Civil Rights In Education: Universal Design And Technology

Civil Rights in Education: Universal Design and Technology

Teachers often ask their students to answer the five W’s when problem solving. The same question can be asked of the institution of American public education. Two critical questions to consider are: who education is for, and what should it look like? The purpose of American public education is a notion that has changed in the history of our country. It is inextricably connected to the transformations that occur at national and local levels. Economic and social factors such as population growth, immigration, inner-city poverty, school violence and expansions of civil rights have lead people to rethink exactly who should be served and what education should accomplish. According to a PBS article, “School: The Story of American Public Education, “there are six main goals of education that are prominent today:

1. To prepare children for citizenship

2. To cultivate a skilled workforce

3. To teach cultural literacy

4. To prepare students for college

5. To help students become critical thinkers

6. To help students compete in a global marketplace

It is imperative that American students educational needs are met. There are many students, especially in disenfranchised segments of society, whose education is failing to meet these goals. One of these groups that are rarely focused on is students with disabilities. These students are losing out, because of a reliance on a singular mode of teaching and learning in which text-based material dominates. Yet, students with special needs have not been the only students affected by such out-dated pedagogical practices. Male students whom on average rely more heavily on non-verbal, tactile communication than girls in all levels of the American education system are quickly becoming the second sex, with 70% of special education students being male and a 30% higher chance of dropping out of high school (Conlin). At the most basic level, finding more inclusive, flexible and challenging educational practices is a civil rights issue for all American students, including those with disabilities. The philosophy of universal design can help generate multi-modal practices where everyone benefits because all of their positive attributes are allowed to shine.

In the United States, Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability in employment, State and local government, public accommodations, commercial facilities, transportation, and telecommunications. It also applies to the United States Congress. Included in the institutions where the rights of the American disabled are protected are public schools. According to the US Department of Education, "No otherwise qualified individual with a disability in the United States . . . shall solely by reason of her or his disability, be excluded from the participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance." Under the provisions of this Act, it is required to provide students with disabilities appropriate educational services designed to meet the individual needs of such students to the same extent as the needs of students without disabilities are met. An appropriate education for a student with a disability could consist of education in regular classrooms, education in regular classes with supplementary services, and/or special education and related services. However much of the language designed to protect students with disabilities is couched in the language of accommodation, which suggests that special allowances or adjustments must be made to the way things are done normally. This exclusive language has the potential to cause resentment and further the ways in which the “disabled” are othered and viewed as a nuisance (Office for Civil Rights).

The ADA has defined a disabled person as, “A person who has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities, a person who has a history or record of such an impairment, or a person who is perceived by others as having such an impairment. (US Department of Justice). In the United States an estimated 20 percent (40.8 million) of the population some kind of disability, 10 percent (27.3 million) with a severe disability (Dunn). People most cite mobility problems, visual impairments and progressive illnesses as being disabilities, with the dominant images being those in wheelchairs and blind people. Beliefs coupled with the notion of disability are that disability relates to a physical impairment, is visible to others, leads to incapacity or dependence, and is a permanent unchanging state. (Noakes) These beliefs shape the ways in which people with disabilities are viewed and treated by others and themselves. Due to these misconceptions the disabled are discriminated against, often passively, in schools and in employment settings. The majority of both disabled and non-disabled people feel that prejudice against disabled people is common due to ignorance, lack of awareness and fear of difference. Many disabled people have experienced prejudicial attitudes in a number of ways, including the assumption that disabled people cannot talk or think for themselves, assumptions made about their abilities, being rejected or avoided, verbally attacked, and even bullied. In contrast to the widespread experience of prejudice, overt acts of discrimination were less commonly reported.

To put this into perspective, 62% of students with learning disabilities were unemployed one year after graduation and 35% of students identified with learning disabilities drop out of high school, twice the rate of their non-Learning Disabled (LD) peers. (LDA) Often, people with disabilities do not classify themselves as disabled. In a study done by the British Department for Work and Pensions, just under half (48 per cent) of disabled respondents in the survey classed themselves as disabled. This is a narrower view of the limitations of having a disability, and perhaps a broader view of what it means to be "normal." Many people with less visible disabilities like learning disabilities, who probably would benefit from the knowledge of their condition, go undiagnosed and untreated. In fact about 60% of adults with severe literacy problems in the United States have previously undetected or untreated learning disabilities (LDA). Universal design is able to account for both a broader understanding of what