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I realized I never talked about teaching and disability the other day, so let's do that. I have a short story, and then I want to ask you about what teachers and professors can do to best serve disabled students. 1/
I worked as a TA for 3 years before having my own class, and I never really dealt with accommodations during that time. A couple of days before my first class, DSS contacted me to tell me I had a student a hearing disability, and they would need a volunteer notetaker. 2/
I wanted to make sure and do right by this student so I made the announcement the first day. I was not prepared for the class to respond with an "aww," but now I know how to shut that down before it starts. Disability is not something to be pitied. 3/
I asked the class to email me if they wanted to be a note taker in exchange for extra credit. After class I checked my email and the first student to respond was the one I was asked to provide a note taker for. I was not prepared for this. 4/
So I had to email them and inform them of the situation and they were pissed. They didn't want their disabilities disclosed to their professors, they didn't want to be defined by their condition. They were afraid profs would treat them differently. 5/
All they wanted was a fire alarm for their dorm that flashed so they wouldn't die if there was a fire. That's it. As the semester went on DSS decided they needed to provide a professional note taker. So all of a sudden, they had 3 people taking notes for them. 6/
This changed their behavior in class. They went from being highly engaged and taking detailed notes every class to playing in their phone and skipping class. Their note taker decided to comment on the students lack of commitment to me one day and I almost lost it. 7/
Of course their commitment dropped. Instead of helping this student, the system made them believe they were less than. That they couldn't do it on their own. They also completely undercut the student's autonomy. 8/
I should also note that this isn't the only time I've had someone assigned to help disabled students describe them as lazy. There's a lot of abelism in the people who make their living working with disabled students, and that's not okay. 9/
I wish I had been better at advocating for the student. I did ask them to write about the experience for extra credit since I couldn't deny them the note taking ec I originally offered. Their essay is the foundation of how I approach disabilities in the classroom today. 10/10
