Who needs special education?

Usually the term special education is reserved for kids with disabilities*. But what kind of "special education", if any, is necessary for people to learn about disabilities and, ultimately, lead to full inclusion in society of people with disabilities?

Employee programs and handicap awareness presentations and even one on one attempts to educate about disability can only go so far. You can talk to some people until you're blue in the face and they'll still pat you on the head and tell you how they think you should handle your disability afterward. There are a number of people with disabilities whom I talk to that have no desire to spend their time educating people, but want to live their lives without having that role thrust upon them.

The issue goes beyond just learning about this or that disability, a one hour shot at sitting in a wheelchair to try it out or a handout. It's about changing assumptions, attitudes and perceptions about disability which will lead to a willingness to acknowledge that doing things differently is not less than and doesn't require an apology or permission. I believe that being out in society and showing people we can live full lives with disabilities is a large part of the solution. The outdated notion that having a disability is a state of "less than" being in the world is slow to change, but it is changing. What goes along with that change in perception is a whole slew of other forms of progress, such as seeing people with disabilities as valuable members of the community.

I know after traveling for over a decade playing wheelchair tennis at a competitive level that what people saw when they watched us play ranged from admiring our skill at tennis to standing on the sidelines talking about how tragic it was that such young people were in wheelchairs to resenting that we took up court space. The only "special education" I can think of to change this line of thinking lies in the solution to the very problem we face: further inclusion of people with disabilities in society until the voices of those who pity us or feel we need their permission to be active members of society are drowned out by our own cries of joy and celebration.

[*This post is not a commentary on the educational issue of inclusion or special education in schools, nor does it offer an opinion on that issue for particular cases of children and their IEP programs.]

For an excellent op-ed letter to a college newspaper on diversity and disability, please see Dr. Beth Haller's letter here.