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By: Lily Gullion, Office of Special Education Programs Intern and Ph.D. Candidate
July is Disability Pride month, which celebrates disability and encourages reflection on the moments in history that have shaped the daily lives and opportunities of individuals with disabilities.
When I was in school, I never learned about disability history or talked about disability outside of the medical model. In undergrad, I took classes where there were many potential times to learn about disability history – American history, sociology, child development, public health – but the voices and stories of people with disabilities were never apparent.
As I pursued my graduate degree in occupational therapy, I interacted with disabled adults who talked about their experiences living in the U.S. and what their disabilities meant to them. Even still, I sat through abstract and brief lessons about the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act, but I didn’t place the individuals I met within their sociopolitical context.
It wasn’t until I worked with children in public schools as an occupational therapist (OT) that I started seeing how disability history is intimately tied with the daily lives of all. I was eager to make sure my students were included and enjoying their educational experiences, but I saw some of the problems that the educational system still faces.
Even little things like how a classroom is designed or how lunchtime happens, can act to shape how children see themselves and others. I remember a specific example in one of the schools where I worked where the cafeteria tables did not accommodate children using wheelchairs or adaptive seating. This meant that children with physical disabilities ate meals in a different room during years of their educational experience. A somewhat routine decision, like purchasing tables, led to the separation of children during what should have been a social and enjoyable time of their day.
As a Ph.D. student in the field of occupational science, I study meaningful human activity. I have learned that these habits of inclusion or exclusion often tie back to the history of education and various policies. Much of the time, the answer to “Why is something done this way?” is “Because it has always been done this way.”
To effect change, it is important to understand the history in the community to shift the narrative thoughtfully. In the U.S., many of our systems and processes have not included perspectives from people with disabilities, which has had lasting repercussions.
In the cafeteria example, the adults who bought the cafeteria tables did not consider the students with disabilities, and all students had to deal with the consequences of a segregated meal. What if that school’s community, including staff, teachers, parents, and students, had recognized the historic isolation of people with disabilities and prioritized inclusion in their cafeteria design?
During my time as an OSEP intern, I have been learning about how federal programs support students and families through various mechanisms. In my own small way, I have contributed to this work. I have a firm belief that disability history is necessary to reflect on at a national level to encourage the development of programs and systems that will support children. I feel privileged to be part of conversations that are diligently including a disability lens in the education field. Through education, I see how children with disabilities can grow into adults who can tell their own histories.
So, what have I learned about disability history? It is messy and complex, with periods of quiet marked by flashpoints. This messiness is one of the reasons why there is no “definitive” account of all the landmarks in the story of disability in the U.S.
Individuals with disabilities are not a monolith that can be defined or described as a political block. However, there are some topics that are significant in the undercurrent of attitudes and beliefs, and it is worth exploring disability history even in an incomplete form. For example, the momentous Brown v. Board of Education decision which determined racial segregation in schools was unconstitutional laid the groundwork for special education. This tie between integration and inclusion is challenging to understand without learning about the many facets of disability rights.
Reflecting on disability as a personal and social experience, we can better support our communities, our friends, and ourselves. For more reading about disability history, especially from advocates with disabilities, I turn to the following resources and invite you to do the same.
- Disability History: An Overview – Telling All Americans’ Stories (U.S. National Park Service) (nps.gov)
- Disability Social History Project – Disability History, Culture, Art, and Media
- Disability Rights Timeline | Temple University College of Education and Human Development, Institute on Disabilities
Additionally, July 25 is National Intern Day. One of the reasons that I was able to sit down and write this reflection, and had the audience to read this, is because of my status as an intern in the Office of Special Education Programs at the U.S. Department of Education.
Interested in becoming an ED intern? Learn more about ED’s Student and Recent Graduates Internship Programs.
Blog articles provide insights on the activities of schools, programs, grantees, and other education stakeholders to promote continuing discussion of educational innovation and reform. Articles do not endorse any educational product, service, curriculum or pedagogy.