Enhancing Diversity: Thinking

Differently About Disability

Clayton Keller
Disability Symposium
Creighton University
April 21, 2005

Enhancing Diversity: Thinking

Differently About Disability

How can you be a teacher?

An uphill struggle to have the issues of
educators with disabilities recognized and
addressed within a special education
professional organization

Overview Of My Talk

Different ideas about disabilities

Descriptions
Implications for diversity efforts

Fostering opportunities

Justice
Education
Advice

Ideas About Disability

A typical or lay view

Person = disability
Language

The handicapped
The blind musician
Suffers from
Wheelchair-bound

Implications for diversity

Diversity as a value doesnt honor what is viewed as

unfortunate or missing

Ideas About Disabilities

An enlightened view

Person disability

Language

Person is the same as everyone else

Person first, then the disability
The person with disabilities
The teacher who is deaf

Implications for diversity

Diversity as a value doesnt honor what is viewed as the

same

Ideas About Disabilities

An environmental view

Person environment disability

Emphasis is on changing the environment

American Association on Mental Retardations classification of

mental retardation focuses on the pattern and intensity of
supports needed to enable a person to participate in valued
settings and activities
(http://www.aamr.org/sis/pdf/sis_overview_nasddd.pdf )
Intermittent, Limited, Extensive, Pervasive

Implications for diversity

Diversity as a value doesnt honor changing differences

Ideas About Disabilities

An activist and rights-based view

Disability person
Language

Disabled person

Implications for diversity

All of what diversity as a value honors is present

Ed Roberts

Parallels in Time: A History of Developmental Disabilities

Minnesota Governors Council on Developmental Disabilities

Creightons Mission

Service to others, the importance of family

life, the inalienable worth of each
individual, and appreciation of ethnic and
cultural diversity are core values of
Creighton.
Creightons education is directedto
the promotion of justice.

Fostering Opportunities

What constitutes justice?

[This book] is based on the view that while notions of justice

have always been implicit in the discussion of the theoretical,
policy and practical issues concerning the education of people
with disabilities, these notions are seldom made explicit and
subjected to sustained analysis.[W]hile there is widespread
recognition that as a group people with disabilities have been
subjected to social practices which are fundamentally unjust,
there is a lack of clarity on what constitutes injustice and what
would constitute a socially just community for people with
disabilities.

Rizvi & Christensen, 1996, Disability and the Dilemmas of

Education and Justice, p. 2

Fostering Opportunities

What might constitute justice in the

education of students with disabilities at
Creighton University?
Such justice will not consist of

Charity
Service

Such justice will require compliance with

laws like Section 504 and the ADA

Fostering Opportunities

Such justice should go beyond

compliance with the laws

Legal compliance may not be enough

The education should be invitational

Anticipating needs and having many

accommodations or supports in place
normally versus solely providing them only
when asked

Universal Instructional Design

Universal Design: The design of products and

environments to be usable by all people, to the
greatest extent possible, without the need for
adaptation or specialized design (North Carolina
State University, Center for Universal Design)

Universal Instructional Design: A pedagogical

analogy

[Such qualities] should be built into the instructional

design and operating systems of educational
materials--they should not have to be added on later.
(Orkwis & McLane, 1998, p. 9)

Fostering Opportunities

The education should be inclusive

Students with disabilities can see themselves, their
lives, and their concerns in their education, in ways
that can also be seen by others
For example:

Civil rights
Ethical debates
Policies
Literature

http://www.disabilityrag.org

Supports Within Professions

Careers for All and Workforce Development

Breaking New Ground Resource Center: Cultivating

Independence for Persons with Disabilities in Agriculture

American Association for the Advancement of Science

http://www.aaas.org/programs/education/CareersAll/index.sht
ml

Purdue University
http://pasture.ecn.purdue.edu/ABE/Extension/BNG/Resource
%20Center/resourcecenter.html

Educators with Disabilities Caucus

The Council for Exceptional Children

http://www.cec.sped.org/diversity/edc.html

Fostering Opportunities

Suggestions for individuals with disabilities (Karp,

Anderson, & Keller, 1998, p. 275)

Take control over your life

Desire to succeed
Strive for your goals and be persistent
Find opportunities that best fit your goals and your needs
Reframe your disability to see it as a positive
Use learned creativity
Construct networks for support and personal improvement
Be independent and interdependent by using those people and
resources that can help
Ask for accommodations you need
Use a portfolio of experiences and accomplishments

Fostering Opportunities

Suggestions for faculty (selected from Karp,

Anderson, & Keller, 1998, p. 277)

Ask about each individuals conception of him- or herself and his

or her disability
Create a campus environment where individuals feel accepted
Encourage all students to actively determine how they best learn
and function as students and how to communicate that to others
Allow students to make accommodations and adaptations they
need
Encourage students to be both independent and interdependent
Create mentor-mentee relationships
Assist students in building a portfolio of accomplishments

Characteristics for Developing a Just

Education for Students with Disabilities at
Creighton University

Openness to communication
Willingness to question ones own and others
assumptions about disabilities and education
Creativity to generate solutions
Courage to put solutions to appropriate tests
Honesty to accept the results of such tests

Adapted from Keller, Anderson, & Karp, 1998, p.11