As a society we judge people based on their looks- it is not something many people will outwardly admit to doing, but I want you to be honest as I ask you to think about the judgements you make when you see a person with autism, down syndrome, or another "disability".
What assumptions are you making right now as you look at this picture? Are you making assumptions about her abilities? Her IQ? Her social interactions? What are you presuming her level of competence is?
The woman in the picture is Susie Rubin, she will be 35 this May, she has her own place (although with the assistance of 24 hour care), she has an I.Q of over 130, she graduated high school with honours, she is attending college and she travels around the country doing presentations and keynote addresses on autism/special education.
Due to her limited expressive and receptive language, at the age of 13 she was still testing at an approximate age of two and a half years. She may not have graduated with honours or lived in her own place if it was not for the fact that at age 13 she was introduced and able to communicate through Facilitated Communication, a method of typing out her thoughts. Sue, and many others such as Carly Fleischman and Amanda Baggs, are why we need to presume competence in our students/children and must strive to provide a variety of opportunities for them to communicate/demonstrate their knowledge to us. It is imperative that we presume some level of competency and provide accessible assessments to all students.
We do not want EPAs, assistants, parents and teachers doing things for a student if they are capable themselves; we want to teach them to become as independent as possible. This is where the universal design for learning comes in. It is our goal as educators to provide access to appropriate learning opportunities for all students. There are many tools that can help achieve this goal (many of them are Apple based as they are the most accessible products). This course will introduce me to a variety of them that I will then highlight on this Blog, along with my own personal research.
The woman in the picture is Susie Rubin, she will be 35 this May, she has her own place (although with the assistance of 24 hour care), she has an I.Q of over 130, she graduated high school with honours, she is attending college and she travels around the country doing presentations and keynote addresses on autism/special education.
Due to her limited expressive and receptive language, at the age of 13 she was still testing at an approximate age of two and a half years. She may not have graduated with honours or lived in her own place if it was not for the fact that at age 13 she was introduced and able to communicate through Facilitated Communication, a method of typing out her thoughts. Sue, and many others such as Carly Fleischman and Amanda Baggs, are why we need to presume competence in our students/children and must strive to provide a variety of opportunities for them to communicate/demonstrate their knowledge to us. It is imperative that we presume some level of competency and provide accessible assessments to all students.
We do not want EPAs, assistants, parents and teachers doing things for a student if they are capable themselves; we want to teach them to become as independent as possible. This is where the universal design for learning comes in. It is our goal as educators to provide access to appropriate learning opportunities for all students. There are many tools that can help achieve this goal (many of them are Apple based as they are the most accessible products). This course will introduce me to a variety of them that I will then highlight on this Blog, along with my own personal research.
Besides highlighting the many accessibility features of Apple products (see links section of this Blog for more information), we explored the app called imovie. The entire class was able to figure out how to download and use existing pictures from the camera reel and put together a trailer movie in under 45 min. If we can master this it in that amount of time it wouldn't take much longer to teach a class (for that matter it may even be less time as some students may already have experience with it). This app can be used in elementary, Jr. & Sr. High classrooms and in all subjects areas. In L.A groups of/individual student(s) could do a book talk, character sketch, compare/contrast of novels, or act out a section of the text. In math theories could be explained, demonstration of how to do an operation, or real life examples of where we use math concepts can be highlighted. In other subject areas it can be used to highlight important dates/events etc. The possibilities are limitless- just allow students and yourself to use your imagination!
Here is the video Nancy and I made. It is our first attempt at using the imovie app.- Assisitive Tech. Saves The Day! It was so much fun!
Here is a video tutorial on how to use imovie:
imovie app link if you would like to download it:  |
Hi Tarah,
ReplyDeleteLove the post. Very powerful read. I too agree that we have to avoid prejudging people based on looks and 'perceived' ability. The idea of presuming competence is so important when working with students with special needs. Often times we presume incompetence based on a diagnosis where it may just be an issue with access and being able to 'output' information for us to understand. Stories like the ladies you mentioned (Rubin, Fleischman, and Baggs) are inspirational for our field and a wake up call for many educators.
-Gillian Costelo