Confronting Ableism

Hehir, Thomas. (2007). Confronting Ableism. Eduational Leadership, 64(5), 8-14.

Hehir discusses “abelism”: society's negative attitudes about disabilities. The popular perception feed by “ableist” ideas is that disabilities are to be overcome with an ultimate goal of gaining normal function—ideas that lead special education. Hehir defines the purpose of special education as “minimizing the impact of disability and maximizing the opportunities for students with disabilities to participate in schooling and the community.” However, research shows that this perspective is detrimental to students with disabilities. Hehir makes some suggestions in terms of how address the issue of special education—such as making students comfortable in terms of being able to communicate in their own medium, emphasizing investment, holding high standards. Based on the idea that an inclusion setting is best students overcoming their disabilities, Hehir suggests this as well. However from my experience, special education programs become too focused on the goal of “graduation” from the program to the point that they miss the position that they put both students and teachers in. The reading of an IEP does not prepare a teacher completely for handling students that have that been made accustom to the levels of accommodation experience in a special education classroom. Moreover, though this may not be complete the case, my experience has show me that once a student is “graduated” from special education there is a void of support and accommodation that the student must get over in order to succeed in a regular class room. This is not to say that inclusion strategies are not successful, but rather to say that inclusion and “graduation” shouldn’t be the only goal over finding the best solution for the student’s educational needs. It is a measure of success that doesn’t necessarily indicate or cause success.