When I was reading the article "AIM for Digital Equity" by Gayl Bowser and Joy Smiley Zabala, I couldn't help but reflect back on the first time when I had encountered a student with any kind of disability. It wasn't until high school when I saw the special education students in their own designated classroom, and then later in college when students were sent to a different classroom to take their exams (they were allowed more time to complete their exams due to their disability). The first time I had to interact with a deaf person (and no, I don't mean someone who was old and whose hearing was going), I was 16 and didn't have a clue how to communicate with them. I write this response now somewhat irritated at myself; was I really that oblivious all those years before to not notice students in my classes who had a disability of some sort? I guess because I never had fellow classmates with a significant disability such as blindness or deafness, that I never really thought about how they had to adapt to the technologies we have today. This article made me realize that as a future teacher, I will be encountering many different types of students with different needs, which quite honestly I had never thought about.
The AIM, NIMAC, textbook publishers and many other websites listed in the article are all sources to which any teacher can refer to when they have questions on how to cater to students with disabilities. I think that on a personal level I would use one, if not all, of these tools in order to provide accessibility for all digital content that I use in my classroom. Planning ahead and testing the tool, should be the very minimum a teacher should do, but it would be more helpful to ask the student with the disability whether he or she feels comfortable with the tool or if there are any needed adjustments. One of the methods of providing accessibility which I really liked from the article was the option of asking textbook publishers for tools which specifically cater to students with a hearing disability or vision impairment. If any textbook publisher should not provide me with a speaker (a feature which reads the text to the student), a great solution would be to involve other students and have them read the text and record it for their fellow classmate. It's one thing to point out a student with a disability, and it's another to be aware and try to accommodate them. I think if I had a hearing student for example, compared and contrasted his or her notes with a deaf student's notes, it would be beneficial for both students because by interacting with each other, they would both learn new communication skills.
One of the reasons why I have decided to become an educator was because I am a firm believer that through education and awareness, we become a better society. I look forward to teaching any student with any kind of disability and learning about them.
I appreciate your personal take on this. Reflecting on personal experience is a great way for teachers to grow and I hope to take a page out of your book in regards to this. I strongly agree with your philosophy and reason for becoming a teacher. Education and awareness is the ONLY way we can better society. I also like your scientific way of thinking when you talk of comparing individual's notes to learn about your students and their disabilities. Overall, a well written and worth while blog post.
ReplyDeleteI can relate to your irritated feeling of, "Was I that closed off from the world, that I couldn't recognize the difficulties?" But in high school it is "all about me". So you tend to close out anything that doesn't immediately affect you. Even when working in classrooms, I haven't had too much exposure to persons with disabilities in the classroom. My brother has high functioning autism (formerly known as Asperger's Syndrome), my uncle has Downs Syndrome, and my cousin was born with many birth defects including deafness. However, I have never experienced these in a classroom. On a side note, after my baby cousin was born, I felt that as teachers, we should learn sign language. At least basic school sign language. It's offsetting for a translator to be the person in the classroom and talking with the student. Because the student does not go to you for help, because they cannot communicate as well with you. But as their teacher, I would feel obligated to educate myself, and my other students, about how they can talk and help their fellow students who have a disability like that. Instead of putting them in another classroom, they should stay integrated. Because that way, what happened to us does not happen with our future students. They aren't separated and different. They are friends who need some extra help, and they should be open to helping them. Not sectioning them off.
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