At 09:50 AM 5/15/01 -0400, you wrote:
>This leads me to ask another long shot question, whether the system of
>education (excluding the true disability studies programs), that is
>considered an important part of "civil society", itself perpetuates a
>hegemony that leads to an individual interpretation of disability and
>therefore, the exclusion of those given the label "disabled".
>
>
>Vanmala
Dear Vanmala and others,
I'd venture to say yes. Here in the U.S., in lower levels of Ed (elem and
secondary) systems of Special Ed and Mainstreaming were (perhaps still are,
but as this isn't my area of expertise, I can't be sure) based on plans
called IEPs Individualized Education Plans for the disabled child that
focused on the individual "needs" of the child and on the limitations of
impairment, rather then social forces. "Education for all" was done
individually. (The child, by the way, was and is, often --not always --
excluded from these IEP meetings, while parents, specialists, medical and
otherwise, school representatives are not).
In higher education, it's harder to say I suppose. In my experience, it
depends on the Disability Services office-- whether they approach things on
an individual level -- one school I was at reveled in this-- no systems in
place for hiring notetakers, putting books on tape, training new students
to interview caregivers, etc., -- they had all the means to get these
things accomplished, but no system in place as to how to run these tasks,
since according to the director "everybody's disability is different and
needs to be handled individually."
The place didn't run very well, and students weren't that well served, it
seemed to me. (The asst director, by the way, also doubled in emergency
wheelchair repair!!) What gets me always is the counselor's attitude that
this kind of "hands off" approach was always presented as a means of
teaching the student "independence" (the only time I'd ever know
professionals to cop to infantilization of the disabled). But this always
seems to be some kind of cop-out. To use an analogy, I too, expect a
student to go to the financial aid office and to take care of his/her own
business, but I also expect the office itself to have a system in place as
to how to handle their paperwork. Not the student's job, IMO.
Where I think this ind. approach is hurtful on the classroom level, is with
instructors who buy, in totality, the disability office's line of "Just
send the student to us, we'll handle it." There are things, in my view,
that need to be handled by the office and individually, (like a quiet room
for LD students for tests, if the kid wants one). But not
*everything*. Some stuff, like a large-print syllabus, being more oral in
teaching with visually impaired students, is my job as instructor, and not
a reason to shuffle the student out of my classroom and off to oblivion.
--Johnson
Johnson Cheu
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http://people.english.ohio-state.edu/cheu.1
The Ohio State University
Dept. of English
421 Denney Hall, 164 W. 17th. Ave.
Columbus, OH 43210
(614) 292-1730 (Office); (614) 292-6065 (Dept.); (614) 292-7816 (Fax)
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