Technology and Inclusion

Confused, sad, surprised, left out, shocked, embarrassed, lonely …

Today, guest speakers Kaori Lau and Tracy Humphreys gave a presentation on Technology and Inclusion. I found it an inspiring and valuable session.

Introduction

The introductory exercise cleverly put us in the shoes of students that are excluded from activities at school because of a disability. Our cohort expressed feeling confused, sad, surprised, left out, excluded, shocked, embarrassed, lonely and many other negative feelings.

It was a great hook and underscored the importance of designing school communities when everyone is included and VALUED. Tracy pointed out that it is not enough to squeeze people in as an afterthought – spaces need to be built with belonging in mind.

BCEdAccess

Kaori introduced us to BCEdAccess, an organisation that fights for equitable access to education in BC schools, helping students and their families access the support they need.

Kaori suggested that teachers and parents of students with disabilities joining the parent facebook group to find a supportive community:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/BCEdAccess

Who are you?

The activity on intersectional identities was thought-provoking. It made me think about how identity is relative to your surroundings. I have never been conscious of my age before, but as a middle-aged person back at university and surrounded by younger people, it has become a defining part of my identity, at least for now. And one of our professors, who is from overseas, mentioned that she had to adjust to being a “woman of colour” when she moved to Canada – something that she had never been in her home country.

Tracy mentioned the Equity Backpack Project and I found the videos made by a Grade 6 class for this project:

As teacher’s, it is useful to consider that we, our students, their parents, the administration, and other staff, all carry around their own “backpack of identities” and we will only ever know a portion of these.

Accessing support for children in schools

The challenge of accessing support for children was explained. I was somewhat aware of the barriers to public assessments, but it was shocking to hear that the wait for an autism assessment is 80.6 weeks in Sunnyhill in Vancouver, and that a private assessment caost $4000. This puts families in a horrible situation, especially when early intervention is crucial for so many children who need support.

This made me consider that, as a teacher, I need to be equipped with the knowledge to help parents advocate for their children in a system that seems set on delaying the support that they need.

Ableism

This was an interesting part of the presentation. I have a friend who is a wheelchair-user in London, and he once pointed out to me how people would avoid communicating with him, and instead look to me, when we were out and about together. Ridiculous considering that he was older than me, probably smarter (although I’d never admit that to him!), and had a more senior role in the firm we both worked for. His comment stuck with me, as I realized that I probably would have done the same before I knew him. An inbuilt ableism. I didn’t have the word to describe it at the time, but it made me aware of how easily we can act with bias without even realizing it.

I’ll finish by embedding this Ted Talk that I enjoyed. Cheri Blauwet talks about ableism and how it, and other -ism’s, can lead to lowered expectations, something it is crucial that we avoid as teachers.