The Voiceless Minority

One of the biggest misconceptions about disability is that just because one has a disability, one cannot learn. Pieces of legislation in recent history, such as the Individuals with Disabilities Education (IDEA) and the Individualized Education Program (IEP), have mitigated this misconception to a degree but are they enough to break the glass ceiling that society has imposed on disabled individuals as a result of what they have been taught about disabilities in the first place? The term ‘glass ceiling’ is typically used in business settings, and it refers to the final position an individual reaches beyond which they are unable to advance despite having qualifications that make them eligible for higher-level positions. To be clear, this has to do with bias that exists in those environments, not necessarily the policies that are in place. However, for this piece, I will use it about those who have disabilities that have been, or are currently being, educationally stunted by those around ...

Disability pioneer Judy Heumann passed away this past weekend. Since my blog focuses on disability related issues I would be doing you my readers a great disservice if I did not write a piece on the late Judy Heumann, without whom this blog may not even exist.  Judith ”Judy” Heumann was born on December 18th 1947 in Philadelphia and raised in Brooklyn. She contracted Polio at the age of two. Fortunately for her, her parents did not subscribe to the popular theory on people with disabilities at the time. When the doctors suggested she be institutionalized because there was “no way she will ever walk” her parents chose not to listen.  Miss Heumann began her advocacy work in the 70’s when she fought the New York board of education over the right to teach in a classroom. She would eventually win the battle and become the first teacher with a disability in New York. Her advocacy efforts would soon reach far beyond New York.  In 1975 Ed Roberts asked Judy to move to California ...

Okay, so usually I don’t write two in a day, but something has been on my mind lately, and the blog I posted earlier wasn’t an original piece of writing. Instead, it was forwarding an inspirational story. So here’s my daily food for thought.        I warn you that this blog may unsettle some, and it may make you uncomfortable. The un-comfortableness will come from the overuse of swear words or a sexual conversation. It might come from looking at “ourselves” (society in general) in the near. Some of you may not like what you see if you are honest with yourself.         I am two and a half weeks away from finishing my Master’s Degree at my school in  Northwestern, Pennsylvania. As I complete this round of my academic work, I am forced to reflect. For the last nineteen years of my life, give or take a semester or two, I have been on the “right path.” We all are required in the end states to enroll in 12 year...