essay about disabled student

Students With Disabilities Deserve Inclusion. It’s Also the Best Way to Teach

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Students with disabilities face substantially increased rates of abuse and restraint in schools. As an education and disability advocate seeking to change that, I frequently encounter well-meaning arguments for separating higher-needs students from the general population.

Many parents and teachers express sympathy, yet also a desire to keep certain groups of students away from the general population for a variety of reasons.

“Is mainstreaming special needs kids a good idea if it prevents the other kids from learning?”

“And what were the 20-something other kids in the room doing when the teacher was spending most of her time attending to your special-needs child?”

“It’s too bad the other children are the ones who lose out when special-needs kids are mainstreamed. This story is all well and good, but it means that this woman’s child got way more than the other children did in terms of support and attention.”

These are the types of comments found in parent forums and in response to articles about autism and other disabilities in the classroom. And they are echoed by teachers who are facing poorly integrated classrooms with strong behavior challenges. Resistance to inclusion itself as a practice remains entrenched.

Many teachers and parents do not know the pedagogy behind inclusive instruction. Inclusion is not about throwing disabled children into general education classrooms without support or tools and leaving teachers to clean up the resultant chaos. Schools don’t meet anyone’s needs when they integrate thoughtlessly.

They also do not meet the legal requirements defined by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, which guarantees all children the right to free appropriate public education. That includes education for disabled students in the least-restrictive environment possible—not segregated and sequestered away from their peers.

Inclusion works when educators collaborate, get the support they need, and believe in the value of all students.

It might be less convenient at first for teachers and students (and parents) to learn about and embrace the disabled student populations at their schools. But there is no inherent right to be free from inconvenience . Perhaps it’s time to look more closely at why we as educators and parents are demanding that to begin with.

Inclusion, by definition, involves carefully assessing a child’s needs and then implementing a strategic plan to support that child within the general classroom setting. This is done by a special education team, rather than one general education teacher. The team offers options such as teacher training, team-teaching, pushed-in special education instruction, classroom accommodations (a standing desk, computer workstation, etc.), an interpreter, or a classroom assistant added to the room for portions of the day.

My son is autistic, and he has an assistant in his mainstream classroom to support him and several other students as needed. The rest of my son’s accommodations rarely affect his classmates at all. He uses a keyboard to write, he meets with the school counselor when he’s overwhelmed, and he has social-skills mentoring. The staff at his school meets and works together, mainstreaming children of all abilities. Test scores and academic achievement remain strong, even with a push-in of students from a countywide behavioral program for students with significant emotional disabilities. The general education students are doing great!

Cost is frequently at the heart of arguments against inclusion. It does take money to adequately support special needs students in mainstream classrooms, of course. It costs significantly less to push an assistant in and offer training, however, than to create a separate classroom with a special education teacher or place a child in a specialized private school.

The cost of time is more significant. Inclusion requires teachers, schools, and entire school systems to commit to the model. It requires training and a general overhaul in perspective—about the role of education and the inherent value of each child and his or her learning experience—disabled or not.

However, inclusion is best practice for disabled and non-disabled students alike. Studies show that when inclusion is done well, the whole class benefits. It doesn’t take away from one group to focus on another—quite the opposite. It enhances the ability of non-disabled kids to cooperate, work together, understand and value different perspectives, think critically, and even test well.

Yes, research indicates that a majority of general education students test the same or better on standardized tests when they are educated in the same classroom environment as their disabled peers. Classrooms that have several unsupported students with severe behavioral disabilities are the exception. But diagnoses like this are rare, and added supports for those students seems to be key.

When supported and given adequate training and tools, teachers in inclusive classrooms understand and instruct a variety of learners, individualizing instruction to meet the needs of all learners better. Students have varied needs and strengths, whether disabled or not. Teachers in inclusion settings learn to address this and teach better because of it.

Empathy—which cannot be measured quantitatively—matters, too. How children view peers who look and learn differently from themselves is also a consideration as they grow to adulthood and become members of their communities, and as they live and work alongside a diverse array of citizens. It’s a critical factor in whether communities and workplaces are able to function and thrive.

Finally, and most importantly, disabled students can achieve . Their talents and gifts are varied, as are the talents and gifts of all students. They are legally entitled to an appropriate public education, but they also have so much to offer their non-disabled peers, teachers, and schools.

Inclusion works when educators collaborate, get the support they need, and believe in the value of all students. It’s time for schools and teachers to reevaluate their long-held biases, and it’s time to address the initial financial investment required for training and staffing. It’s also the law.

Inclusion is the least expensive, most effective method of teaching students. It starts from the top, with administrators making this a priority. When administrators model inclusivity and support teachers in its implementation, the entire school (and school system) culture changes. Test scores are rarely negatively impacted and often go up. More importantly, children become better citizens.

Inclusion is best practice. It is also, quite simply, the right way to teach.

A version of this article appeared in the May 08, 2019 edition of Education Week as What Students With Disabilities Deserve

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How I owned it: 3 college application essays

By The Understood Team

Many students (and families) wonder if it’s a good idea to disclose their learning and thinking differences in their college application essay.

Whether to disclose is a personal decision. But for these three students, all mentors with Understood founding partner Eye to Eye , it was a positive move. Here are portions of their essays, and their thoughts on how the process of writing about their differences changed how they see themselves and their challenges.

1. Brittain Peterson, senior at University of Denver

Like most people with dyslexia , I have had the inevitable moment of feeling powerless and unintelligent. But I have also had the positive moments of feeling successful and capable.

Compassionate teachers made the reward of being successful so much greater that I came to love school, while the unaccommodating teachers showed me the importance of advocating for myself. My learning difference also taught me to embrace differences in others. Because I have learned to find my own strengths in unconventional places, I have learned the importance of doing the same for others.

Currently, the most challenging part of dyslexia is overcoming the logistics: scheduling extended time for tests, arranging computer access for in-class essays, planning ahead to source books on tape when necessary. I know that I will have to navigate the logistics of college just as I have navigated the logistics of high school.

But, now it won’t be a question of whether I can do it, just of how.

“I think writing my application essay boosted my confidence. It reminded me that dyslexia didn’t define me, but that it described me. It helped me grasp the idea that my dyslexia had taught me a great deal. It also forced me to picture how I would use accommodations in college , which allowed me to picture myself in college.

My essay also helped me to choose which college to attend . I wanted college to be a place to enjoy learning and not be frustrated with it.”

2. Scott Thourson, bioengineering PhD candidate at Georgia Institute of Technology

In college, at age 19, I was diagnosed with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). In grade school, my intelligence was masked by my low reading comprehension. I neither fit in with the top students (I could not read) nor with the bottom students (I excelled in mathematics).

Firing spitball guns, among other mischief, was my way of protecting my self-esteem and allowing me to focus on coping with my learning differences in school.

When I was 12 years old, my mother gave me an Electronics Learning Lab. I observed that when I could apply knowledge from my electronics projects to new concepts in school, I overcame my ADHD and enhanced my academic performance.

“One of my mentors told me to always be thinking about my life as a coherent story that can explain and tie together everything I have ever done. Making lists, writing journal entries, creating mind maps, or any way of organizing thoughts and ideas can help bring that story to light.

I chose to disclose my ADHD because I was finally proud and confident in my story. I’m a very open person, so I was already comfortable with putting it out there. What made me feel good was how I put it out there. Having enough confidence in my accomplishments and coherence in my story made me feel a lot better about being me and having ADHD.

I wasn’t nervous about what the reviewers might have thought; I was excited. This was definitely a turning point in my life. It wasn’t until this point that I actually started thinking that I was smart.”

3. Carolyn Todd, sophomore at McGill University

Dyslexia is both a blessing and a curse. I struggle every day, working twice as hard as other students. I get stereotyped as stupid by people who do not understand what it means to have a learning difference. However, I refuse to give up. I have learned the importance of standing up for myself and others.

Being dyslexic makes me able to look at the world and see the amazing potential that exists in diversity. Dyslexia has given me the tools to see the beauty in difference and the passion to change the way we define intelligence.

I want to show the world what I see.

“I chose to disclose in my essay because I believe it’s important to raise awareness about different learners. I’ve noticed that topics of disabilities and mental illness are quite taboo. Not enough people take the time to become educated on what they are and can make false assumptions on how they affect someone. I thought that I could, in a small part, help the movement of trying to change this.

Disclosing in my essay felt empowering. Growing up I had learned to hide my dyslexia, and it felt good to be able to embrace the positivities associated with it and share that with others.

It changed the way I saw myself because it gave me more confidence and helped to reinforce the truth that having a disability doesn’t make you any less ‘smart’ or capable.”

Hear from six students in the Eye to Eye mentoring network on the accommodations that helped them succeed in college .

Read how self-advocacy helped a college student with dyscalculia fight for her accommodations.

Find out how another student uses dictation technology to handle college writing.

Explore related topics

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How to Nurture a Sense of Belonging for Students With Disabilities

Prioritizing the inclusion of students with disabilities into all aspects of the school community ensures a welcoming learning environment.

School is a place where everyone should feel that they belong. However, for students with disabilities, this has not always been the case—the education system has a long history of exclusion and segregation when it comes to these students. It wasn’t that long ago that there was no expectation that children with disabilities should or could attend public schools, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act changed that by mandating that children with disabilities are entitled to a free appropriate public education alongside their peers with and without disabilities in the general education setting or least restrictive environment to the greatest extent possible. This is often easier said than done.

Moving From Exclusion Toward Inclusion

Children with disabilities have been brought into the public school setting amid their same-age peers without disabilities. However, the lives of students with and without disabilities still rarely intersect. In the absence of shared activities, strong social connections are unlikely to form. Integration falls short of fostering true belonging for students with disabilities within their school communities.

While situations have greatly improved, it has been a long journey from exclusion to segregation to integration to inclusion. The journey won’t be complete until we all embrace the next step, a sense of belonging. Belonging comes when each person in the school community feels valued and accepted by their peers and teachers. It is when everyone strives to create connections among students that reciprocal relationships can form and all parties can feel like true members of their school.

Simple Ways to Promote a Sense of Belonging

So how can this be accomplished? As Cheryl M. Jorgensen, Michael McSheehan, and Rae M. Sonnenmeir have written, school community members must go beyond simply allowing students with disabilities to be present in all school activities . They need to take an active role in promoting an atmosphere of belonging. Some can easily be integrated into daily classroom routines. 

Consider the following six options to support a sense of belonging:

• During class discussions, regularly ask students with and without disabilities to share stories of when they felt welcomed by others. Students can learn from each other’s experiences.
• Engineer occasions for students with and without disabilities to collaborate on projects and assignments that offer both independent and group accountability so that students can learn to value every group member.
• Consider how peers can provide natural support to one another. Often adults are assigned to help and support children with disabilities. This can be marginalizing and exclusive. Encourage peers to support their classmates as friends and colleagues, not as helpers.
• Combine “ universal supports ” (those that benefit everyone) and “individualized supports” (those that an individual student might need) to make it more viable to meet the educational needs of all the students, such as visual schedules, timers, and flexible seating options.
• Integrate student choice, goal setting, and preferences into lessons and other class activities every day, such as offering flexible seating during independent work or options for self-assessment like rubrics and checklists for class and homework assignments.
• Make sure that students with disabilities are considered for schoolwide recognition, awards, and accolades available to any student.

When students with and without disabilities have plenty of well-supported opportunities to spend time together within and beyond the classroom, many preconceived notions or misconceptions about people with disabilities can be turned around simply through the experience of sharing space. Sometimes, though, it may take a bit more planning and collaboration. 

Know Your Students and Build Community 

Researcher Eric W. Carter advocates for expanding dimensions of belonging for students with disabilities . One way this can be done is by having teachers work together to create student profiles for all learners that emphasize student strengths. This ensures that everyone knows the positive qualities of students with (and without) disabilities. Ask parents, other teachers, and other students about students’ interests, preferences, desires, likes, dislikes, abilities, and talents. 

Teachers can then use this information to group students for projects, assignments, or other social activities. For instance, rather than randomly grouping students, assign them to groups by a common like or dislike, favorite food, or least favorite school subject. This allows students to connect socially before taking on the assigned task. People tend to collaborate more effectively when they share a connection.

Design the School Environment to Meet Students’ Needs

According to research, creating a true culture of belonging needs to extend beyond the classroom and permeate the entire school environment . Schoolwide efforts might include conducting a walk-through of your school buildings and surrounding areas to identify any physical or environmental barriers that could prevent students with disabilities from accessing the location and the people within it.

Pay attention to how people at your school talk about students with disabilities. Do they emphasize the disability labels over the students? (For example, do they use phrases like “IEP [individualized education program] students” or “special ed students”?) Do they equate disability with deficit? Do their words and actions communicate acceptance and belonging, or do they tend more toward exclusion, discomfort, or intolerance?

Gently and respectfully interrupt these connotations each time you encounter them. Educate people voicing them, rather than scolding. When you hear “IEP students,” respond with “students with disabilities.” If you hear someone describing what a student cannot do, remind them of all the things the student can do.

It’s also helpful to plan schoolwide events and activities aligned with national awareness days and months: Developmental Disabilities (March), Down Syndrome (March 21 and October), Cerebral Palsy (March), Autism (April), Disability Pride Month (July), the UN International Day of Persons With Disabilities (December 3), and Inclusive Schools (December). 

With our long history of exclusion and segregation of students with disabilities in education, shifting to a sense of belonging may feel like a big leap. We have come a long way, but we have a bit further to go.

How to Write a College Essay When You Have Learning Differences

Should You Address Your Learning Difference in Your Common App Essay?

It’s a valid question! But in the end, the answer is probably not.

Your personal statement is your chance to speak to admissions officers in your own voice. It should focus on your strengths, background, or goals. We understand why writing about your learning difference might be important to you. But does it define you?

Try to brainstorm a few other ideas before you make your final decision. Is your learning difference the one thing that you want admissions to remember about you? What else drives, motivates, or inspires you? We bet you’ve got a secret skill or passion, too!

Maybe you will decide that your learning disability* is so important for admissions to know that you want to write 650 words about it. Then you have to make another decision…

Should You Write A Personal Statement or Additional Information Essay about Your Learning Difference?

If you want admissions officers to know about your learning disability, you don’t have to write about it in your personal statement. You can write an additional information essay instead. This is an optional essay that you can add to your Common App.

The additional information prompt reads: “Please provide an answer below if you wish to provide details of circumstances or qualifications not reflected in the application. You may enter up to 650 words.”

The additional information essay is the perfect space to explain personal difficulties like:

• learning differences
• low grades or test scores
• special accommodations like extra time on exams
• disciplinary issues

If your learning difference hasn’t had a negative effect on your life, we suggest skipping the additional information section.

If you choose to write an additional information essay, you won’t have to choose between writing about your learning disability* or a different topic. You can save your personal statement for a more unique topic. Maybe your knack for knitting sweaters for penguins , love for Papa John’s pizza , or deep knowledge of Costco !

What If You Really Want to Write Your Personal Statement about Your Learning Difference?

As we have said, you should only write your personal statement about your learning difference if you absolutely can’t think of another topic! But at the end of the day, it’s your choice.

If you decide to write about your learning difference, then the Common Application’s Prompt 2 is a great option to back your essay into.

That prompt reads: “The lessons we take from obstacles we encounter can be fundamental to later success. Recount a time when you faced a challenge, setback, or failure. How did it affect you, and what did you learn from the experience?”

This prompt asks for a story about resilience, which is exactly how we think you should write about your learning difference.

How Should You Address Your Learning Difference in a College Essay?

If you decide to write about the learning disability* in your application (preferably the additional information section), you should tell a story of success. Write about a struggle you overcame.

You don’t want your essay to present you as a victim. You also don’t want admissions officers to question your ability to keep up with college-level work. So do not dwell on your struggles or setbacks. Instead, celebrate your solutions and achievements!

A few questions to think about as you write your essay:

• How do you make lemonade out of the lemons that life has given you?
• How has your learning disability* affected the way you understand the world?
• How has overcoming your challenge made your more confident or assertive?

Whatever you write about your dyslexia, ADD, or LPD, we would recommend getting a second opinion before you submit your application. Ask a trusted friend, family member, teacher, or essay expert for honest feedback. At the end of the day, it is most important to tell a story that shows who you really are!

*You might have noticed that we used the terms “learning difference” and “learning disability” interchangeably in this article. The reason we did so is because the Federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) doesn’t count learning differences or learning challenges as disabilities. In order to receive support, services, and equal access to employment, people need to be classified as having a Specific Learning Disability (SLD). More information on this here.

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Written by Kat Stubing

Category: Admissions , advice , College Admissions , Essay Tips , Essay Writing , Tips , Topic Selection , Uncategorized

Tags: add , additional info , additional info essay , additional information , additional information essay , adhd , Admissions , admissions essay , admissions help , application , applications , applying to college , college admissions , college admissions essay , college applications , college essay , college essay advice , college essay advisors , college essay tips , common app essay , dyslexia , learning challenges , learning differences , learning disabilities , personal statement , writing about add , writing about dyslexia , writing about learning differences , writing about learning disabilities

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Disabled Students Need Equity, Not Just Access

We must challenge our biases and create inclusive experiences for all students

Summer 2021

In higher education, we are reckoning with the ramifications of our exclusive history but do not seem to know how to include disability in these efforts. Like other systems, higher education is built upon institutionalized ableism. Ableism is a system that advantages nondisabled people and centers their experiences. For example, campuses often have limited accessibility. Perhaps wheelchair users need to enter around the back of a building to avoid stairs or are limited to just one accessible seat in a classroom. Captioning—though required by law on websites or media for places of public accommodation (including colleges and universities)—is still inconsistent, rendering that information inaccessible to current or prospective Deaf students. Few campuses have cultural resources to help disabled students or faculty build community. To begin to understand institutionalized ableism, we might ask ourselves how these common experiences of disabled students and employees compare with the experiences of nondisabled people.

As a disabled disability resources professional and university faculty member, I believe that our work to create more equitable experiences for disabled students must begin with the awareness and humility to commit to challenging our personal and professional ableist biases and practices. Then we must reframe how we think about disability in higher education, and we must work not just for access but for equity and inclusion for disabled students.

A key distinction in reframing disability is appreciating the difference between impairment and disability. Disability studies scholars would have us understand impairment as naturally occurring on the spectrum of human diversity, a physiological difference in the body or brain. Impairment is neutral, not the cause of or justification for exclusion or oppression. Disability, however, is the result of exclusive or oppressive systems, attitudes, policies, or environments that, in effect, disadvantage or disable people with impairments. According to the social model of disability, individuals are not disabled by their impairments but by the ableist environments and attitudes that exclude and disadvantage them. For example, I use a wheelchair, and I am disabled not by my body but by barriers in the physical environment; I am disabled by the system.

As a mentor of mine would say, we must “relocate the problem.” Per the social model, we would redirect our professional intervention toward the environment, system, or structure, not the individual. We would identify and remove barriers systemically to cultivate equitable and inclusive experiences for all.

In addition, college communities need to understand that creating such equitable experiences goes beyond just addressing physical barriers. We must create ways to explore and celebrate disability culture, community, identity, and scholarship, such as by teaching the works of disability studies scholars, supporting disability cultural centers, and celebrating disability history and pride months on campus. It took me until my late twenties to start to appreciate the richness of the disability community and its culture of sport, activism, and art. I continue to check my internalized ableism and suspect that most disabled people grapple with their identity development. As a society, we tend to view disability as a medical diagnosis to be fixed or a personal tragedy to be pitied. Disability is more than a deficit or a set of “special needs.” To begin to challenge these antiquated ideas and stigmas, we must say the word “disability” and avoid euphemisms. Though I prefer to identify as disabled, saying “person with a disability” also names disability.

Three decades after the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), a federal civil rights law to prohibit discrimination on the basis of disability, higher education still struggles to leverage the ADA to shift campus culture from one of implementing individual accommodations to one of creating true equity.

Although access is an institutional responsibility, disability-related access is consistently framed as the responsibility of disabled individuals. Though admitted or hired by the same competitive processes and held to the same high standards, disabled students, faculty, and staff frequently have a very different experience from their nondisabled peers with respect to basic access on campus. To ensure that they have accessible course materials, dorm rooms, or workspaces, disabled folks must often request accommodations, while their nondisabled peers do not need to do so. This sends a message about mattering, value, and inclusion to both disabled and nondisabled people. Disabled students and employees are often regarded as a burden—needy, pitiful, and expensive—by faculty, university staff, and even their peers.

When we narrowly interpret the ADA and attend only to the individual, rather than the environment, we stay focused on the letter of the law as opposed to the spirit of the law. We miss the opportunity to think about how to evolve and redesign our systems, structures, and policies to be universally accessible and inclusive. Take universal design (UD)—a term coined by architect and product designer Ron Mace to describe “the design of products and environments to be usable by all people, to the greatest extent possible, without the need for adaptation or specialized design.” UD presents promising strategies to advance the spirit of the ADA by addressing campus inclusion systemically. While individual accommodations perpetuate a differential experience for disabled people, universally designed solutions are seamless, equitable, and often more sustainable. They help give disabled students a similar, if not identical, experience to that of their nondisabled peers.

For example, a classroom with flexible furniture, as shown on this page, is both ADA compliant and equitable. Such a classroom is accessible not only to wheelchair users but to anyone, regardless of body size, and gives all students the chance to choose where in the room they want to sit. In another example, rather than accommodating individual students with extended time for exams or private testing locations, faculty could offer take-home exams. Without compromising rigor, a take-home exam would enable students to take as much time or as many breaks as needed and situate themselves in an accessible, comfortable, and/or minimally distracting environment. This design would not necessitate individual accommodations and might ultimately benefit all students.

In spring 2020, colleges and universities transitioned to remote teaching, learning, and working in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Suddenly, many practices that had previously been reserved for disability-related accommodations—such as working remotely, flexible schedules and attendance policies, captioned class lectures, and readily available online course materials—became the norm. We are all learning through direct experience that UD and flexible curricular and workplace practices are, in fact, effective and may even be preferred by many people, disabled or nondisabled. While the pandemic has been devastating on many levels, the opportunity to put UD into practice—something disability resources professionals have been championing for decades—is a silver lining. With continued commitment, we can leverage UD to promote a campus experience that is not just accessible but welcoming and equitable to disabled community members.

Resources for.. .

→ Creating accessible materials and experiences. The University of Arizona’s Information Technology Accessibility Group: itaccessibility.arizona.edu

→ Using universal design in event planning. The University of Arizona’s site for Planning Accessible Events and Activities: drc.arizona.edu/planning-events

→ Accessing information and research. The National Center for College Students with Disabilities: nccsdonline.org

→ Understanding captioning. Automatic captions are increasingly available and accurate, but they are not ADA compliant. Using them is a best practice to maximize inclusion, but it does not substitute for an accommodation: 3playmedia.com/blog/automatic-captions-wcag-ada-508-compliant

Practical Suggestions to Support Disability Equity in the Classroom

Check your biases. One important way to cultivate an equitable learning environment is to hold all students to the same standards. If you notice that you have higher (or lower) expectations for some students regarding their performance, engagement, or general capability, pause and reflect on why that might be. This is most likely your unconscious bias at play. We have been socialized to think about disability as something negative to be cured or pitied or as a liability and a burden. We have also been conditioned to view disabled people as inspirational or deserving of a little extra help or attention. These biases undermine the capabilities and successes of disabled students.

You do not need to do anything more or less to support disabled students’ success. Please do not excuse or modify aspects of your course only for disabled students, for example by exempting them from participating in a group project or field trip or by allowing a more generous deadline because you think it will be helpful. Your responsibility is to create a course in which all students have equitable access.

Representation matters. It is not uncommon for the only mention or representation of disability in a given course to be in a statement on the syllabus about how to request accommodations. You can represent disability and celebrate disability identity and culture in many meaningful ways across your course. For example, you can assign readings by disabled authors and scholars, reference disability history or the disability community when exploring certain topics, and include images of diverse disabled people in course materials.

Say “disability.” Language reflects our values, so it is important to be intentional about how we reference identities and lived experiences. In curricula and professional trainings, many of us have been taught to be politically correct and have been expressly advised against saying “disability” for fear of offending or making someone uncomfortable. So, we developed euphemisms for disability such as “mentally challenged,” “handi-capable,” and “special needs.” While I reject the idea of a checklist on how to talk to disabled people or engage with any historically marginalized community, I do believe it is important to say “disability.” When we avoid it, we promote the dangerous idea that disability is so bad we dare not utter the word. Consider using person-first language (person with a disability) or identity-first language (disabled person). Please do not reference accommodations as “special” but as disability-related access or disability-related accommodations. Disabled people have the same needs as their nondisabled peers—to park their cars, use the restroom, sit in a classroom or office space, read scholarly materials, or take an exam. These experiences have been designed for the nondisabled student or professional, rendering the basic needs of disabled people as “special.”

Maximize inclusion. Consider students who, for example, may not be able to see the screen well in a large classroom or who may be encountering outside noise while remotely accessing a course. The following simple strategies can help create a more equitable experience for all students, disabled or not.

• Caption all videos and provide transcripts.

• Ensure your slides have sufficient color contrast and large, clear font.

• Describe any images or charts as you teach or present.

Top image: The University of Arizona’s Disability Cultural Center. Image credit: University of Arizona

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Guest Blog: How to Effectively Write About a Disability in a College Essay

Diane Diamantis June 13, 2016 Blog Posts , Non-Profit

Today we are pleased to feature a guest blog by Shirag Shemmassian, Ph.D. We met Dr. Shemmassian at the 2016 national conference of the Tourette Association of America. His work as a consultant helping students with disabilities fits well with our goal of helping college students who have Tourette Syndrome. Here, he covers a topic that can benefit students with all types of disabilities. We hope you find it useful!

–Dollars 4 Tic Scholars

How to Effectively Write about a Disability in a College Essay

by Shirag Shemmassian, Ph.D.

Parents often ask me whether their student’s college admissions chances will be hurt if they discuss a disability in their college essay.

The answer is a resounding “No.” In fact, disclosing a disability in a college essay or elsewhere on a college application can help your student gain admission to their dream school .

Colleges aim to recruit a diverse student body, and disability is seen as one form of diversity. Disclosing a disability can provide admissions committee members with the proper context in which to evaluate your student’s academic and personal achievements.

Nevertheless, I am a firm believer that there is no such thing as a good or bad college essay topic, only strong or poor execution . Therefore, merely disclosing a disability won’t be enough to get your student into great colleges. They will have to go a step further and discuss specifically how their disability makes them them .

So, how can your student produce a standout essay about their disability? Following the dos and don’ts listed below will help your student avoid common mistakes and wow admissions committees the nation over.

• Don’t write a story with the intention to make the admissions committee feel bad for you. Do write a story that demonstrates your unique qualities and how you will be a good fit with a particular school.

Every time an admissions committee member reads a college essay, the question in the back of their mind is: “Will this applicant be a good fit at our school?” The best way for your student to demonstrate fit with a college is to tell a compelling story that conveys their positive traits, such as grit, resilience, and optimism. On the other hand, telling a story that exclusively highlights the challenges your student faced with their disability will unfortunately lead the reader to doubt whether they will be able to handle the rigors associated with college life.

• Don’t simply write about how you dealt with your disability. Do communicate how working through your disability has transformed you or helped you grow.

Your student’s disability, and the way they have dealt with it, have likely contributed significantly to their identity development. Admissions committees want to know how your student’s experiences with their disability has shaped them into the wonderful person they are today. For example, overcoming the teasing and self-advocating for my educational rights associated with my Tourette Syndrome diagnosis has helped me embrace the fact I am just as capable as anyone else and to help others do the same. How has your student been transformed positively because of their disability experiences?

• Don’t present yourself as someone who has overcome every issue related to your disability. Do present yourself as someone who makes the most of every difficult situation you face.

Your student’s disability may impact their friendships, schoolwork, and relationships with family members. And while your student is likely an incredibly resilient individual who has overcome multiple barriers at school, at home, and in the community, they inevitably continue to face challenges due to their disability or otherwise. Therefore, your student’s goal for their college essay should be to authentically discuss their responses to life’s challenges, regardless of whether or not they have figured everything out. I mean, which of us has?

Final Thoughts

Your student should not shy away from discussing their disability when completing their college applications. Doing so may help them present a side of themselves that is likely a major part of the person they uniquely are. Nevertheless, there are multiple fine lines your student must straddle when discussing their disability to come across as authentic and resilient, and to demonstrate fit with their dream schools.

Dr. Shemmassian channeled his passion for empowering families to found Shemmassian Academic Consulting , through which he helps students with disabilities get into America’s top colleges. His work has been featured on television, conferences, and various blogs and podcasts. You can receive Dr. Shemmassian’s top 10 college admissions secrets for free to help your student get into their dream school—without the stress—by clicking here .

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Inclusion of Students with Disabilities in Higher Education

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Inequalities in higher education have steadily become a notable concern. The effect of social background could be eliminated or at least minimized by the expansion of the education system. Higher education faces serious challenges in adapting their educational services to the needs of today’s diverse population of students. Although mass higher education has intensified in the last decades, inequalities in higher education are still present. This chapter aims to understand inequality of access to higher education, to qualitative educational services, and to various adaptations to ensure equal opportunities for the diversity of students attending tertiary education. A comprehensive worldwide literature review was undertaken to provide a conceptual framework and draw the main trends and directions of the international system of higher education. This chapter addresses issues related to specific issues of university admissions, the problems of unequal access to higher education, the impressive experience in the process of studying at universities, as well as public policy issues in the field of equalizing educational opportunities in higher education, especially for students with disabilities in the actual context characterized by the medical crises during COVID-19, the economic and social insecurity, and fast-paced changing labor work demands. Simultaneously, some good practices of the use of innovative teaching techniques and technologies to reduce barriers in accessing educational opportunities in higher education for students with disabilities are also provided. The new perspective of hybridization and digitalization of higher education focuses on the integration into the learning-teaching process of digital tools, open educational resources, and electronic library databases to reduce inequalities in universities and other professional development training.

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Department of Education, University of Pitești, Pitești, Romania

Cristina Dumitru

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Dumitru, C. (2023). Inclusion of Students with Disabilities in Higher Education. In: The Palgrave Handbook of Global Social Change. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-87624-1_400-1

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Disability inclusive education and learning

Inscribed in the Universal Declaration on Human Rights (1948) , education is a basic right. A range of declarations and conventions highlight the importance of education for people with disabilities: the Salamanca Statement on education and special needs in 1994, as well as article 24 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) adopted in 2006. The importance of education for all is also included in the Convention against Discrimination in Education 1960. In 2015, the Incheon Declaration recalled the importance of inclusive education for all. Targets 4.5 and 4.a call for access to education and the construction of adapted facilities for children with disabilities (Education 2030, 2016).

WHAT WE KNOW

There are few data on school enrolment figures for children with disabilities. However, we do know that there are between 93 and 150 million children living with a disability and, according to the Learning Generation report, in low- and middle-income countries as many as 33 million children with disabilities are out of school (Grant Lewis, 2019). Moreover, children with disabilities are less likely to complete primary, secondary and further education compared to children without disabilities.

In all countries of the world, people with disabilities have lower literacy rates than people without disabilities (Singal, 2015; UIS, 2018; United Nations, 2018). There is also a difference based on the nature of the disability i.e. illiteracy is higher in children with visual impairments, multiple or mental disorders compared to children with motor disabilities (Singal, 2015).

When they do attend school, children with disabilities score lower in mathematics and reading tests, as shown in the PASEC learning assessments (World Bank, 2019; Wodon et al, 2018). Girls with disabilities are penalized even further due to their gender (UIS, 2018). Generally, disability tends to compound social inequalities (e.g. poverty or place of residence). That said, in Pakistan, the learning gap between children with disabilities and children without disabilities enrolled in school was lower than the gap between these two out-of-school groups (Rose et al., 2018: 9). Moreover, studies in the United States of America have shown that students with disabilities achieve better academic outcomes and social integration when studying in a mainstream environment than students studying in segregated or specialized classes (Alquraini and Gut, 2012).

TOWARD A MAINSTREAM SCHOOL ENVIRONMENT

Inclusive education means including students with disabilities in a mainstream school environment. In many countries today, children with disabilities attend ordinary schools but follow a specific curriculum. Moving toward a more inclusive model (i.e. students with disabilities follow an inclusive curriculum along with able-bodied students) is a long-term process.

As countries move toward more inclusive education, special schools and their staff can play a key role by acting as specialized experts and helping mainstream schools achieve greater inclusion (UNESCO, 2017). The Global Partnership for Education (GPE) studied the inclusion of students with disabilities in education sector plans in 51 countries. Seventeen of them are considering a two-pronged approach: to integrate disability in education and to invest in actions and services aimed specifically at meeting the needs of children with disabilities (GPE, 2018).

Many obstacles prevent children and young people with disabilities from attending a mainstream school.

• Identifying pupils with disabilities . Prejudices and social attitudes lead to under-declaring the number of children with disabilities (GPE, 2018). Certain families, fearing stigmatisation, do not send their children to school (Singal, 2015; EDT and UNICEF, 2016). Due to the hidden nature of certain learning difficulties, the total population of these children is largely unknown (World Bank, 2019). Identifying these children at school is rare (Wodon et al, 2018). Recognizing disabilities may be limited to observable disabilities and not necessarily those that affect the child's ability to learn (EDT and UNICEF, 2016). Obsolete and inadequate data complicate effective educational planning and hinder decision-making and resource allocation (GPE, 2018). In addition, countries use different measurements, methods and definitions to classify disabilities thus affecting their ability to compare data (GPE, 2018; Price, 2018).
• Lack of trained teachers. In many countries, teachers do not have the confidence or the necessary skills to deliver inclusive education (Singal, 2015; Wodon et al, 2018). Inclusive education is only a small component of the training received by teachers and is not always assessed (EDT and UNICEF, 2016).
• Poorly adapted school facilities and learning materials. Poorly adapted infrastructures and a lack of accessible learning materials are significant obstacles. This is particularly true in rural areas where increased levels of poverty, poor services, and recurrent infrastructure failings exacerbate these existing problems for children with disabilities (SADPD, 2012). School curricula that solely rely on passive learning methods, such as drilling, dictation, and copying from the blackboard, further limit access to quality education for children with disabilities (Humanity & Inclusion, 2015).
• Lack of resources. Whether it concerns building adapted schools, reducing class sizes or teacher training, financial and human resources are required (Grimes, Stevens and Kumar, 2015). Funds earmarked for special needs are often insufficient. Where funding is available, it is primarily intended for schools and special units, rather than being used for the needs of students enrolled in mainstream schools and removing existing barriers (Mariga, McConkey and Myezwa, 2014).
• Assessing learning. There are few data on the learning outcomes of students with disabilities. Examinations and tests rarely make accommodations for these students putting them at a disadvantage. Most international performance tests exclude students with disabilities, which, in turn, reinforces low expectations (Schuelka, 2013 cited in Price, 2018; World Bank, 2019).

POLICY AND PLANNING

• Defining a policy for inclusive education. Inclusive education requires a systemic examination of education systems and school cultures. Promoting social justice and inclusive education requires drawing up, implementing and assessing plans and policies that favour inclusive education for all. Every country needs to formulate its own set of solutions that reach down to the level of individual schools (Grant Lewis, 2019).
• Facilitating access to learning. The first step to including children with disabilities in mainstream schools is the provision of adapted school facilities e.g. ramps, toilets, special equipment, and apparatus, as well as making appropriate teaching and learning materials available (SADPD, 2012; Malik et al., 2018). To encourage the enrolment of girls with disabilities, special measures could comprise grants or allowances (GPE, 2018).
• Strengthening partnerships. Inclusive education requires creating partnerships with local stakeholders i.e. parents, schools, communities, countries, ministries, and development partners (Grant Lewis, 2019). Partnerships which capitalize on local knowledge and resources have proven to be effective (SADPD, 2012; EDT and UNICEF, 2016; GPE, 2018). One recommendation is to give particular support to parents to raise their awareness of the importance of inclusive education and to integrate them into the educational community, for example by participating in school activities (GPE, 2018).
• Ensuring adequate teacher training. The ability of teachers to provide quality education to students with disabilities depends on their training and qualifications (European Agency for Special Needs and Inclusive Education, 2015). However, teachers often struggle due to already overcrowded classes. Offering upstream pre-service training for future teachers, investing in in-service teacher training comprising practical stages and a mentoring system are approaches that have proved their effectiveness (Ackers, 2018). However, it is important to train specialized teachers as it is not possible to train all mainstream teachers to be sufficiently fluent in Braille, national sign language, and augmentative and alternative communication modes (EDT and UNICEF, 2016). The Global Partnership for Education has also highlighted the importance of training teachers to identify disabilities (GPE, 2018).
• Statistics to reinforce human support. Although data are rare, there are tools which can be used to monitor the participation and learning of students with disabilities. Data from household surveys are used to monitor school attendance and success rates for children, as well as to examine factors linked to non-attendance; Education Management Information Systems (EMIS) collect administrative data about school attendance, student behaviour, and progress. However, qualitative data are also needed to shed light on the ‘how’ and ‘why’ of the lives of students, teachers, and parents (Mont, 2018). Equally important is the collection of data on the school environment, such as the physical accessibility of schools, information on policies and legislation, teaching materials, teacher training and the availability of support specialists in schools (Grant Lewis, 2018).
• Assessing students. The Salamanca Statement advocates formative assessment to identify difficulties and help students overcome them (Salamanca Statement, 1994). Sæbønes et al. (2015) recommend classroom assessments for individual learning. They recommend that regional and national examinations and international learning assessments systematically include all students and provide reasonable accommodations for learners with disabilities. A study conducted in Kenya shows that it is possible to carry out large-scale learning assessments of deaf and blind children. However, in order to design these adapted tools, human, material and financial resources are necessary (Piper et al., 2019). For an overview of the issue of learning assessments and students with disabilities see World Bank, 2019.
• Investing in technology. According to UNESCO “ICTs can be a valuable tool for learners with disabilities who are vulnerable to the digital divide and exclusion from educational opportunities” (UNESCO, 2014: 10). To reduce barriers, their model policy recommends the use of inclusive ICTs, commercially available products that are, as far as possible, accessible to all, as well as assistive technology to enable access when this is not possible using products available on the market. (UNESCO, 2014: 11).
• Cost. It is important to find ways to meet the needs of the most marginalized without additional funding (UNESCO, 2017). Approaches, such as analysing data from household surveys, suggest that the returns on investing in education for children with disabilities are high and similar to those for people without disabilities. Therefore, investing in the education of children with disabilities is both smart and profitable (Wodon et al., 2018). UNESCO recommends setting up or strengthening financial monitoring systems, as well as creating partnerships between governments and donors (UNESCO, 2017). Finally, the comparison between the cost of specialized institutions and inclusive institutions reveals that the inclusive system is more efficient (Open Society Foundations, n.d.; Inclusion International. n.d.).
• Proposing inclusive pedagogy. The type of disability (autism spectrum disorders, learning disabilities, language, hearing, etc.) influences the learning method. Inclusive pedagogy requires a shift in the educational culture within teaching and support practices i.e. moving away from ‘one-size-fits-all’ education towards a tailored approach to increase the capacity of the system to meet the diverse needs of learners without the need to categorize or label them (European Agency for Special Needs and Inclusive Education, 2017). We move away from the idea of inclusion as a specialized response to certain learners, to allow them to access or participate in what is offered to most students (Florian, 2015). Inclusive pedagogy implies having resources and services that can be used by all students without the need for adaptation or specialized planning (UNESCO, 2017: 19).

Plans and policies

• Fiji: Policy on special and inclusive education (2016)
•  Kenya: Sector policy for learners and trainees with disabilities (2018)
• South Africa: Policy on screening, identification, assessment, and support (2014)
• Fiji. Ministry of Education; Australian Agency for International Development. 2017. Fiji Education Management Information System (FEMIS): Disability disaggregation package. Guidelines and forms.
•  Bulat, J.; Macon, W.; Ticha, R.; Abery, B. 2017. School and classroom disabilities inclusion guide for low- and middle-income countries. Research Triangle Park, NC: RTI Press.
•  Ethiopia. Ministry of Education. 2015. Guideline for establishing and managing inclusive education resource/support centers (RCs). Addis Ababa: Federal Ministry of Education.
• Hayes, A. M.; Bulat, J. 2017. Disabilities inclusive education systems and policies guide for low- and middle-income countries . Research Triangle Park, NC: RTI Press.
• UNESCO. 2017. A Guide for ensuring inclusion and equity in education. Paris: UNESCO.

Ackers, J. 2018. “Teacher education and inclusive education”. The IIEP Letter 34 (2)

Alquraini, T.; Gut, D. 2012. Critical components of successful inclusion of students with severe disabilities: International Journal of Special Education 27 (1): 42 59.

Convention against discrimination in education.

Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

Education 2030: Incheon Declaration and Framework for Action for the implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 4: To ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning . 2016.

Education Development Trust; UNICEF. 2016. Eastern and Southern Africa regional study on the fulfilment of the right to education of children with disabilities. Reading: EDT.

European Agency for Special Needs and Inclusive Education. 2015. Empowering teachers to promote inclusive education: A case study of approaches to training and support for inclusive teacher practice. Odense: European Agency for Special Needs and Inclusive Education.

European Agency for Special Needs and Inclusive Education. 2017. Inclusive education for learners with disabilities. Study for the Peti committee. Brussels: European Union.

Florian, L. 2015. Inclusive Pedagogy: A transformative approach to individual differences but can it help reduce educational inequalities? Scottish Educational Review 47 (1): 5 14.

Grant Lewis, S. 2019. ' Opinion: The urgent need to plan for disability-inclusive education'. Devex. 6 February 2019.

Grimes, P.; Stevens, M.; Kumar, K. 2015. 'An examination of the evolution of policies and strategies to improve access to education for children with disabilities with a focus on inclusive education approaches, the success and challenges'. Background paper prepared for the Education for All Global Monitoring Report 2015, Education for All 2000-2015: Achievements and challenges.

Humanity & Inclusion. 2015. Education for all? This is still not a reality for most children with disabilities.

Inclusion International. n.d. FAQs - Inclusion International .

Male, C.; Wodon, Q. 2018. Disability gaps in educational attainment and literacy. The price of exclusion: disability and education. Washington, DC: World Bank; GPE.

Mariga, L.; McConkey, R.; Myezwa, H. 2014. Inclusive education in low-income countries: A resource for teacher educators, parent trainers and community development workers . Cape Town: Atlas Alliance and Disability Innovations Africa.

Mont, D. 2018. Collecting data for inclusive education . IIEP Learning Portal (blog).

Open Society Foundations. n. d. ' The power of letting children learn together'.

Global Partnership for Education (GPE). 2018. Disability and inclusive education - a stocktake of education sector plans and GPE-funded grants. Washington, DC: GPE.

Piper, B.; Bulat, J.; Kwayumba, D.; Oketch, J.; Gangla, L. 2019. Measuring literacy outcomes for the blind and for the deaf: Nationally representative results from Kenya. International Journal of Educational Development 69 (September)

Price, R. 2018. Inclusive and special education approaches in developing countries. K4D Helpdesk Report.

Rose, P.; Singal, N.; Bari, F.; Malik, R.; Kamran, S. 2018. Identifying disability in household surveys: evidence on education access and learning for children with disabilities in Pakistan. Policy Paper, 18/1. Cambridge: REAL Centre. University of Cambridge.

Sæbønes, A.-M.; Berman Bieler, R.; Baboo, N.; Banham, L.; Singal, N.; Howgego, C.; Vuyiswa McClain-Nhlapo, C.; Riis-Hansen, T. C.; Dansie, G. A. ' Towards a disability inclusive education '. Background paper for the Oslo Summit on Education for Development, 6-7 July 2015.

Salamanca Statement and the Framework for Action on Special Needs Education. 1994.

Secretariat of the African Decade of Persons with Disabilities. 2012. Study on education for children with disabilities in Southern Africa. Pretoria: SADPD.

Singal, N. 2015. Education of children with disabilities in India and Pakistan: an analysis of developments since 2000. Background paper prepared for the Education for All Global Monitoring Report 2015, Education for All 2000-2015: Achievements and challenges.

UIS. 2018. Education and disability: analysis of data from 49 countries. Information Paper 49. Montreal: UIS.

UNESCO. 2014. Model policy for inclusive ICTs in education for persons with disabilities. Paris: UNESCO.

UNESCO. 2017. A Guide for ensuring inclusion and equity in education . Paris: UNESCO.

United Nations. Department of Economic and Social Affairs. 2018. ' Realization of the Sustainable Development Goals by, for and with persons with disabilities'. UN Flagship Report on Disability and Development 2018. Advanced unedited version. New York: United Nations.

Universal Declaration on Human Rights . 1948

Wodon, Q.; Male, C.; Montenegro, C.; Nayihouba, A. 2018. The challenge of inclusive education in Sub-Saharan Africa. Washington, DC: World Bank.

World Bank. 2019. Every learner matters: Unpacking the learning crisis for children with disabilities . Washington, DC: World Bank.

Related information

• Global education monitoring report, 2020: Inclusion and education: all means all
• IIEP, planning for inclusive education
• UNESCO: Inclusion in education
• Inclusive education

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Book Reviews

In 2 essay collections, writers with disabilities tell their own stories.

Ilana Masad

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More than 1 in 5 people living in the U.S. has a disability, making it the largest minority group in the country.

Despite the civil rights law that makes it illegal to discriminate against a person based on disability status — Americans with Disabilities Act passed in 1990 — only 40 percent of disabled adults in what the Brookings Institute calls "prime working age," that is 25-54, are employed. That percentage is almost doubled for non-disabled adults of the same age. But even beyond the workforce — which tends to be the prime category according to which we define useful citizenship in the U.S. — the fact is that people with disabilities (or who are disabled — the language is, for some, interchangeable, while others have strong rhetorical and political preferences), experience a whole host of societal stigmas that range from pity to disbelief to mockery to infantilization to fetishization to forced sterilization and more.

But disabled people have always existed, and in two recent essay anthologies, writers with disabilities prove that it is the reactions, attitudes, and systems of our society which are harmful, far more than anything their own bodies throw at them.

About Us: Essays from the Disability Series of the New York Times, edited by Peter Catapano and Rosemarie Garland-Thomson, collects around 60 essays from the column, which began in 2016, and divides them into eight self-explanatory sections: Justice, Belonging, Working, Navigating, Coping, Love, Family, and Joy. The title, which comes from the 1990s disability rights activist slogan "Nothing about us without us," explains the book's purpose: to give those with disabilities the platform and space to write about their own experiences rather than be written about.

While uniformly brief, the essays vary widely in terms of tone and topic. Some pieces examine particular historical horrors in which disability was equated with inhumanity, like the "The Nazis' First Victims Were the Disabled" by Kenny Fries (the title says it all) or "Where All Bodies Are Exquisite" by Riva Lehrer, in which Lehrer, who was born with spina bifida in 1958, "just as surgeons found a way to close the spina bifida lesion," visits the Mutter Museum in Philadelphia. There, she writes:

"I am confronted with a large case full of specimen jars. Each jar contains a late-term fetus, and all of the fetuses have the same disability: Their spinal column failed to fuse all the way around their spinal cord, leaving holes (called lesions) in their spine. [...] I stand in front of these tiny humans and try not to pass out. I have never seen what I looked like on the day I was born."

Later, she adds, "I could easily have ended up as a teaching specimen in a jar. But luck gave me a surgeon."

Other essays express the joys to be found in experiences unfamiliar to non-disabled people, such as the pair of essays by Molly McCully Brown and Susannah Nevison in which the two writers and friends describe the comfort and intimacy between them because of shared — if different — experiences; Brown writes at the end of her piece:

"We're talking about our bodies, and then not about our bodies, about her dog, and my classes, and the zip line we'd like to string between us [... a]nd then we're talking about our bodies again, that sense of being both separate and not separate from the skin we're in. And it hits me all at once that none of this is in translation, none of this is explaining. "

From the cover of Resistance and Hope: Essays by Disabled People, edited by Alice Wong Disability Visibility Project hide caption

From the cover of Resistance and Hope: Essays by Disabled People, edited by Alice Wong

While there's something of value in each of these essays, partially because they don't toe to a single party line but rather explore the nuances of various disabilities, there's an unfortunate dearth of writers with intellectual disabilities in this collection. I also noticed that certain sections focused more on people who've acquired a disability during their lifetime and thus went through a process of mourning, coming to terms with, or overcoming their new conditions. While it's true — and emphasized more than once — that many of us, as we age, will become disabled, the process of normalization must begin far earlier if we're to become a society that doesn't discriminate against or segregate people with disabilities.

One of the contributors to About Us, disability activist and writer Alice Wong, edited and published another anthology just last year, Resistance and Hope: Essays by Disabled People , through the Disability Visibility Project which publishes and supports disability media and is partnered with StoryCorps. The e-book, which is available in various accessible formats, features 17 physically and/or intellectually disabled writers considering the ways in which resistance and hope intersect. And they do — and must, many of these writers argue — intersect, for without a hope for a better future, there would be no point to such resistance. Attorney and disability justice activist Shain M. Neumeir writes:

"Those us who've chosen a life of advocacy and activism aren't hiding from the world in a bubble as the alt-right and many others accuse us of doing. Anything but. Instead, we've chosen to go back into the fires that forged us, again and again, to pull the rest of us out, and to eventually put the fires out altogether."

You don't go back into a burning building unless you hope to find someone inside that is still alive.

The anthology covers a range of topics: There are clear and necessary explainers — like disability justice advocate and organizer Lydia X. Z. Brown's "Rebel — Don't Be Palatable: Resisting Co-optation and Fighting for the World We Want" — about what disability justice means, how we work towards it, and where such movements must resist both the pressures of systemic attacks (such as the threatened cuts to coverage expanded by the Affordable Care Act) and internal gatekeeping and horizontal oppression (such as a community member being silenced due to an unpopular or uninformed opinion). There are essays that involve the work of teaching towards a better future, such as community lawyer Talila A. Lewis's "the birth of resistance: courageous dreams, powerful nobodies & revolutionary madness" which opens with a creative classroom writing prompt: "The year is 2050. There are no prisons. What does justice look like?" And there are, too, personal meditations on what resistance looks like for people who don't always have the mobility or ability to march in the streets or confront their lawmakers in person, as Ojibwe writer Mari Kurisato explains:

"My resistance comes from who I am as a Native and as an LGBTQIA woman. Instinctively, the first step is reaching out and making connections across social media and MMO [massively multiplayer online] games, the only places where my social anxiety lets me interact with people on any meaningful level."

The authors of these essays mostly have a clear activist bent, and are working, lauded, active people; they are gracious, vivid parts of society. Editor Alice Wong demonstrates her own commitments in the diversity of these writers' lived experiences: they are people of color and Native folk, they encompass the LGBTQIA+ spectrum, they come from different class backgrounds, and their disabilities range widely. They are also incredibly hopeful: Their commitment to disability justice comes despite many being multiply marginalized. Artist and poet Noemi Martinez, who is queer, chronically ill, and a first generation American, writes that "Not all communities are behind me and my varied identities, but I defend, fight, and work for the rights of the members of all my communities." It cannot be easy to fight for those who oppress parts of you, and yet this is part of Martinez's commitment.

While people with disabilities have long been subjected to serve as "inspirations" for the non-disabled, this anthology's purpose is not to succumb to this gaze, even though its authors' drive, creativity, and true commitment to justice and reform is apparent. Instead, these essays are meant to spur disabled and non-disabled people alike into action, to remind us that even if we can't see the end result, it is the fight for equality and better conditions for us all that is worth it. As activist and MFA student Aleksei Valentin writes:

"Inspiration doesn't come first. Even hope doesn't come first. Action comes first. As we act, as we speak, as we resist, we find our inspiration, our hope, that which helps us inspire others and keep moving forward, no matter the setbacks and no matter the defeats."

Ilana Masad is an Israeli American fiction writer, critic and founder/host of the podcast The Other Stories . Her debut novel, All My Mother's Lovers, is forthcoming from Dutton in 2020.

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Student accessibility services.

Because every student is different, advising students with impairments in matters of writing requires innovation. As with all writers, what works for one student will not necessarily work for another. Accordingly, we cannot, via the web, offer a "plan" (or even a group of plans) that will transform students into competent writers. What we can offer is some anecdotal advice, gathered over the years from students who have used these strategies to become clearer, more efficient writers.

Making the Writing Process Concrete

First, we should acknowledge that students with impairments benefit from the strategies that we offer throughout this site.  Good practice is good practice.  And so perhaps the most important step in taking control of your writing process is to make that process as concrete as you possibly can. The writing process typically involves several steps: coming up with a topic, developing a thesis, organizing your thoughts, writing and rewriting, refining your sentences, and correcting your grammar. You should never try to rush this process. Don't skip steps; don't try to write "straight from your head."

Instead, make the process concrete. Write everything down. When you are  coming up with a topic  for your paper,  brainstorm  by making a list of every idea that comes into your head. Once you have a list, look at your ideas and try to  sketch  them, using arrows or colored markers to cluster your ideas so that you can easily see which seem to go together. You might want to go even further and annotate each of your clusters. In other words, write a sentence or two that suggests how these ideas relate to one another.

If making lists doesn't work for you, try  freewriting . And if freewriting feels too random, try to write a more focused  discovery draft . You may, in fact, want to write more than one. Tip: the more writing you do when you are planning the paper, the more you'll have to work with when you start to write.

Once you've come up with your topic, you'll want to develop a  working thesis sentence . Learning-disabled students might profit by writing a thesis sentence that has an explicit essay map. This map will direct you through the major points of your paper and can prevent you from getting lost in tangential ideas. (For more information about developing the thesis statement, see  Developing Your Ideas and Finding Your Thesis .)

Use your essay map to suggest a  structure  for your paper. Make a detailed  outline  to help you to develop your idea logically. Tip: Outlines should be fluid. As your ideas evolve, so do your outlines. Try to keep your outline current with your evolving ideas.

One final way of making the writing process more concrete is to keep notes about where and when you are having trouble with a paper. For example, if you are having trouble keeping your second point separate from your third point, make a note of that. Later, when you are revising your paper, check your process notes and make sure that you've addressed the problems that arose while you were writing.

Useful Tips

See a peer tutor early in the writing process. .

• Consider working with the support of a peer tutor early on in a writing process. Tutors can help you develop or test ideas, create a focused plan for completing your work, and understand the requirements of your writing assignments. Drop by the  Writing Center  on the first floor of Berry Library or book an appointment in advance. Students interested in establishing an ongoing relationship with a tutor should e-mail the director, Margot Kotler .

Use a recorder or text-to-speech tool to harness your oral language abilities 

• Some of us talk quite clearly about our ideas but get stuck the moment we face our computer screen. If this sounds familiar, try talking through your idea on a recording. When you play back the recording, you might find that the ideas and even the structure for your ideas really are "all there." Transcribe parts of what you've recorded (or let an app do that), and work with your draft from there. While your context might demand that you revise the style of your sentences after you've spoken them into existence, this strategy helps many of us find the words or ideas that seem elusive when we sit in front of a keyboard.  

Use visual coding to map ideas in a draft.

• If you've drafted a paper that seems a bit muddled, get some colored highlighters (or use a different visual-coding tool). Try to trace the evolution of each idea through your paper. Assign each point of your argument a color, and then go through the entire paper and color each sentence according to which idea it belongs to. You may find that you began a paragraph talking about point A, shifted suddenly to point B, went on to point C, back to B, and so on. Colored coding can help you to see possibilities for re-grouping content to create more continuity. If color-coding doesn't work for you, try printing your project and cutting it up with scissors or creating a new digital copy to drag and drop sentences into new headings. 

Compose your essay in sections and join them later. 

• When we struggle to keep a whole writing project in our mind all at once, it can be helpful to focus on one point at a time. Write section titles in your document (you may want to delete them at the end) to help you focus on the goals of each section separately. Or, if having a more concrete spatial representation of your project is helpful, print or hand write sections on slips of paper, spread them on the floor (or on a ping pong table), and arrange them in an order that works. Colored note cards may be useful to group different elements of your argument - for example, pink notecards represent the history of the problem, blue notecards represent scholarly views you mean to reject, etc.

Read your paper out loud, or have another person read it to you. 

• For most of us, reading language silently and hearing language aloud are quite different experiences. Hearing our own writing read aloud can help us slow down and notice things our eyes skip over when we read silently. Some of us also find it easier to inhabit the perspective of an audience when we hear another person (or bot!) read our writing back to us, which can help us identify phrases and sentences that may be too complex or imprecise. If you already work with spoken language during drafting because you use a screen reader, you might get a similar benefit by having a new voice read the text to you at a slower pace. If you work only with visual content because you don't hear, you might get a similar benefit by printing your prose in a larger font and reading it on physical paper. Whatever helps to reduce distractions, slow down, and focus on words and sentences. 
• We all have tremendous language resources: vocabulary and language structures that we have acquired over the course of our lives. When writing gets complicated - because we are writing about a new subject, in a new style, or to a new audience - it can sometimes be harder to call on those old language resources because we are working so hard to focus on all the new challenges. Reading aloud can help us set aside concerns about meaning for a moment and focus on the language we are using and the structure of our sentences. Try it near the end of a writing process, when you feel your ideas are settled. 

Essay on Respect For Persons With Disability

Students are often asked to write an essay on Respect For Persons With Disability in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Respect For Persons With Disability

Understanding disabilities.

Disability is a term used when a person’s physical or mental abilities are not like most people. This does not mean they are less important. People with disabilities can do many things just like anyone else. They might just do them differently.

Respecting Differences

Respect means treating people with kindness and understanding. It’s important to respect people with disabilities. They have the same feelings and rights as everyone else. They deserve to be treated fairly and equally.

Showing Respect

There are many ways to show respect to people with disabilities. One way is by being patient. Another way is by learning about their disability. This can help you understand their needs better.

Importance of Inclusion

Inclusion means including everyone in activities. It’s important to include people with disabilities in all things. This shows respect and helps them feel accepted. It also helps others learn about different abilities.

Ending Discrimination

250 words essay on respect for persons with disability.

Disability is a condition that can make some activities harder for a person. People with disabilities might need to use a wheelchair or need extra help with learning. But they are just like everyone else and deserve the same respect.

Respect means treating others the way you want to be treated. It’s about accepting people as they are. When we meet someone with a disability, we should not feel sorry for them. Instead, we should respect their abilities and strengths.

Being Kind and Helpful

Kindness is a simple way to show respect. If a person with a disability needs help, we can offer it. But remember, we should always ask first. They may want to do things on their own.

Using Polite Words

We should always use polite words when talking about disabilities. For example, we say ‘people with disabilities’ and not ‘disabled people’. This way, we focus on the person, not the disability.

Learning Together

We can learn a lot from people with disabilities. They often have to find new ways to do things. This can teach us about problem-solving and creativity.

In conclusion, respect for persons with disabilities is about treating them with kindness and understanding. It’s about seeing them for who they are and not just their disability. By doing this, we can learn a lot and make the world a better place.

500 Words Essay on Respect For Persons With Disability

Understanding respect.

Respect means to show regard or consideration towards someone or something. It’s a way of treating or thinking about something or someone. If you respect someone, you accept that they are different and valuable in their own way.

Understanding Disability

Disability is a term that we use when a person has certain limits in doing things that most of us can do easily. These limits could be in hearing, seeing, moving, learning, or even in social situations. It’s important to remember that disability is just a different way of living and not a disease.

Respect for Persons with Disability

Respect for persons with disability means accepting and valuing them for who they are, just like we do for everyone else. It means understanding their unique challenges and appreciating their strengths. It means treating them with kindness, dignity, and fairness, no matter what their disability may be.

Why it’s Important

Respect for persons with disability is important for many reasons. Firstly, it helps them feel valued and included. When they are treated with respect, they feel good about themselves and their abilities. They are more likely to be confident and happy.

Secondly, it helps us grow as individuals and as a society. When we show respect to persons with disability, we learn to appreciate diversity and understand that everyone has a role to play in the world. It makes us more compassionate and understanding.

How to Show Respect

Another way is by being patient and understanding. If they take longer to do something, or if they do it differently, we should not make fun or get annoyed. We should understand that they are doing their best.

We can also show respect by including them in our activities. We should invite them to join in games, discussions, and other social activities. This shows that we value their participation and enjoy their company.

Respect for persons with disability is not just about being nice. It’s about understanding and accepting their unique experiences and contributions. It’s about treating them as equals and making sure they feel included and valued. By showing respect, we can help build a more understanding and compassionate society.

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Home — Essay Samples — Education — Special Education — Disabled Students and Their Access to Education

Disabled Students and Their Access to Education

• Categories: Special Education Students With Disabilities

About this sample

Words: 2158 |

11 min read

Published: Jan 29, 2019

Words: 2158 | Pages: 5 | 11 min read

Works Cited

• Ablon, J. (2002). Stigma and discrimination: Lessons learned. Psychiatric Rehabilitation Journal, 25(4), 398-399.
• Ba, B. (1990). Disability and the Justification of Inequality in American History. In P. Longmore & L. Umansky (Eds.), The New Disability History: American Perspectives (pp. 33-57). NYU Press.
• Bean, J. P., & Bogdan Eaton, S. (2001). The psychology underlying successful retention practices. Journal of College Student Retention : Research, Theory & Practice, 2(3), 295-306.
• Corcoran, M. A. (2010). Disability and campus climate: Factors affecting college adjustment. Journal of Postsecondary Education and Disability, 22(2), 68-81.
• Costea-Bărluţiu, I., & Rusu, A. (2015). Attitudes towards students with disabilities: A study at the Babes-Bolyai University in Romania. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 187, 163-168.
• Daniel, L. B., Lucian Blaga, P. K., Oradea Popovici Doru Vlad, A., & Bucureşti, R. (2016). Student with disabilities. Retrieved from https://www.raav.ro/files/Buletin%20RAAV%20nr%202%20anul%202016%20iunie.pdf
• Fichten, C. S., Amsel, R., Bourdon, C., & Creti, L. (1988). Interpersonal communication: Handicapping conditions and academic performance in university students. Canadian Journal of Rehabilitation, 2(2), 91-102.
• Mosia, J., & Phasha, T. (2017). Factors influencing academic performance of students with disabilities in higher education. The Journal for Transdisciplinary Research in Southern Africa, 13(1), a313.
• Rigler, D. S., Tucker, R. J., & Delaney, D. J. (2013). College choice and persistence for students with disabilities: A conceptual model. Journal of College Student Development, 54(5), 485-499.
• Wessel, R. D. (2009). Predicting dropout: The effects of faculty expectations on student persistence. Journal of College Student Retention: Research, Theory & Practice, 11(3), 325-342.

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160 Disabilities Topics for Research Papers & Essays

Looking for interesting disability topics for a research paper or project? This field is hot, controversial, and definitely worth studying!

🏆 Best Disability Topics for Research Papers

👍 disability essay topics, 📑 research questions about disabilities, 🎓 good research topics about disabilities.

The disability study field includes the issues of physical, mental, and learning disabilities, as well as the problem of discrimination. In this article, we’ve gathered great disability essay topics & research questions, as well as disability topics to talk about. We hope that our collection will inspire you.

• Case Study of a Child with Intellectual Disability It is crucial to integrate the input of a learning coach into the school curriculum to encourage the participation of Meagan’s parents in his educational endeavors.
• Poems with Disabilities by Jim Ferris This is good evidence for the argument of the need to eliminate the issue of ableism. Language evolves gradually, and countering the issue of ableism is a long-term goal.
• Computer-Based Technologies That Assist People With Disabilities The visually impaired To assist the visually impaired to use computers, there are Braille computer keyboards and Braille display to enable them to enter information and read it. Most of these devices are very expensive […]
• Children With Learning Disabilities The following research questions will be used in achieving the objectives: What is the role of learning disabilities in affecting the ability of the students to learn?
• Managing Students With Disabilities Instructional issues that are encountered in education are those arising due to the inability of the students to acquire, maintain, and relate the skills that are learned in class to other settings within and outside […]
• Sociocultural Barriers for People With Disabilities On the other hand, stigmatization, stereotyping and prejudice have been highlighted as the barriers to social inclusion of people with disabilities in society.
• Children With Disabilities in Education By the end of the experiment the student will demonstrate his ability to understand the information, to discuss it, and to reflect his ideas in writing.
• The Problems of Children With Disabilities and Possible Ways of Solution It is very important for disabled people to be on the same level with others in the conditions that compensate the deviations in the development and constraints of the abilities in learning.
• Women, Development and Disabilities The mission of the organization is to enhance the voice of women in society and influence other organizations that advocate for women rights.
• Classroom Design for Children With Disabilities Furthermore, children with disabilities require individual attention from the teacher just like the other children, and if the classroom is congested it would be difficult for the teacher to reach such learners.
• Learning Disabilities: Differentiating ADHD and EBD As for the most appropriate setting, it is possible to seat the child near the teacher. It is possible to provide instructions with the help of visual aids.
• Constructivism Theory for Adolescents with Disabilities The key component of the theory is people’s interaction with the environment. Therefore, Vygotsky’s theory is effective in developing the social and academic skills of an adolescent with learning and behavior disabilities.
• Students With Disabilities: Research Analysis In the process of undertaking this research and practical alignment, there is a misalignment in the inclusion of students with disabilities in the GE class.
• Ableism: Bias Against People With Disabilities People concerned with rights advocacy ought to ensure a facilitated awareness of the distressing impacts of ableism through the inclusion of the subject in private and public discussions.
• Culturally Responsive Teaching of Students With Disabilities Cultural Responsive teaching is a teaching technique used to identify and address cognitive, social, emotional, and cultural and language needs of students with developmental needs as a way of providing them with assistance in all […]
• Defining Disabilities in Modern World Defining disability has not been easy due to the various opinions related to the understanding of the concept. Disability has significant impact on the society due to the relationships that exists between the individual and […]
• The Experience of Parents of Children With Disabilities Enhancing support for the mental well-being of parents of children with a disability: developing a resource based on the perspectives of parents and professionals.
• United Arab Emirates Schools: Students With Learning Disabilities The current UAE public school environment does not allow for the provision of the necessary skills due to the lack of a proper teaching strategy.
• Daily Living Skills Training for Individuals With Learning Disabilities Teaching individuals with physical and mental disabilities the life skills needed to compensate for their disadvantages are considered to be the key factor to ensuring a relatively safe, functional, and happy life for those individuals.
• Psychological Testing of Intellectual Disabilities Speaking of its psychometric properties, the PCL-5 is a valid and reliable self-report measure for the assessment and quantifying symptoms of PTSD.
• Current Trends and Issues in Educating Students With Disabilities Following the existence of cases of racial and ethnic bias across the United States educational system, the government has seen the importance to intervene in improving education in the U.S.
• People With Disabilities in the Frida Movie After the accident, her father bought her a canvas that she would use for painting because she loved art and was an artist, helping her cope with her disability.
• Safety Evacuation for People with Disabilities First, before a disaster occurs, the government should be aware of the number of individuals in the scenario and keep track of them to verify the figures are correct.
• Individuals With Disabilities: Prejudice and Discrimination I researched that people with persistent medical or physical disorders, such as cerebral palsy or multiple sclerosis, who have speech, articulation, or communication impairments, for example, are sometimes seen as having an intellectual deficiency. Corey […]
• Special Olympics and Profound Intellectual and Multiple Disabilities Together with partners, the Special Olympics aspires to improve the health outcomes for people with physical and mental disabilities to close the gap with the healthy population who are more advantaged in terms of access […]
• The Ohio Department of Developmental Disabilities Policy The paper outlines the proper policy and procedure of incident reporting and investigation and thus, provides how to become an agent for the Ohio Department of Developmental Disabilities and satisfy individuals receiving services.
• Ohio Department of Developmental Disabilities’ Staff Training Specifically, the introduction of the assessment modules for the evaluation of the staff members’ compliance with the set requirements will be enacted.
• The Quality of the Working Environment for Persons With Disabilities The progressive introduction of new practices more tolerant of the disabled will be carried out at every stage of the work cycle and in every segment of the corporation as a connected infrastructure.
• Developmental Disabilities: Best Practice and Support Family therapy and the creation of support groups seem to be an effective method for children with disabilities and their environment.
• Bronx Developmental Disabilities Council: Organization Assessment During events, council, and committee meetings, the organization provides printed materials with information on disability and the prevention of social distancing of people with disabilities.
• Assistive Technologies for Individuals with Disabilities A rehabilitation consultant will be able to recommend this equipment to people who are acutely worried about the inability to use a computer and the Internet to ensure a comfortable life.
• Smart Farms Hiring People with Disabilities Although Smart Farms is a non-profit organization and benefits from donations, the workers play their role in income generation by working on the farms and sales.
• Americans with Disabilities Act and Nursing Practice Acts such as the Americans with Disabilities Act affect not only the political and legal environment in a country but also the rights and responsibilities of nurses.
• Life of Individuals Dealing with Disabilities The child’s image hitting the t-ball also showcased a powerful issue, that disabled individuals should be treated similarly to other people and given equal opportunities to give them the chance to perform optimally.
• Partnership for People with Disabilities’ Mission The mission of this organization is to partner with stakeholders both in the intellectual and developmental disability community and other interested groups at Virginia Commonwealth University. The organization was founded in 1985 to better people’s […]
• Healthcare Disparities in People With Disabilities In addition to health care disparities, such as poor access to care, including preventive one, and dependency, people with disabilities also face higher morbidity and lack of insurance.
• Employment for People With Disabilities Accommodation is also considered to be a restructuring of work and the attraction of other personnel to help in adaptation – as it should have happened with Adele.
• Laws Protecting the Rights of People With Disabilities The aim of this essay is to research the law that protects the rights of people with disabilities in the context of sporting events.
• People With Disabilities in Society I think that these people are powerful and inspiring, as they prove to the world that it is possible to live life to the fullest with a disability.
• People With Disabilities and Social Work Moreover, there is a tendency towards the rise in the number of such people because of the deterioration of the situation and the growing number of environmental concerns.
• Alternate Assessments for Students With Learning Disabilities The problem is that many school districts experience difficulties with proposing adequate formative and summative assessments for those students who require special attention.
• People with Disabilities’ Problem of Employment Although truck driving can be a stressful job, it is not evident if it is true, and thus, it is important for John to experience the job-related himself and determine whether he can handle it. […]
• Lawsuits Regarding College Students With Disabilities Abuse is one of the factors considered to have discouraged physically challenged students from pursuing their academic careers.
• Living with Disabilities in the Nondisabled World A variety of laws, initiatives, and regulations are currently implemented to ensure simpler and less costly access to information resources and the functionality of a device.
• Living with Disabilities from an Insider’s Perspective Additionally, Armendariz was able to use a prosthetic arm to assist with her disability which she recalled as being helpful before it led to severe negativity from her peers at the time.
• Workplace and People With Disabilities The purpose of the research is to make coherent and accurate observations in regards to the usefulness of the given method in improving the overall attitudes of people and organizations toward people with disabilities.
• Career Counseling for People With Disabilities To sufficiently research, the issue of career counseling for individuals with disabilities in the academic press, a list of journals that offer such information was developed.
• Genetic Modification and Implicit Bias Against People With Disabilities There is also a factor of disabilities that are life-threatening to a child, or illnesses that may be able to be fatal within the first few years of life.
• Impact of Social Darwinism on the Perception of Human Disabilities In addition, connecting behavior such as the likeliness of criminality to genetics is incorrect and damaging not only to the individual but to a community and society as a whole.
• Music Therapy for Children With Learning Disabilities This review includes the evidence supporting music therapy as an effective strategy for promoting auditory, communication, and socio-emotional progression in children with ASD.
• Healthcare Professionals: Individuals With Developmental Disabilities The presentation provide an overview of relevant health related issues in individuals with developmental disabilities and how it relates to the group of professionals assigned.
• Protection for Persons With Disabilities and Their Service Animals Additionally, it must be trained to give assistance to a person with disability. Service animals that can be selected to assist persons with disability must be either a dog or a miniature horse.
• Death Penalty: Juveniles and Mental Disabilities Consequently, the Eight Amendment should dismiss the death penalty for this category and state laws must implement recommendations of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, the American Psychological Association, and the American Bar Association that […]
• The Prevalence, Effects and Challenges of Developmental Disabilities While the increase in the number of people with developmental disabilities is attributed to the rising numbers of the aging population, disabilities may arise in childhood and affect the entire lives of people.
• Community Disability Awareness Program: Elderly Women With Disabilities A measurable outcome in the program’s success will be a decline in the rate of crime related to elderly women with disabilities.
• The Understanding of Needs of People With Learning Disabilities Despite several problems in the overall design of the strategy that can be used to improve the nursing services for PLD, Drozd and Clinch make a very valid point by stressing the significance of a […]
• Addressing the Needs of People With Learning Disabilities As a student aiming at becoming a Nurse Practitioner, I am currently focusing on the exploration of the options for managing the work of the nursing staff, as well as seeking the opportunities for improving […]
• Elderly Women with Disabilities: Problems and Needs Despite the economic crisis, the cost of medical care has also increased due to the rise in the number of lawsuits filed against the physicians of the state.
• Relationship Satisfaction and Psychological Well-Being Among Greek People With Physical Disabilities In the light of this lack of knowledge, the present study attempts to explore the degree of relationship satisfaction in connection with the way handicapped people deal with the challenges of romantic involvement, as well […]
• Communication and People With Disabilities The bathrooms were close to the food court; moreover, there were special handle bars which helped to transfer to the commode and, at this, the height of the commode was almost the same as the […]
• Music Therapy as a Related Service for Students With Disabilities From a neuroscientific perspective, how would music intervention improve classroom behaviors and academic outcomes of students with ADHD as a way to inform policy-makers of the importance of music therapy as a related service?
• Problem Behaviors in Intellectual Disabilities Community The proposed quality designed study will evaluate the behavior of people with intellectual disabilities over a certain period of time and consequently conclude the primary triggers that influence ID people to demonstrate behavioral issues, including […]
• Law for People With Disabilities in California The family, the immediate environment of a person with disabilities, is the main link in the system of his or her care, socialization, the satisfaction of needs, support, and career guidance.
• The Resilience Experiences of People With Disabilities The focus of the study was on the participants’ lived experiences, as well as their attitudes towards certain aspects, so the use of interviews as a data collection method is justified.
• Literature Circles for Students With Learning Disabilities On the other hand, the affected individuals contend that the categorization should be removed to pave the way for the integration of assistances where all needs are attended without classification regardless of the student’s physical […]
• School Counselors for Students With Disabilities When the goals are set out, and the professional sphere is chosen, the counselor becomes responsible for the student’s preparation and reception of essential job skills as well as for the communication with the post-school […]
• Adaptive Behavior Skills and Intellectual Disabilities Four assessment tools are important for identifying adaptive behavior and skills: the Adaptive Behavior Scale, the Scale of Independent Behavior, and the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scale.
• The Specific Needs of Students With Physical Disabilities The research problem that will be the focus of the planned paper relates to the specific needs of students with physical disabilities or behavioral issues in general classrooms.
• Assistive Technology for Students with Disabilities The United Nations Convention on the Rights of people with disabilities proposes a raft of measures to be undertaken by states to promote the wellbeing of individuals with disabilities.
• Job for Individuals With Physical Disabilities For instance, when a new technology is about to be installed, it will be rational for a number of workers based on departments to be selected and taken through how to use the innovation, such […]
• Therapeutic Vests for Children With Disabilities The purpose of this review is to examine the available literature on the effectiveness of using therapeutic vests, weighted vests, and pressure vests on children with Autism spectrum disorders, Attention deficit disorder, Pervasive Development Disorder, […]
• An Audit of the Accessibility of the College of the North Atlantic-Qatar to Individuals With Physical Disabilities It should be noted that structural presentation of the paper is considered to be one of the most important elements of the paper because it allows following the logical thought of the research paper.
• Learning Disabilities and Communication Disorders The students are also being taken through research-based and special education programs and the determination of these disorders is done cooperatively between teachers and specialists like psychologists.
• Children With Disabilities: Supporting Student Behavior The comfortable atmosphere will help the children to attend the class and also provide a good way to mingle with the children with disabilities.
• Plan of the Kickball Game That Involves the Students With the Disabilities While simulating the situation where one is in charge of the PE class, one needs to remember that disability is never inability, thus the students with the disabilities can participate in any games as well […]
• Genetic Testing Under Americans With Disabilities Act There is nothing surprising in the fact that the genetically tested employees counted the testing as a violation of their human rights, and The Americans with Disabilities Act was adopted in 1990.
• Teaching Language to Students With Severe Disabilities The objective of this study is to find the different approaches that can be used in teaching phonics and the whole language to students with varied severe disabilities.
• Teaching Adaptive Behavior Skills to Children Suffering From Intellectual Disabilities in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia This theoretical framework will contribute to the validation of the perspectives used by the teachers to construct their system of beliefs regarding the process of teaching ABS to students with ID.
• Individuals With Intellectual Disabilities in the Workplace Intellectual disability puts a strain on an individual’s ability to have a social life and communicate with other human beings due to the fact that their capability of adapting is limited to a certain extent.
• Lifespan Development and Learning Disabilities in Childhood Parents in this situation would most likely select the authoritative parenting style to manage children because they are left to make their own choices under a guided framework.
• Natural Supports for Individuals With Disabilities Natural supports can be defined as personal connections and associations that improve the quality of a person’s life; these primarily include family relationships and friendships and constitute “the first line of supports, followed by informal […]
• Children With Disabilities and Parental Mistreatment The information in the article is helpful for parents of children with disabilities and other parents since it assists them in appreciating the significance of each parent’s education in lessening the incidence of child disability.
• Government Grants for People With Disabilities The paper will be based on the conditions of disabled people and the federal or state grants that they could receive in order to facilitate changes in their health and work.
• Teaching Children With Multiple Disabilities The teacher should also assist such a child in maintaining a perceptual continuum than learners who are not handicapped. On the same note, the teacher should not give the amount of work similar to children […]
• Veterans With Disabilities: Integration and Employment In this paper, the researcher looks at the main barriers to employment and integration back to the society that the veterans face, and the manner in which the existing policies can be amended to help […]
• Students With Intellectual Disabilities and Their Independence Some of these programs in the US include the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act, which provides grants for research, technology, and training for disabled individuals, as well as the Secondary Education Act of 2002, […]
• Intellectual Disabilities and Limitations for Human Life The recognition of the lack of such skills can contribute to future opportunities for an independent life with effective interdependence and inclusion in the life of a society.
• Young Adult Children With Intellectual Disabilities Like in the study, I would also use pilot testing of the questionnaire to ascertain its validity and reliability in measuring the intended variables. The descriptions of the concepts and terms in this study are […]
• Employees With Disabilities and Their Workplace Behavior In H3, the authors found that employees with disabilities remained loyal and committed to work and were satisfied with their job.
• Effective Teaching of Students with Disabilities To support the information that was posted in three blog entries, the author of this submission reviewed other literature on the subject to be able to support their point of view.
• Parenting Children With Learning Disabilities A number of parents also feel worthless since they get an impression that the respective learning disabilities portrayed in their children are due to their own genetic malformations.
• Caregivers’ Perceptions of People With Intellectual Disabilities The proposed study will present new approaches and practices that can be used to support the health needs of many patients with mental disabilities.
• People With Disabilities and Their Employment Issues The major similarity between the perceptions of older people and individuals with disabilities is based on the belief that they are slow and could slow down the other workers and the idea that the managers […]
• Students With Learning Disabilities and Assessment The education of students with learning disabilities poses great difficulty for the majority of parents and educators. It may not be self-evident that the learning problems of students are attributable to learning disabilities.
• Mental Disabilities: Characteristics and Causes TBIs are caused by an impact of the head against a blunt object or from its penetration by a sharp object; it often results from vehicle accidents. Autism is a developmental disorder that influences the […]
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What Should I Do About Jacob?

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To protect the student’s privacy, the author of this piece has chosen to remain anonymous and has changed all potentially identifying details.

Almost daily I am reminded of the truth in Oppenheimer’s observation: The best way to learn is to teach. Whether the lesson is academic or ethical, there is no other activity that so clarifies one's thoughts. Through questions, misunderstandings, and occasional challenges, students reacquaint us with uncertainty and doubt. They force us to reconsider what we believe ourselves to know and reckon with what we do not. I am most acutely aware of this when the only thing I can say with certainty is, "I don’t know." This semester I have said those three words more often than I did during my first year of teaching. For the last 14 weeks I have been struggling with some variation of the question:  What should I do about Jacob? Jacob is failing my course on the memoir. Well past the withdrawal date and just days away from the final, his average is 39. Out of eight writing assignments, he has received credit for one, and this was partial. On exams, he scores something just better than statistical chance.   By itself, this would be a concern, but would not keep me awake at night. There are other students — 3 out of 57, to be precise -- who are also failing the class. After more than a decade of teaching at a commuter campus where many students are not only the first in their families to attend college but the first to earn a high school diploma, I've come to accept that a good 5 percent of those enrolled in my lower division courses will not pass. And so it is not Jacob's performance that worries me, but what I know about the reasons behind it.

Depending on which of the counselors in the disabilities office I am speaking with, Jacob is either "intellectually disabled" or "cognitively impaired." In the words of my generation and the ones still used by those without special training, he is "slow" or "mentally handicapped."

We were just a week into the term when I began to suspect that Jacob was having trouble. I was in my office going through the in-class writings I’d collected that morning. Since it was the first written work I’d assigned, I’d kept the requirements simple: provide a brief summary — four or five sentences — of the first three chapters of Girl, Interrupted. More than anything it was a reminder to complete the day's reading before class and a chance to provide students with a gentle introduction to my expectations and grading policies.

Taken as a whole, the stack of 60-odd papers atop my desk reflected the wide range of skills and capacities — of comprehension, expression, and prevarication — I’ve come expect. The majority satisfied the requirements without being remarkable. A few, for better and worse, stood apart and furnished the left- and right-hand tails of the normal distribution. But Jacob's submission did not fit. 

His penmanship was not exactly neat, but it was precise and with it he'd filled nearly half the page. What he'd written, though, was more connected to the title than the book itself: There was a girl. A girl wrote this. A girl says what she did. The girl was stupid. Building whole paragraphs around the title isn’t a novel strategy and I’ve seen it used, with varying degrees of creativity, by those who haven’t cracked the book. Jacob’s paper, however, didn’t seem to belong to the same category. 

At a loss, I wrote what I had on the other papers that had not met even the minimum standard for passing: No credit. I do not find evidence that you read the chapters. If you are having trouble with the material, or do not understand the instructions for assignments, please come see me during my office hours — 2-4 Monday and Wednesday.

But Jacob did not come to my office or contact me. After writing the same grade and message on his next two papers — the only modifications being a change of the word "please" to "you need to" — I knew that something extra needed to be done. I just didn’t know what, exactly, that should be.

From the first day of classes I'd known that Jacob was registered with the Office for Students with Disabilities. Before I'd even handed out the syllabus, he'd given me the familiar cream-colored envelope that contained a summary of the Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990, his counselor’s contact information, and the special provisions and supplementary resources she'd recommended for him.

The list of accommodations to which he was entitled was extensive: designated volunteer note-taker to be secured by instructor, extended time — up to double — for exams and in-class assignments, ability to complete tests and written work in a distraction-reduced separate location, transcriptions of all audio and video and materials, alternatives to oral presentations, preferential seating near the front of the room, permission to record lectures, and tardiness leniency.

Nothing in the packet I had been given offered any indication of why he needed these things. Information about a student's disability is confidential. Specifics about the nature of the limitation or illness are shared only on a "need to know" basis. And in the rare event that an instructor is deemed in need of knowing, it is unlikely that she will become privy to the exact nature or extent of the condition. For instructors it is, then, a kind of binary category — a student is either designated as disabled or he is not. By law and the university policies that derive from it, in making the necessary accommodations, I had already done all that I was obliged to do. The onus was on Jacob to seek additional help if he needed it, to accept or decline my invitations to discuss his performance, and, most of all, to determine for himself whether he was able to meet the requirements of the course. 

Over the years I have taught a number of men and women with physical, mental, and learning differences. Until Jacob, I had not felt the need to review their performance with anyone other than the students themselves. To discuss someone enrolled in one of my classes, by name, with a third party, outside of the student's presence and without his knowledge or consent is something that seemed to me (and still seems) a violation of privacy and trust. The decision to contact Jacob’s counselor, then, was not an easy one to make. But I had other concerns that stemmed, directly, from my knowledge of his disability status. At the front of these was a dilemma about whether or not I had an additional ethical obligation to Jacob, a duty that went beyond the provision of accommodations. 

From the few interactions I'd had with Jacob and what I’d seen of his work, I had the impression that he lacked the intellectual capacity to either benefit from or pass the course. But more troubling was my sense that his limitations prevented him from fully understanding his situation. 

Students who have not been identified as having a disability can display a wide range of traits, attitudes, and abilities. When one seems to be struggling, either academically or emotionally, I do not feel automatically compelled to address the matter. I try to use my best judgment. I make the extra effort to reach out, or I don’t. I pull them aside after class, or I don’t. I write something pointed in the margins of their tests and assignments, or I don’t.  I make calls that are informed by experience, even though I know that these will be imperfect.

And I feel able to exercise this discretion because I presume that those with whom I am interacting are, for the most part, not unlike most other students I’ve encountered. Rightly or wrongly, I begin with the premise that they share some minimal level of cognitive and social functioning. Too, I proceed from the idea that whatever behaviors or ability levels I encounter are squarely owned by the individual whose name is on the class roster. I do not find myself wondering whether it might be a function of illness, chemical imbalance, learning difference, cognitive deficiency, or mental condition. While I may speculate about underlying issues, the pool of possible explanations I draw from is qualitatively different.

When I phoned Jacob’s counselor, it was with the hope that she would tell me that my impression of Jacob was wrong. Or, at the very least, provide some practical advice for working with him, while at the same time absolving me of responsibility for the outcome. And so in some ways I wish that I had not made that call. I did not want confirmation that the work I had asked him to do was beyond his abilities. I did not want to know that he was, most likely, unable to average his grades or grasp their significance. I did not want to hear that he was a senior and scheduled to graduate in December. I did not want to listen to her say ,"The only thing I can tell you is that you should hold him to the same standards as his peers." I did not want learn that both Jacob and I had been set up for failure.

Meeting Jacob has prompted me to reconsider my roles as an educator and the functions and purposes of higher education generally. His situation and, by extension, mine, raise a number of difficult questions.

But when it comes to putting them down here, in print, I find myself struggling for words. This isn't because the words don't exist or because I can’t locate the ones I want. Instead, I am afraid of using the wrong term or saying the wrong thing. I am aware of the need to tread carefully. And that is, I think, part of the trouble.

It's rare that a week goes by without my engaging in a conversation with a colleague or reading an article about the issues of student preparedness and ability. These discussions are commonplace and we have developed the necessary vocabularies and frameworks for having them. This holds even when we bring in such thorny matters as race, ethnicity, class, and gender. We can and do talk about how changes in the student body affect our experiences and policies in the classroom and how these, in turn, are reshaping postsecondary education. But we seldom mention one of the fastest-growing groups on campus: students with disabilities. 

The Americans With Disabilities Act and its amendments have allowed men and women with physical, psychological, and emotional impairments to participate in higher education in a way that previous generations could not. At the same time that this legislation has transformed the lives of millions of students, it has also transformed higher education: Roughly 11 percent of first-year college students identify as having a disability, a figure that will likely increase in the coming years, with the greatest growth expected in what is often referred to as "invisible disabilities," a category that includes learning disorders, cognitive impairments, ADD/ADHD, and other conditions that are not quite so easily diagnosed or straightforward in terms of the accommodations required by the students. Campuses that receive public funds must maintain a Section 504 compliance office, which is charged with meeting the needs of those who have documented disabilities and require support services. Instructors are required to make “reasonable accommodations” for those who qualify for them. 

It goes without saying that the developments of the last two decades have affected students, instructors, individual campuses and the institution of higher education. And so long as it goes without saying, we are kept from addressing the benefits and challenges — both practical and philosophical — these create. 

Over the last 14 weeks I have had the chance to experience these firsthand. In the process of thinking through how best to balance my obligations to Jacob with those I have to my other students, my discipline, and my vocation, I have formulated, imprecisely and in halting language, a number of questions related to teaching students with impairments and, more broadly, the changing nature of postsecondary learning.

• What responsibilities do we, as instructors, have to our students? Are we differently obligated to individuals based on what we know about their particular aptitudes and personal circumstances?
• Should instructors be allowed to participate in determining what adjustments a disabled student should receive?
• How do we define "reasonable accommodations"?
• In cases where instructors are required to make special provisions or alterations to our courses, are we entitled to ask why these are necessary?
• Do formal diagnostic categories and special designations facilitate or hinder our appreciation of human diversity?
• Under what conditions is a student with an impairment accountable for his or her actions and performance and when should we excuse or overlook these as functions of the individual’s condition? How does one separate an individual from his or her disability?
• Is it possible to hold a student to "the same expectations as his peers" while, at the same time, making substantive modifications and adjustments to grading structures and assignments?
• How can admissions criteria and course expectations be modified so that we remove barriers to learning for those who are qualified, while simultaneously maintaining academic rigor?
• How do we define equality of access? How is this related to equality of expectations?
• What does it mean to say that a student is prepared — intellectually, socially, and physically — for college?  Should there be some minimum standard and, if so, what metrics will be used to determine qualification?
• Is it realistic, or even desirable, to make the attainment of a college degree a requirement for full membership and recognition in society? How might we reimagine our standards for inclusion so that we honor the full spectrum of human potential?
• What is the purpose of higher education, for both the individual student and for society as a whole?

Engaging with the issues raised by the increased presence and visibility of students with disabilities, no matter how messy or uncomfortable, is something that we — instructors, administrators, advisers, students, and parents — can no longer afford to avoid. And, once we get beyond our squeamishness, we may find that the dialogue surrounding these seemingly particular concerns can shed light on other issues related to equality, diversity, and the meaning of education.

I still do not know what I should have done for Jacob. I only know what I have done, what I will do, and how I explain these to myself. I have continued to mark each of his papers and exams according to the guidelines I have set for the class as a whole, though I make a point to find something positive, no matter how small, to say about his work. A few days from now, I will do the same with his final. And even though holding him to expectations I know that he cannot meet seems like a form of cruelty, I justify this, to myself, with terms like "fairness" and "honesty."

There isn’t, at least as far as I can see, a right answer. Like Jacob, I was placed in an impossible situation. And, like him, I did the best that I could with what I was given. 

Here I am reminded of another quote, this one from the lyric poet Rainer Maria Rilke: "Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions."  

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Thinking and Learning

Principle 1: Students’ beliefs or perceptions about intelligence and ability affect their cognitive functioning and learning

Students who believe that intelligence and ability can be enhanced tend to perform better on a variety of tasks and in problem-solving situations.

Sample tips for teachers

Teachers can foster student beliefs that their intelligence and ability can be developed through effort and by applying different strategies: 

• Positive messages about people with disabilities (or other demographic groups to which students belong) and self-affirming activities, may help counteract students’ negative self-perceptions due to stereotypes about factors such as their race or disability status, and may in turn increase academic performance. 
• Make sure the content of praise is tied to effort or successful strategies and not ability.
• Unsolicited offers of help by a teacher, especially when other students do not receive help, and sympathetic affect from a teacher following student failure can be interpreted by students as indirect and subtle cues about low ability.

Principle 2: What students already know affects their learning

Students come to classrooms with preconceived knowledge based on their everyday experiences, social interactions, intuitions, and what they have been taught in other settings and in the past. Accordingly, learning consists of either adding to existing knowledge or transforming or revising knowledge.

Teachers can be instrumental in achieving both growth and change in a targeted manner:

• Provide accessible instructional materials (e.g., audio books, assistive technology to support reading like screen readers) for students with disabilities that impact language and reading print.
• When considering why students were unsuccessful, teachers should encourage students to reflect on what worked and how to advocate for accommodations and tools they need to succeed (e.g., text to speech or tactile drawings). The reflection should focus on how to change their learning environment rather than negative attributes about the student.
• To identify misconceptions held by the student, teachers can engage their students in activities that tap into their curiosity and increase their interest in the topic by asking questions, defining, summarizing, synthesizing, applying concepts, and participating in hands-on activities.

Principle 3: Students’ cognitive development and learning are not limited by general stages of development

Student reasoning is not limited by an age or a grade level. Students are capable of higher-level thinking and behavior when (a) there is some competency for knowledge in the domain, (b) they already have some familiarity or expertise with a knowledge domain, (c) they interact with more capable others or challenging materials, and (d) in contexts with which they are familiar through experience.

In designing instruction, teachers can facilitate the advancement of student reasoning in the following ways:

• Encourage students’ reasoning in familiar areas—that is, in domains and contexts in which students already have substantial knowledge.
• Use groupings whereby students are placed in mixed-ability groups to allow for interaction with higher-level thinkers in learning and problem solving. 
• Teachers can gain information from family members that might aid in understanding students’ out-of-the classroom functioning and learning.

Principle 4: Learning is based on context, so generalizing learning to new contexts is not spontaneous but instead needs to be facilitated

Learning occurs in context. Contexts can consist of subject matter domains (e.g., science), specific tasks/problems (e.g., a textbook problem to solve), social interactions (e.g., caretaking routines between a parent and child), and situational/physical settings (e.g., home, classrooms, museums, labs). Hence, for learning to be more effective or powerful, it needs to generalize to new contexts and situations.

Teachers can support students’ transfer of knowledge and skills across contexts—from highly similar to highly dissimilar. This is best done by the following:

• Consult with the individualized education program (IEP) team, parents, and caregivers for appropriate goal setting, breakdown of learning steps, and strategies over time that work before introducing new methodologies and concepts.
• Build on strengths that students bring to a learning situation, thereby making connections between students’ current knowledge and skills and the teachers’ learning goals. 
• Acknowledge that each student with some disabilities might need sensory input and support to be successful in learning about multiple contexts.

Principle 5: Acquiring long-term knowledge and skill is largely dependent on practice

Practice is key to the transfer of information from short-term to long-term memory in at least five ways. Evidence demonstrates (a) increased likelihood that learning will be long-term and retrievable, (b) enhanced student ability to apply elements of basic knowledge automatically and without reflection, (c) skills that become automatic free up students’ cognitive resources for learning more challenging tasks, (d) increased transfer of practiced skills to new and more complex problems, and (e) gains often bring about motivation for more learning. 

Effective methods of implementing practice in the classroom include:

• Enhance the value of testing, or any kind of practice exercise, by conducting them at spaced intervals and giving them frequently.
• Design tasks with students’ existing knowledge in mind.
• Ensure student learning is reinforced during extended school breaks.
• Provide family members with concrete examples and activities to set test-taking expectations and to practice at home.

Principle 6: Clear, explanatory, and timely feedback to students is important for learning

Learning can be increased when students receive regular, specific, explanatory, and timely feedback on their work. Feedback is most effective for students with disabilities when it describes the gap between their current performance and the goal for their desired performance, and provides cues for how to close that gap.

• Feedback can be accompanied by relevant learning goals that tell students what they are (or are not) understanding and the strength of their performance. It is ultimately important that students with disabilities participate in and learn to set personal goals for their learning.
• It is useful to provide students with disabilities with guided practice in strategies that they can use to improve their work and reach their goals.
• Feedback is even more effective when it describes what students can do in the future when they achieve those goals.
• When students are learning a new task or struggling with an existing one, frequent praise following small degrees of improvement is very important, and when progress is evident, encouragement to persist can matter a great deal.

Principle 7: Students’ self-regulation assists learning, and self-regulatory skills can be taught

Self-regulatory (or executive function) skills, including attention, organization, self-control, planning, and memory strategies, enable students to learn efficiently and effectively. This principle is particularly important for teachers of special education students because many the diagnostic criteria for common disabilities include self-regulatory skills (e.g., inattention and impulse control are criteria for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)). These skills allow students to arrive prepared, follow instructions, attend to the teacher, and ignore distractions.

The classroom environment itself can also be organized to enhance self-regulation.  

• Break down tasks into smaller “chunks” and clearly spell out the criteria for successful task performance.
• Help students identify and evaluate short- and long-term goals for performance or consequences to their decisions.
• Use cues to alert students that important information will follow, especially when introducing a new concept.
• Gain additional strategies from family members of what works in the home environment that might be used within the school setting.

Principle 8: Student creativity can be fostered

Contrary to the conventional wisdom that creativity is a stable trait (you either have it or you don’t), creative thinking can be enhanced and nurtured in all students, making it an important outcome of the learning process for students and educators. Moreover, creative approaches to teaching can inspire enthusiasm and joy in the learning process by increasing student engagement and modeling real-world applications of knowledge across domains.

A variety of strategies are available for teachers to establish classroom environments that are conducive to creative thinking in students, including:

• Encourage openness to diverse perspectives during discussions, reinforcing that perspectives from all students are clearly valued and welcomed in the classroom.
• Orchestrate special classroom activities where rules are allowed to be broken or students can generate their own rules. Such activities might give students opportunities to experience creativity and teach them how to cope with novel and unexpected challenges.
• Be aware that highly creative students are often seen as disruptive; however, student enthusiasm can be channeled into solving real-world problems or taking leadership roles on certain tasks.
• Model creativity. Teachers are powerful models, and as such, they should share with students their own creativity—including the use of multiple strategies to solve problems across various aspects of their lives.

For further explanation and additional tips for teachers, download the full report .

Thinking and Learning Principles 1-8

Motivation Principles 9-12

Social-Emotional Learning Principles 13-15

Classroom Management Principles 16-17

Assessment Principles 18-20

Top 20 Principles for Students with Disabilities

All Top 20 Principles

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People with disabilities essay

Disability is one of the most important issues in the contemporary society because stigmatization of people with disabilities contributed to the formation of biases and prejudices which put them into the disadvantageous position compared to people, who did not have problems of disability. Such biases and prejudices contributed to the discrimination of people with disabilities which has been eliminated consistently since the emergence of the Civil Rights movement and introduction of legal changes, such as the Americans with Disabilities Act. Nevertheless, today, the problem of people with disabilities and their discrimination persists because many biases and prejudices are resilient. In this regard, education is particularly vulnerable to the problem of the integration of students with disabilities into the learning process since the modern education system attempts to provide equal opportunities for all students, eliminating the discrimination of students with disabilities. Moreover, the modern education system confronts another problem, the problem of students with excessive abilities, who also face problems with the integration into the classroom environment and development of positive relations with their peers. In such a way, the concept of disability/ability is fulcrum of the contemporary education system in relation to students interaction and elimination of discrimination of students based on abilities/disabilities.

Disability is the complex notion that involves limited opportunities and special needs of people but it does not mean the inferiority of individuals compared to those, who do not have disability. At the same time, ability is a set of skills, knowledge and opportunities to exercise them to perform specific tasks. In such a situation, the risk of the widening gap between individuals with disabilities and those, who do not have them because disability can limit opportunities for individuals to exercise their knowledge, skills and opportunities to the full extent, while those, who do not have disabilities, can take the full advantage of their skills, knowledge and opportunities (Kudlick, 2005). In this regard, the attitude of the social environment to people with disabilities may be crucial for their social standing and opportunities to stand on the equal ground for others.

One of the major challenges people with disabilities face is the challenge in their professional training and development. Disability may limit learning abilities of individuals that prevent them from obtaining the target education and making a successful career. For example, many students with learning disabilities, such as ASD, have difficulties with learning that prevent them from successful learning. In such a situation, they cannot complete their education just like other students do, while the lack of education limits their career opportunities consistently. On the other hand, many researchers (Mansell, 2003) point out that students with disabilities may be as successful as other students, while some students may be even more successful than the average student in certain subjects.

In such a situation, disability may be a substantial obstacle on the way to the professional development of individuals and to their career. On the other hand, often it is not the disability proper but the prejudice of employers that becomes an obstacle on the way of people with disabilities. However, such discrimination tends to disappear due to legal changes, including the introduction of the Americans with Disabilities Act, and current policies aiming at the inclusion of disabled people. In this regard, the discrimination of people with disabilities persists because the power of prejudices and biases is very strong.

At the same time, educators should be aware of special needs of students with disabilities. They should understand that students with disabilities are no different from other students but they have special needs, which educators should match to help them to succeed in their learning and reach a considerable academic progress just like other students do. In fact, students with disabilities are not inferior compared to their peers but they just have special needs. For example, some researchers (Mansell, 2003) admit that even children with serious mental disabilities may be integrated in the learning process successfully on the condition of meeting needs of those students but the problem is that educators are not trained to work with such students. This is why they have difficulties while working with students with disabilities and the integration of students into the learning process and into their peer groups becomes quite difficult.

On the other hand, the modern education focuses on such issues as Knowledge, Enquiry, Empathy, Pluralism, Social Commitment to prevent the problem of discrimination of students with disabilities and to set educators free from their biases and prejudices in relation to students with disabilities. Knowledge is essential for educators to understand needs of students with disabilities. The enquiry is essential for the research of latest advancements in the field of education and exploration of the problem of disability. The empathy is essential for educators to treat students with disabilities, which educators should treat on the equal ground compared to other students. The pluralism is essential for educators to develop the personalized approach to each students, regardless of their abilities and disabilities. The social commitment is essential for educators to treat students with disabilities as an integral part of the school community. The social commitment means that educators should serve to interests of the community and help students with disabilities to integrate into their communities and help communities to accept children with disabilities as equal community members.

At the same time, there is another issue related to abilities, which often remains unnoticed by educators and researchers, which is the issue of excessive abilities. What is meant here is the fact that some students are gifted in certain fields, which make them different from other students and, to a certain extent, put them in the position similar to the position of students with disabilities (Enns, 2013). Excessive abilities lead to the focus of students on the specific subject, which is particularly interesting for them and where they are particularly successful. For example, gifted students may be successful in math that will put them in quite a challenging position. On the one hand, conventional math classes will be boring for them because instructions educators provide for other students may be not even necessary for gifted students, who understand those instructions perfectly and know more than other students, while their math skills may match standards which are normally attributed to higher grades. As a result, such students feel bored with the classroom environment and the learning process because math classes are not interesting for them because they do not contribute to their progress that discourages them from paying much attention to their math class. This trend can be traced in relation to other subjects, which gifted students may be particularly strong in.

On the other hand, gifted students may have difficulties with developing positive interpersonal relations with their peers. In fact, peers may feel the difference of gifted students because of their excessive abilities that may lead to the development of the sense of inferiority-superiority in relationships between the average and gifted students. In addition, gifted students may stay too focused on their favorite subjects or particular interests that also prevent them from developing positive interpersonal relations with other students. In such a way, students with excessive abilities have difficulties with building up positive interpersonal relationships with other students just like students with disabilities.

Thus, the concept of ability/disability turns out to be pivotal for the modern education system and society at large because it influences consistently the development of students and position of individuals with disabilities and excessive abilities. In this regard, disability and excessive ability are two extremes which may raise problems in the personal and professional development of individuals because they face the risk of the development of poor interpersonal relations with their peers. At the same time, both students with disabilities and excessive abilities need the integration into their classroom environment and development of positive interpersonal relationships with their peers.

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