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Alan Holdsworth began lobbying Philadelphia-area school districts to create disability-inclusive curricula in 2009. But the president and founder of the Bensalem, Pennsylvania-based nonprofit Disability Equality in Education realized he had no materials to show anyone.
Holdsworth said over the past few years, the group has developed curriculum and lesson plans that have been vetted and evaluated by people with disabilities.
The goal is not just to teach students about disabilities, but to “challenge the stigma of disability in education” by providing lessons that are respectful of all students in the classroom, Holdsworth said. Holdsworth noted that the group helps teach how to look at disability from a sociological perspective.
“Through education, we’re trying to make sure kids grow up comfortable having those conversations,” Holdsworth says, “so that 20 years from now we’ll have a generation of kids who are going to work in all kinds of professions and change the world.”
Interest in developing disability-inclusive curricula is gradually growing. For example, this year the state of Pennsylvania launched a grant program for public and private schools to create curricula that focus on people with disabilities, including those who have made political, economic and social changes in society.
The benefits of offering disability-inclusive lessons are wide-ranging, including helping students develop empathy, educators in the field say, and there are best practices that teachers and others looking to embark on this journey should consider before developing their own curriculum.
Here are some of the best resources to consider, according to experts.
Show, don’t tell
Holdsworth said the organization’s curriculum doesn’t teach students the specifics of disability, but rather provides the perspective of someone who has experienced it. The materials don’t always directly touch on disability, but they do highlight the experiences of people with disabilities, he said.
“For example, we’re not trying to explain what autism is, but rather to let you know that there are autistic people in your community and how they may be discriminated against,” he said.
For younger students, Holdsworth encourages educators to stock classroom libraries with disability-related books, such as “El Deafo” by CeCe Bell. The graphic novel features CeCe, a young student who goes to school with a hearing aid and imagines herself to have superhero-like hearing abilities. She also recommends “Hello, Goodbye Dog” by Maria Gianferrari, which tells the story of a girl named Zara and her dog, Moose, who trains to be a therapy dog after a series of sneaking into school.
“We’re looking at this from a sociological perspective,” Holdsworth said.
Understanding disability as a social phenomenon
Angela Adler, executive director of the Nora Project, is in favor of treating disability as a social phenomenon in the curriculum. This focus, she points out, helps students think about how to be inclusive and make society more inclusive for everyone.
“We establish that disability is a natural part of the human experience and human diversity,” they said.
The Montgomery, Illinois-based Nora Project was founded seven years ago and focuses on developing disability-inclusive curricula for educators, Adler said. To that end, the group provides educators with lesson plans, social-emotional learning programs, and professional learning opportunities through a fee-for-service model.
Adler said the SEL portion of the nonprofit’s learning model is central to any disability-inclusive curriculum because it’s an approach that builds in skills like inclusion and empathy. The strategy also helps reduce bullying among students because it builds understanding of what students with disabilities go through in their daily lives, they said.
“How it impacts bullying is giving students the tools to understand each other, both with and without disabilities,” Adler said. “It gives students the foundational skills to be able to avoid and circumvent bullying. It helps students understand each other, celebrate similarities and disabilities, and even recognize values and barriers that students without disabilities don’t encounter.”
Just start a conversation
For Jessica McQueston, just starting the conversation is a great way to introduce inclusive curriculum, regardless of what grade level a teacher teaches. One way is to explain to students that they will be sharing classrooms with others who have disabilities, said the assistant professor at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas.
One of McQueston’s favorite ways to introduce disability topics is through books in the classroom, and he encourages educators to make sure the materials they’re already using are inclusive.
“Whether you’re teaching kindergarten or 12th grade, are there books in your curriculum that have at least one character with a disability,” McQueston says, “and consider whether there are authors with disabilities that you could feature.”
McQueston, who calls herself a disability scholar and is also the disability studies director for the Eleanor and Charles Garrett Teacher Education Center at Sam Houston State University, said her favorite author is Patricia Polaco, who struggled to learn to read and write as a child.
McQueston said teachers of subjects such as math and science can also be thoughtful about the materials they use. They can look for people with disabilities who have excelled in those subjects and incorporate books and other materials that mention them into the curriculum.
Another way McQueston suggests bringing disability awareness to the curriculum is to apply adaptive rules to tasks and assignments.
McQueston said she did this when she was an elementary school teacher, handing out different worksheets and papers to her students during the first week of the school year. When students looked around to see what their classmates were doing, the page next to them looked completely different.
McQueston said her goal is to help students understand that each one may get different resources and support in the classroom, but she will make sure everyone gets what they need.
“The reason I did that on purpose was because after these discussions, I wanted them to actually see it working,” she said. “It may be subtle, but it explains that everyone has what they need and they actually put the form into action.”