“In the same way stairs are a constructed barrier to buildings, there are constructed educational barriers in our classrooms and in our pedagogies. We can, and should, address those barriers too.” – Patricia Dunn, “Re-seeing (Dis)ability,” p. 16

I really liked this quote from Patricia’s Dunn’s article about rethinking disability. I thought the entire article was full of great suggestions about how to be a more inclusive and conscientious teacher. What I liked so much about this quote in particular was that it took the conversation about disability beyond the physical. I think many discussions about disability focus on the physical barriers students’ face, and fail to give adequate consideration to the other educational barriers they come up against. Breaking down physical barriers is often easier than breaking down the barriers in pedagogies. I really appreciated Dunn’s suggestions about broadening the definitions of reading and writing, creating diverse ways of assessing students, and using novels and stories with disabled characters to help students understand disability and break free from stereotypes.

Another important piece of Dunn’s article was her emphasis on using new technology to help break down barriers for students. This made me think a lot about my own experiences working with students. For the past four summers, I worked in a summer program for special needs students, and saw a lot of cool ways technology was used as a vehicle for communication. One non-verbal student used a touch-pad that allowed him to communicate when he was hungry, needed to go to the bathroom, wanted to play etc. It allowed him to communicate and express himself in a way he was otherwise unable to do. So cool!

I also loved Dunn’s comments about Universal Design:

“If accessibility were more a part of our cultural consciousness, if inclusiveness were something we didn’t always have to be reminded about, if disability were seen as a part of ‘normal’ life, our buildings and classrooms would not need so much expensive retrofitting and people wouldn’t need to have to ask not to be excluded. Buildings would be more usable by more people from the beginning, which is the main idea behind Universal Design.”

What a wonderful vision for the world!