Editor's Choice: Lessons on Disability and the Rights of Students

Community College Review, Summer, 1999 by Linda L. Treloar

Disability promotes thinking "outside the box." Do we allow students the freedom to use different methods to learn? Or, do we prescribe both method and learning outcomes? Modification of learning activities becomes justified by the student's achievement of the objectives and performance at a passing level. Believe that the disabled student can achieve the desired results, but recognize that the path in reaching the goal may vary.

Creating Receptive Environments

Effective teachers create learning environments that anticipate success and that assist students to move toward this prize. This becomes increasingly important when students have cultural backgrounds or differences that vary from the expected. Cathy, user of a motorized wheelchair, repeatedly received both direct and indirect messages that she would never become a teacher (Treloar, 1998b). Her teachers' reasons focused on her physical limitations: She could not physically quell an altercation by students were it to arise. Because Cathy could not use her hands to develop audiovisual materials for classroom assignments, she instructed others to prepare the requisite materials. Her physical inability to directly accomplish these assignments promoted the charge by at least one teacher that using others as her hands was "cheating." What does this imply about our attitudes toward reasonable accommodations?

Cathy, now a teacher, capitalizes on the limitations that provoked concern from her teachers. Every student in her class is responsible for a task usually performed by the teacher. Each student's activity is essential for the whole: the teacher facilitates learning. The principal who hired Cathy took a risk: He saw beyond the body that uses a motorized wheelchair. He focused on the teacher as a person; he chose to see what could be, rather than what isn't. Shouldn't that be our perspective when a student with disabilities enters our class? Table 2 summarizes some positive ways to approach students with disabilities, as well as negative approaches to overcome.

Table 2 Do's and Don'ts with Persons Affected by Disability

Do                                   Don't

Treat them as people; see them as    Assume anything; treat them as
able; accept their differences.      unable to do anything; focus
                                     on differences.

Accept them for who they are.        Pity or patronize them.

Let them do what they can; trust     Force your help on them; treat
their judgment about what they       them like a baby.
can do.

Approach them; offer help, but ask   Ignore them; be overhelpful;
first.                               avoid them; act like you don't
                                     hear them.

Have fun with them.                  Be afraid to joke or talk with
                                     them.

Becoming Aware of Language

Although we attempt to create classroom environments that honor the diversity of all persons, we remain largely unaware of disability bias in language (Blaska, 1993). Stereotypical language promotes exclusion and difference, devaluation, and notions of incompetence (Zola, 1993). The words cripple, handicapped, or confined to a wheelchair convey negative images of disability. The phrase a person with a disability reflects "person-first" language that places emphasis on the person, rather than on the disability. Consider the implications of these two descriptions: Peter uses a wheelchair or Peter is a wheelchair user. These differences in choice of language are often subtle and may appear insignificant. However, disability rights advocates emphasize the power of language to shape societal attitudes toward members of social and cultural groups that have been devalued (Nagler, 1993).