To Imagine Disability Otherwise | Linda Ware | TEDxSUNYGeneseo

Ableism is a pervasive feature of society that can be readily identified in multiple social locations. Ableism is composed by witting and unwitting actions, actors and institutions that, once exposed, can challenge the injustice of ableism as a given in society.
Dr. Linda Ware teaches Disability Studies at SUNY Geneseo. She has published widely in leading journals including Hypatia, A Journal of Feminist Philosophy, National Women’s Studies Journal and Cultural Disability Studies Quarterly, and Equity and Excellence. She has authored numerous book chapters and an edited book, Ideology and the Politics of InExclusion (2004, Peter Lang). She is completing a second international collection, Critical Readings in Interdisciplinary Disability, and her series on the history of critical special education context is under contract with SENSE Publishers.
This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at ted.com/tedx

[@orangesbian]

This talk is really excellent and thought provoking, but I just need to point out that the fact that this video has no properly written closed-captions is more than a little ironic. This is a video that intends to educate people about disability, the social model, and the barriers in place in society that construct disability. Defaulting on auto-generated closed captions that lack inflection, punctuation, and are very frequently incorrect isn't actually very accessible to those who are deaf, hard of hearing, or have auditory processing problems (like myself). Surely a company as large as TedX with its 35 million+ subscribers can do a little bit better than that.

[@mattthomas1574]

Same. I would like to use this with a class, but the lack of captions makes that difficult.

[@kellyrl23]

Linda-
Your question about engaging people with disabilities in the community is a great topic starter and it was clear once you continued with the structures that surround disability why you began with this question. I found the idea of narrative psychiatry to be interesting, especially when linking it to the cultural lens of disability.
Your discussion about the educational setting for students labeled as disabled and the need for them to have a narrative in their education is SO extremely important to me. I've been in meetings recently where people with multiple years of experience talk about the students who are in the Life Skills classroom as others and are making decisions based off from their own social and medical assumptions about said student/said disability and I couldn't agree more that these educators need to fix their own view on disability rather try and fix the student they feel they "know what's best."
Socially valued nor medically appropriate (we are not going to cure disabilities, we need to cure our own assumptions on disability and what it means for the community in which we live in)-- I will share this with the director of special education for the district I currently work for, mainly for this purpose. I needed these words during the multiple meetings I have been in recently, but could not seem to find them as I felt somewhat intimidated, maybe because I feel I lack experience or hierarchy??
I have had an absolutely amazing experience the past 6 months working in an inclusive classroom setting where we have 2 teachers and 2 paraprofessionals, students with and without disabilities and a great community of friends working together. I see my students learning from one another every day and it is an amazing place. Of course, the district cut the program and there will no longer be a classroom like the STARS (Students Taking Action and Reaching Success) classroom next school year anywhere in the district.(P.S. the program was cut due to funding).
With that being said, there were multiple meetings and discussions held due to the fact that some of our students have disabilities and they now need to be transitioned out of the STARS classroom where they were meant to stay and grow together for grades K, 1 and 2. These conversations were difficult mostly (I'm just now realizing) because there was no voice from the student or a narrative that any one person in the conversation felt comfortable with. I think your question: "Is disability welcome as a value-added perspective that informs the learning experience and is essential to our lives as a community?" is a very important question and I personally have seen this happen in a classroom because of the inclusive/real world setting this classroom provided to our students.
The community of the school will gain so much from an understanding of ableism, disability, and a shift in the social and medical structures that are relied on all too often when making educational decisions for students.
My only question is how do we reach the funders/big wigs of public education to make this possible? What types of positions do principals need to be hiring in their schools to create this cultural shift? Does the shift start with administration and their views on special education, school community, and inclusion? I think this question about "how we get people to understand the value-added perspective disability brings to the classroom setting and learning experience of a community" is the area I will continue to stress in my philosophy for education.
Best,
Rachael Kelly