"Eliminating Ableism" by Hehir and "Examined Life" Video

 In this week's reading and video, we learned about preconceived notions about ableism and how it automatically affects a student's education.

Definition of ableism from the text: “Laura Rauscher and Mary McClintock (1996) define ableism as “a pervasive system of discrimination and exclusion that oppresses people who have mental, emotional and physical disabilities (p3.)"

The definition of ableism is important to understand before moving forward throughout the article. Having an understanding of the word ableism allows for an open mind when learning more about it.

Quote 1: “In this article, I examine how ableist assumptions influence the education of children with disabilities and how these assumptions undermine the educational attainment of these children (p3.)"

This is the author's purpose of the article. One of the main points of the article is talking about assumptions about disabilities and how it automatically affects the student's education. Immediately when someone knows about someone's disability, it is automatically assumed that they will never be as smart as their abled peers. A message that the author tells is how this needs to stop. We shouldn't assume how smart a child will be just because they have a disability.

Quote 2: “While disability is not a tragedy, society’s response to disability can have tragic consequences for those who have disabilities (p2.)"

This quote follows along with my explanation from quote 1. It is assumed that disability is a tragedy, therefore leading to tragic consequences as people believe that people with diabilities, without even knowing the severity, will not be as capable as people without disabilities. It is unfortunate how people authomatically assume that students with disabilites will not be as capable as their peers.

Quote 3: “Thus, oralism continues to have a negative impact on the education of deaf children as an enduring legacy of ableism (p6.)"

I don't know about you, but I have never heard of the term oralism. Oralism is the idea of deaf people using their voice to speak and using lip reading as their form of language rather than using American Sign Language. This is dangerous because it forces a way for students to learn that is no meant for them. This can be compared to students being forced to learn in an auditory way when they are visual learners.

Reflection: Have you seen an example of ableism in your site classroom?

Oralism Article