The purpose of this article is to examine how Disability Studies can be incorporated into the inclusive classroom. I will begin by discussing the definition and history of Disability Studies, as well as its relation to education. Then I will discuss some ways that Disability Studies can be incorporated into the inclusive classroom.
In addition to showing how societal beliefs about disability have changed over time, the discipline of Disability Studies helps us realize how much of our own understanding of disability is shaped by social attitudes and expectations about various kinds of bodies. This is an important realization for anyone who interacts with people with disabilities, especially teachers and other educators. In fact, many teacher education programs are beginning to include courses on human diversity and disability to prepare future teachers for the inclusive classrooms they will encounter in their careers.
Disability Studies is an interdisciplinary field which focuses on examining disability from a social model instead of a medical model. The social model views disability as something that occurs when a person with impairments interacts with an environment that does not accommodate their needs. The medical model, in contrast, views disability as a deficiency or something that is wrong with the person. The first use of the term “disability studies” was at a meeting of scholars in England in 1984.
The relationship between Disability Studies and education is complicated. For example, Thomas Hehir (1997) said that the relationship between Special Education and Disability Studies has “been characterized by mutual suspicion and occasional hostility” (p. 98).
Disability Studies is an interdisciplinary field that began in the mid-1980s. It examines the social, political, and cultural implications of disability in society. This includes analyzing people’s perceptions of disability, their attitudes towards those with disabilities, and how different groups of people with disabilities interact with each other.
Disability Studies is a relatively new field, but it has already produced some important scholarship on the subject of educational inclusion. One such example is Lennard Davis’ book Enforcing Normalcy: Disability, Deafness, and the Body (1995). In his book, Davis argues that education should focus not only on what students learn from textbooks or lectures but also on their experiences outside of class time. He believes that this will help them develop empathy for others who may have different perspectives than they do.
Disability Studies is a field dedicated to understanding disabled lives around the world. Disability Studies is interdisciplinary, meaning that it draws from multiple fields of study in order to understand disability (Goodley, 2017).
Disability Studies was first founded in Britain in 1992 (Oliver, 1992). Since then, many people have contributed to its development and growth. For example, Thomas Hehir became one of the first people to use postmodernism and critical theory to analyze special education (Hehir, 1993). The field has since gained popularity worldwide. In 2005, a group of scholars formed an organization called the Society for Disability Studies (SDS), which promoted research into disability issues around the world (SDS).
Education has always been related to Disability Studies. For example, schools are major institutions that shape disabled people’s experiences. Additionally, students with disabilities are typically educated in mainstream classrooms alongside students without disabilities.
Disability Studies examines how disability is constructed by society, as well as how disability intersects with other areas of oppression—like race, class, gender identity, and sexual orientation. It can also be used as a tool for analyzing how disabled representation functions within popular culture. In order to understand how Disability Studies can be incorporated into inclusive classrooms we must first understand what an inclusive classroom is: An inclusive classroom is one where all students are actively included and engaged in their own learning process regardless of ability or disability.
The medical model views disability as a personal tragedy, or a problem to be solved, which can be cured by medical professionals like doctors or therapists. The medical model emphasizes treating or curing the individual with a disability, and is therefore focused on pathology (what is “wrong” with the individual).
Critics of the medical model argue that it focuses too much on what is wrong with individuals with disabilities and not enough on the structures and systems that may prevent them from participating in society equally. For example, to use a simplified example: if a person who uses a wheelchair cannot access a building because it does not have ramps and elevators, then we might blame the person who uses a wheelchair for not accessing the building, or we might blame the building for not being accessible. The social model of Disability Studies blames ableism rather than disability.
DS emerged as an academic field in the 1980s, and it has grown to include scholars from a wide range of disciplines, including history, literature, sociology, political science, economics, human geography, philosophy, and cultural studies. DSE emerged out of DS as a way to apply some of its precepts to education.
Disability studies is part of a larger movement called Disability Studies in Education (DSE), which itself falls under the umbrella of Disability Studies (DS). The former focuses on how we can better include students with disabilities in classrooms, while the latter focuses on how disability is understood across different populations and cultures.
The Disability Studies movement was originally founded as a response to the medical model of disability, which sees disability as fundamentally deviant and as something that needs to be “fixed.” Disability Studies instead sees disability as an aspect of diversity.
This course will focus on DSE as it relates to classroom inclusion. While there are many other topics within this field—from the way that disabilities are presented in popular culture to the way that Americans with disabilities live abroad—we will focus on how we can make sure that all students, regardless of their abilities, have equal access to an education.
The work of DSE scholars often looks at how ableism functions in education systems and how educators can create more inclusive, equitable classrooms.
Disability studies is a transdisciplinary field of scholarly inquiry whose members seek to understand disability and disablement as cultural phenomena. Its proponents strive to discern and theorize medical and social models of disability in order to promote critical examination of the cultural conditions in which educational practices are performed. The commitments and understandings that arise within disability studies in education (DSE) lead proponents to conceptualize inclusive education reform as a radical project, and call for the development of policy, teaching, and teacher education practices that acknowledge and resist ableism.
Proponents of disability studies in education perspectives aim to understand how disability is conceptually configured in the research and practice that shape learning, education, and schooling. The scholars in this field strive to discern and theorize medical and social models of disability in order to promote critical examination of the cultural conditions in which educational practices are performed.
The commitments and understandings that arise within the disability studies in education field lead proponents to conceptualize inclusive education reform as a radical project, and call for the development of policy, teaching, and teacher education practices that acknowledge and resist ableism.
Because DSE and DS are so intertwined, it can be hard to know where one ends and the other begins. But there are key distinctions between the two approaches: DSE looks beyond education, seeing disability as a social construction that is situated within different cultural contexts. It looks at how things like language, institutions, and practices shape our understanding of disability. DS takes this a step further by looking at disability as part of an “interdependent system [that] includes language, culture, economics, environment, political systems, and historical change.”
Studies of disability have traditionally been limited to medical and scientific models. These models treat disability as a biological defect and focus on the physical, mental, and intellectual needs of the disabled person. This ignores the social factors that contribute to the experience of disability. Disability Studies rejects this approach and instead focuses on how disability is understood across different populations and cultures.