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

This article talks about the danger of ableism, a negative mindset toward people who have disabilities. The mindset is so prevalent in society that it permeates the way we set up and structure our social institutions. One of the clearest manifestations of ableism is our public education system. Because of ableism, students with disabilities are taught to view their disabilities in a negative light. Accordingly, many come to see them as obstacles that must be overcome so that they can reach the ultimate goal of blending in with greater society. Furthermore, with so much instructional time dedicated to changing the disability, many students do not receive enough academic instruction in the day as is. While the author acknowledges that many strides have been made to ensure that special education students are receiving a quality education, he asserts that more still needs to be done. We must first start off by examining our own ableist assumptions and then doing our best to rid them from the way we instruct our students with special needs.

Reading this article made me think about the important role that “perspective” plays in society. Our schools are intrinsically ableist because they were set up by people who did not have the disabled in mind. Honestly, how could they? In general, it is extremely difficult to account for/ plan around a perspective that you have never experienced. Can we really hold the people in power to this standard? According to this article, the answer is yes. From reading it, I realized that the perspective of disabled persons must continually be brought to the forefront in order for their voices to be heard. By increasing awareness of the needs of special education students, only then can the proper and necessary changes be made. Similarly, this article also reminds me of a topic of conversation that frequently comes up between my roommate and me. Every time we get on the topic of special education and allocation of resources, she always says that she has to be a loud and vocal advocate for the special education department at her school. This is because, in her opinion, the special education department always takes a backseat to general education. From what I have seen in my limited experience as a teacher, this appears to be the case. As the article mentions, many schools are ill-equipped with the necessary resources or experienced teachers to properly educate special needs students. In fact, many school buildings are not even designed to be accessible to disabled persons. If our buildings are not even up to par, how can we expect to do the same for special needs students in the classroom?

On the flip side, what this article doesn’t seem to account for is the role of money. How does money (or lack thereof) affect the way we treat special education students? Is it financially feasible to enact all or some of the changes that the author suggested? I’m pretty confident that most people would agree with the author’s assertion that changes need to be made. Why haven’t they been made then? Maybe it has to do with money and politics… It certainly wouldn’t surprise me…