Course 1: Creating a Culture of Inclusion

Module 4: Enhancing an Inclusive School Culture for Students with Complex Needs

Removing Ableist Practice

What is Ableism?

Ableism is a form of discrimination that favours able-bodied people. In other words, it does not favour people with disabilities. The suffix “ism” is by definition “to take sides with.” To take someone’s side suggests that there is another side that you do not support. Leah Smith from the Centre for Disability Rights states, “ableism is a set of beliefs or practices that devalue and discriminate against people with physical, intellectual, or psychiatric disabilities and often rest on the assumption that disabled people need to be “fixed” in one way or another.”

How does this apply to supporting students with multiple disabilities and complex needs? Ableist practice and beliefs mean our students are excluded, devalued, and denied the supports needed for success. Inclusion and ableism are polar opposite practices and like polar opposite magnets, they repel each other and cannot occupy the same space. In order to create an inclusive school culture, we must first remove the ableist barriers that stand in the way. How do we remove ableist practice? Let’s start with being able to understand and identify ableism and then we can act to remove it from our school culture.

Ableist Assumptions

Understanding ableism is about knowing the origins of ableism and how it persists. Ableist practice is built on assumptions about individuals with disabilities. These ableist assumptions are influenced by many factors including history, personal experiences, preconceived notions, prejudices, and media influences.

History

• Historical practice and treatment of people with complex needs reminds us that able-bodied people are favoured
• It can be challenging to move away from the way things have always been done

Personal Experiences

• Our personal experiences influence and define what we believe
• Family, friends, events in your life, and choices you have made all shape what your beliefs are

Preconceived Notions

• We are all vulnerable to having preconceived notions about something, especially things we are not familiar with

Prejudices

• Having an opinion or making a judgment about something that you have limited knowledge
• Prejudices, like family heirlooms, can be passed down through generations

Media Influences

• Media provides information that can influence and fuel ableist assumptions
• Media has the potential to perpetuate ableist assumptions through negative stereotypes
• Media also has the power to change perceptions. It is a powerful tool for raising awareness and providing accurate information that can dispel negative attitudes
• Media can play an important role in promoting the rights and dignity of people with disabilities

By focusing on able-bodied individuals, we can inadvertently create physical and attitudinal barriers that maintain ableist assumptions and prevent full membership for all citizens. The physical barriers are generally more obvious and easier to identify than attitudinal barriers. They can be seen, whereas attitudinal barriers are more about what we think. Either way, these barriers, intentional or not, promote exclusion and deny access and membership to people with disabilities.

Physical barriers include buildings, rooms, and transportation that are not wheelchair accessible, elevators without braille keypads or voice information regarding floor, or sidewalks without curb cuts. The invisibility of attitudinal barriers means they are harder to identify, but not less damaging than their physical counterparts. One of the most damaging attitudes regarding disability is the belief that people with disabilities are not capable. An attitude that presumes deficit focuses on what a person cannot do rather than what they can do.

Both physical and attitudinal barriers prevent people with disabilities from participating fully in their communities and can have far reaching impacts including where they can live, work, and play. Given the consequences of ableism, we can see the importance of removing all ableist assumptions and barriers from our school culture.