Instructors can teach students with LI in small and interactive groups, they can provide advanced organizers while activating prior knowledge, they can use technology such as audio books, braille books, augmentative and alternative communication devices, speech-to-text programs, and game formatted question for understanding programs (Teaching and Learning Solutions for NYSED. 2012.p2). Instructors should teach with great compassion and patience, and plenty of eye contact to ensure they are understanding their students as much as possible.
The instructors of these inclusion classes can teach their students with LI disabilities through the use of visual schedules and picture exchange communication system (PECS). Small groups using advanced organizers are a lovely method for learning. Also, implementing Braille books and speech-to-text programs are additional methods for students to learn while in the general education classroom. And, all students should be in the general education classroom as much as possible because the law requires them to learn the same general education curriculum.
Learners with LI disabilities need an educational support team, support from their families, and support from the community. These learners benefit from their parents being trained in their unique needs, respite care, medical interventions, counseling, and behavior management (NMPED).
Within the school system, students with a diagnosed disability that affects their educational progress are provided an Individual Education Plan (IEP). A team of teachers, school administration, service providers and family members (and sometimes the student) meet to agree on achievable, quantifiable goals for the next year.To support these students this team needs to design an effective program (you might have heard people talking about an IEP) that assesses at what level of performance each student is and then develops appropriate goals for those students to achieve. Because the team is collaboratively working on these goals with the student the IEP needs reviewing and updating annually to accurately meet the students' needs.
We hope you've enjoyed taking a step into our world of education. There is a world of support at our fingertips for creating inclusive environments for learners with low incidence disabilities. Our team is figuring out how we can help, and we hope that you will, too.
References
*Clements, R., Musker, J., Williams, C., & Hall, D. (2016). Moana. Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures.
*The IRIS Center and the TIES Center. (2022). Inclusion of Students with Significant Cognitive Disabilities: Supports in the General Education Classroom. Retrieved from https://iris.peabody.vanderbilt.edu/module/scd/
*New Mexico Public Education Department. (2011). Identifying, serving, and educating students with autism spectrum disorders: Educator guidelines. Santa Fe, New Mexico. https://webnew.ped.state.nm.us/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Identifying-Serving-and-Educating-Students-with-Autism-Spectrum-Disorders.pdf
*Teaching and Learning Solutions for NYSED. 2012. Research-Based Practicesfor Teaching Students with Disabilities: A Resource for Supporting &Evaluating General and Special Education Teachers of Students with Disabilities. www.oneontacsd.org