Inclusion of Persons With Disabilities, Research Paper Example

Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities: What is a Reasonable Accommodation?

Introduction

The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 came into being at an interesting political juncture, one that shaped the bill’s view of disability and rehabilitation, which in turn led to current opinions of what place disability has in American society. Congress leaned Democratic when the bill was introduced by Tom Harkin, a Democrat from Iowa, but the economic atmosphere remained Reaganomic with a booming economy and a president, George H.W. Bush, whose testament to creating “no new taxes” spelled out his supply-side allegiances. Each citizen was to be a productive member of society, keeping the American machine going with their specific skills and objectives. The first branch of the ADA’s policy changes were in keeping with this view of a fully capitalist society: it had to do with bringing people with disabilities into the workplace as employees. The next sections of the bill dealt with accessibility to public and private buildings and services, but employment was set apart and made primary for the sake of maximizing the ADA’s economic value. President Bush espoused language in line with that mission when he signed the ADA into law.

“This act does something important for American business, though — and remember this: You’ve called for new sources of workers. Well, many of our fellow citizens with disabilities are unemployed. They want to work, and they can work, and this is a tremendous pool of people. And remember, this is a tremendous pool of people who will bring to jobs diversity, loyalty, proven low turnover rate, and only one request: the chance to prove themselves. And when you add together Federal, State, local, and private funds, it costs almost $200 billion annually to support Americans with disabilities — in effect, to keep them dependent. Well, when given the opportunity to be independent, they will move proudly into the economic mainstream of American life, and that’s what this legislation is all about” (EEOC, n.d.).

In the eyes of the president and his cohort, those with disabilities who received aid from various sources were being kept “dependent” rather than allowed into the ranks of “the economic mainstream of American life,” which they would enter “proudly” because, it is assumed, all people with disabilities have the same capitalist intentions as those who made the bill a law. There are only two types of people, so the rhetoric goes: independent, American exemplars of productivity and (intentionally or unintentionally) parasitic dependents. One is obviously good, the other deleterious, and there is no way for anyone to escape this capitalist dichotomy.

Later in the speech, Bush says that “we embrace you for your abilities and for your disabilities, for our similarities and indeed for our differences, for your past courage and future dreams.” The president’s statement is appropriate in utopian vision and could be enacted, but cannot be done with the wording and spirit of this bill. It does not accept the belief that there are other positive roles one can fill in society outside of producers and consumers. A different ontology is required. However, the guiding capitalist ontology of the ADA has influenced opinions on disability and those with disabilities to this day in ways that perpetuate stigma against disability and even go against the opportunities that the ADA purported to create. Indeed, the law had to be amended in 2008 by the second President Bush because the ADA didn’t fully support its claims to effecting change: legal challenges that cited the ADA as a defense lost 80% of the time. (Elman, 2014) Society still has many legal and philosophical hurdles to overcome to honestly take disability as a valuable part of one’s identity.

The ADA itself has hampered its own success, economically and philosophically. The National Bureau of Economic Research found that the employment rate of people with disabilities actually dropped after the implementation of the ADA. (National Bureau of Economic Research, n.d.) Additionally, after significant ADA-based discrimination lawsuits in states, hiring of people with disabilities drops even further. More than half of all ADA-related cases dealt with wrongful termination and, between the years 1992-1997, cost business nearly 200 million dollars. Businesses were afraid to hire people with disabilities because they saw them only as a liability: either they would require an average of $1000 for accommodating each worker with disabilities or they would risk being deemed inaccessible and served an even more expensive lawsuit. And so, it seems that most companies refrained from hiring people with disabilities to avoid these problems, citing reasons vague or indirect enough as to avoid further discriminatory hiring practice lawsuits. The ADA, while making the workplace more accessible in theory to those already there, made companies hire fewer people who need those accommodations in the first place.

As one can see here, a purely economy- and accessibility-focused bill like the ADA wasn’t able to undo the institutional ableism in American society, and no one expected it to, but it also supported the capitalist credo of productivity and bottom-line-ism that influences current attitudes toward disability. Businesses won’t hire someone who seems like an economic disadvantage in the marketplace in the first place, even if economic payoffs could come further down the road for more intangible and speculative reasons, like company image or a reputation for good hiring practices. The onus is placed on the person with the disability to as part of productive society, even given the detriments to accessing the supposed American meritocracy that society has set in place.

One can see the roots of this mindset in the “pick yourself up by your own bootstraps” archetype of the American Dream. However, this line of thinking requires certain givens, like an even playing field in terms of theoretical and practical accessibility as well as a lack of barriers to entry, which many Americans, not just those with disabilities, can’t take as granted. However, in the case of people with disabilities, discrimination against them (ableism) isn’t seen as a problem for many people and businesses. Ableist thinking believes that it is instead rooted in productivity; it makes physical, artificial barriers seem natural, and if those with disabilities can’t catch up, it says that they should be left behind for the sake of efficiency.

Author Julia Passanante Elman, in her book on pathologized adolescence Chronic Youth, puts this sort of ableism under the heading of “rehabilitative citizenship.” Rehabilitative citizenship, she says, is how good health and growth are tied into “what it means to be a good citizen.” Elman cites its beginnings with the rise of self-help as the preferred mode of mental and even physical rehabilitation along “with two intertwined core values of neoliberalism: ‘privatization’ and ‘personal responsibility.’” The self becomes granular in this model and supreme agency is seen as a given; all people are defined only by themselves and their ability to move up or down in society is based entirely on their own choices. In this model, equal citizenship is no longer bestowed upon all citizens by the government equally. Instead, people’s worth as citizens “is contingent on perpetual self-surveillance and healthy (read: normative) behavior.” This is the sort of attitude and language used in the selling and implementation of the ADA. The ADA allows for rehabilitation so that these lesser citizens can become like everyone else.

One can see this logic at work within other systems as well, as Elman notes. “Gay men and lesbians have been tacitly included in mainstream society and culture, provided that they assimilate to the norms of a new ‘homonormativity.’” This homonormativity “does not contest dominant heteronormative assumptions and institutions” but instead upholds them, keeping the boat from rocking, and in turn the converts to normativity are allowed into society and the bounties of neoliberal capitalism. The same goes for people of color and the modern version of respectability politics. As long as one can assimilate in the right ways, one can fly under the radar.

But most people in these minority identities do not want to assimilate, and some, as in the case of disability, can’t assimilate by the terms and conditions handed to them. Even if they want to work, they can’t because no one will take on the supposed economic risk weighted against a federal mandate. Therefore it is the responsibility of the public to ensure reasonable inclusion. This inclusion is particularly important for children in the education setting.

Disabilities in Schooling

IDEA

While federal mandates note that children with disabilities at any level must be provided with equal education in addition to facilities that accommodate their needs, there had not been much incentive to implement these efforts. All schools would certainly provide their disabled students with necessary services if they had the funding, but it was found that many administrators were not willing to comply with these laws and requirements because they did not have the financial ability to do so. The hallmark legislation that was introduced to assist with this problem is known as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) to help children with disabilities receive a free public education (IDEA, n.d.). Prior to the introduction of the act, many parents had been sending their children to private schools that were able to support the unique needs of each individual student. However, these efforts were not only expensive, but also detrimental to the ability of the student to integrate with non-disabled students. It marked these children as “separate” which was diminishing to their self-esteem. The creation of IDEA helped solve these problems by requiring that schools provide disabled children the services they need in order to reduce expense and promote inclusion.

In a sense, it could be said that the creation of IDEA also led to the development of the Individualized Education Program (IEP). This documentation is important because it allows the teacher and school administrators to understand which services need to be legally provided to the child to help him and her achieve success in the school setting (Weishaar, 2001). For special education students with learning disabilities, these individuals are typically assessed by a panel of professionals, including teachers, administrators, parents, and occasionally psychologists, and these individuals together will determine which learning modifications should be established to help the student. In many instances, these requirements indicate that the time these individuals are given on tests should be expanded so that they are able to have time to think about and answer all of the questions in the same way that a child without a disability would be able to. Individuals with dyslexia may be given a scribe during high stakes exams and asked to speak their responses while the scribe records them. Other information on IEPs for physically disabled students and those with medical needs may dictate how frequently certain health interventions should be applied and whether an exam or another important assessment could be disrupted for the application of this treatment.

Another important improvement that IDEA brought about is the concept that under this new law, ignorance of the student’s problem was not an excuse. If children needed help tending to their medical situation in the classroom, help must be provided. This concept requires that nurses be present to provide this assistance, although in many cases, depending upon the disability of the student, the teacher must be trained to provide care if the need is urgent. Furthermore, it is the teacher’s responsibility to remind the administration of the presence of these potentially emergency disabilities and to work with them to determine how to get the necessary training. Overall, the teacher is responsible for making sure that the instructions provided on the IEP are carried out (Masala et al., 2008). While the administration is expected to play a supportive role in this process, it is important to consider that they are not always directly involved in the communication of this type of information so it falls to the teacher to actively seek this information out.

Last, under IDEA, parents have many important rights. First, they can disagree with the IEP recommendations or the solutions proposed by the school. This is important because they have a unique understanding of their child in addition to his or her mental health or medical problem and are therefore able to provide the school with feedback about how to care for them. Furthermore, parents have the right to receive written notice prior to the implementation of new decisions to provide them with a period of time during which they are able to counter the decision that has been made.

Since the initial implementation of IDEA, the law itself has altered in many different ways in order to better suit the populations it was created to serve. Therefore, it is important to consider that the law itself is fluid and will continue to change in order to meet the changing needs of the students. However, it is important to understand that schools have a legal obligation to treat their students with dignity and meet their needs so that they are able to receive an education that is equally valuable compared to the education of students without disabilities.

The Social Advantage of Accommodations

It is important to understand that one of the healthiest aspects of allowing students with disabilities to attend public schools is that this provides them with the ability to meet children who are not disabled and to form friendships with these students. This is a beneficial occurrence because typically, children with disabilities think little of themselves with respect to their peer. However, when they become friends with people that do not have the same disabilities as them, they will come to realize that even though they are physically different, their opinions and preferences are similar as the other students in their classes. Not all schools are required to place special education children in regular education classrooms, as they are only required to ensure that the needs of their disabilities are being met. However, some schools take this understanding to the next level, and attempt to address the social implications of disabilities. In many situations, when students with disabilities are placed in regular education classrooms, they are able to thrive.

An important understanding with regards to the placement of special education children in regular education classrooms is that the success of the students in these settings ultimately depend upon their disabilities. If a student is learning disabled and is therefore placed in a classroom with regular education children, it is likely that he or she will struggle because the concepts presented will be more challenging that what is traditionally taught and the student could quickly become frustrated and shut down to the idea of schooling. On the other hand, if a student with normal mental functioning with a physical disability, such as a student that requires a wheelchair, is put into a regular education classroom, it is expected that he or she will flourish because of the opportunity to work with like-minded peers in a new setting. Therefore, addressing the social aspect of helping students with disabilities is not a one size fits all fix, but should certainly be considered as a way of ensuring that these individuals are provided with a positive schooling experience. While many educators believe that it is beneficial to have these individuals constantly involved in the regular education classroom, others believe that this should be a temporary situation. Ultimately, however, this decision depends upon the particular needs and abilities of the individual student.

Many schools implement accommodations differently and it is therefore important to determine what different school systems are doing in order to ensure that these students are able to get the resources they need and deserve. In many schools that do not have a high level of funding, regular education students are placed in the regular education classroom, the teacher is made aware of the IEP, and the regular education teacher is solely responsible for the care of the disabled student in addition to her other students as well. In other schools, one special education teacher is hired, and he or she is assigned to specific time slots to work either individually with students in the resource room or within the classroom. In education systems with much more funding, students with disabilities are assigned a paraprofessional that works with them throughout their school day to ensure that their needs will be met. This ranges from working with them in the classroom to ensure that they are learning at the same speed as the other students, or simply taking them to the nurse’s office for treatment when needed. A last option, which could be combined with the paraprofessional option, is the existence of separate classrooms for individuals with disabilities that are staffed by one or more teachers with the knowledge necessary to help these individuals with both their academic work and needs related to their disabilities.

Implementing Learning Techniques to Ensure all Students Learn

It is important for teachers to be aware of how to assess whether or not their students are learning. This could be particularly challenging for teachers of special education because these children are often distracted by the social aspect of their education. The feeling of being “different” can impair their ability to learn, which can be intensified if their needs related to their disabilities are not being met. Therefore, it is important for the teacher to take all of this information into consideration so that he or she could determine the best strategies to help students learn.

Individuals that have had a difficult time adjusting to the social aspect of school would benefit from engaging with their peers in group work. Not only will this method reinforce necessary academic skills, it will also give them a chance to build relationships and understandings with their classmates. Overall, this is important because such a move indicates that the teacher is aware of not just the disability needs of the students, but also their social and emotional needs. When teachers are able to appeal to all aspects of student needs, they are ultimately able to become more successful in the work that they do (Omrod, 2006).

While the broad techniques used to help these students can be implemented in a manner that addressed their specialized needs as disabled students, it is also important for educators to pinpoint their academic abilities and needs for development in this regard as well. Therefore, regular assessments are necessary to allow the educator to determine how they are able to grasp certain topics using certain techniques. However, it is important for educators in special education to understand that a variety of different assessment methods could be implemented in order to prevent against stress or an inability to complete the work depending on the degree of the disability. Since most students are able to provide oral responses to questions, it is possible to use this method to determine whether these individuals are able to comprehend the knowledge. This would be best for the physically handicapped or those with learning disabilities that have difficulty recording their thoughts on paper (Longmore, 2009). On the other hand written assessments should be provided to individuals with speech and listening impairments, as this is the most coherent way for these students to share their understanding. There are many other assessment types available that teachers could use for students with different needs. Hands-on experimentation is another option for students that are non-verbal; instead of asking for a response, the teacher could ask the students to physically show the response. Since there can be many children with distinct needs in a classroom, assessment modes are up to the discretion of the educator, but should take into account how the different children present are able to communicate.

Related to the demonstration of information, it is also important for the instructor to teach the information in different ways. For example, students with hearing problems will want to see the information written instead of spoken. While many students with hearing difficulties are taught to read lips, this method maximizes their abilities to make errors; providing them with written material gives them a concrete way of understanding the information that has been presented to them and does not provide an opportunity for misunderstanding (Arditi, 1998). On the other hand, students that have difficulty writing will want the opportunity to hear the information repeated several times so they have an opportunity to internalize what is being taught. Last, students who are not adept at either skill should be shown a practical application of it. In special education classrooms, it is occasionally important for all of these methods to be used in conjunction so that all students present are able to master the material provided.

What is a reasonable accommodation?

Since individuals with disabilities have many distinct needs, there is much debate over what is considered a reasonable accommodation due to the expense of adjustments. Schools and other public buildings are required to have wheelchair accessible ramps for individuals, and this is generally considered a reasonable accommodation. Typically, these accommodations are not deemed reasonable due to their expense, as it can be very pricy for a wheelchair ramp to be installed. Rather, these can be defined as accommodations that should be put in place to assist the majority of people with a particular disability. In schools, a reasonable accommodation is defined as ensuring that the school provides the children with materials that will help them gain an education equal to that of their peers. While this includes having a staff available that is trained to work with members of the population in addition to having supplies available that will help them during times of the emergency, this requirement does not extend to providing medication and medical equipment that are specific to the needs of the child. For example, Epi-pens and nebulizers cannot be provided. Bringing this equipment to the school for the child’s use is the responsibility of the parent, although ensuring that the child uses this equipment when it is needed is the responsibility of the teacher and the school nurse.

In most situations, accommodations that need to be provided to individuals with disabilities are broadly guided by the principle that disabled individuals should have access to accommodations that allow them to accomplish many of the same tasks (Oliver, 1997). Although, this extends only to public places. Therefore, transportation systems have many handicapped accessible stops, but not all of these have to be made accessible if it is not realistic when considering the infrastructure. However, this does not mean that disabled individuals will not be able to accomplish the same transportation goals, but instead of taking the train during the full duration of their trips, they may occasionally be required to switch to busses to accomplish this. To consider the needs of the disabled, many busses and taxi cabs now have the ability to accommodate wheelchairs, and many cities plan to have all of their public transportation options accessible to these individuals within the next 10 – 20 years. As old vehicles are being phased out, new vehicles that can accommodate people with disabilities are being phased in.

Ultimately, if these accommodations are required and not provided, they can be countered with fines and other legal punishments. In some cases, infrastructure is exempt from these requirements if they were built before a certain year. For example, it is required to have elevators in all school buildings in New York City so that children and staff with disabilities can easily travel from floor to floor. However, buildings that were initially built without elevators prior to the existence of this law are not required to have elevators because their installation is often a problem with regards to existing infrastructure. If there is no reasonable place to put an elevator, one cannot be installed. Therefore, it is important for schools and public places to understand these comprehensive rules to both avoid being issued a fine and to ensure that they accommodate all people.

Conclusion

There are many different features that need to be considered when providing disabled individuals with accommodations. Reasonable accommodations are defined as alterations to infrastructure or operations to make the experience of disabled individuals equal to that of regularly-individuals. An important exception to this rule is when it would not be reasonable to make these changes in accordance to the existing infrastructure. However, it is important for all schools, independently of public or private status to issue these accommodations. Private schools often receive public funds, which makes them a necessary part of this rule. In addition, other public places, including sidewalks must have these accommodations in place as well to support the ability of both children and adults to travel easier. Outside of the schools, these accommodations typically pertain to physical handicaps, but inside of schools, these accommodations pertain to both scenarios. It is therefore important for construction agencies and building managers to take these aspects into consideration when establishing new infrastructure.

References

Arditi, A.; Rosenthal, B. (1998). Developing an objective definition of visual impairment. Vision ’96: Proceedings of the International Low Vision Conference. Madrid, Spain: ONCE. pp. 331–334.

EEOC. (n.d.). Remarks of President George Bush at the Signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Retrieved from http://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/history/35th/videos/ada_signing_text.html

Elma, J.P. (2014). Chronic Youth. Retrieved from http://nyupress.org/books/9781479818228/

IDEA. (n.d.). IDEA—the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Retrieved from http://www.parentcenterhub.org/repository/idea/

Longmore, Paul. (2009). Making Disability an Essential Part of American History. OAH Magazine of History, 23(3): 11–15.

Masala C, Petretto DR. (2008). From disablement to enablement: conceptual models of disability in the 20th century. Disability and Rehabilitation, 30(17): 1233–1244.

Oliver, Michael (1997). The Politics of Disablement. London: St. Martin’s Press.

Ormrod, Jeanne Ellis. (2006). Educational Psychology: Developing Learners (fifth edition). Pearson, Merrill Prentice Hall.

National Bureau of Economic Research. (n.d.). Consequences of the Americans With Disabilities Act. Retrieved from http://www.nber.org/digest/dec98/w6670.html

Weishaar, M. K. (2001). The regular educator’s role in the individual education plan process. The Clearing House, 75(2): 96-98.