(Reposted from ED.gov: http://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/department-education-issues-guidance-rights-students-disabilities-when-education)

May 26, 2011

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Today, the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights (OCR) issued guidance through Dear Colleague Letters to elementary and secondary schools and institutions of higher education along with a Frequently Asked Questions document on the legal obligation to provide students with disabilities an equal opportunity to enjoy the benefits of technology. This guidance is a critical step in the Department's ongoing efforts to ensure that students with disabilities receive equal access to the educational benefits and services provided by their schools, colleges and universities. All students, including those with disabilities, must have the tools needed to obtain a world-class education that prepares them for success in college and careers.

Until recently I was (admittedly) still pleasantly duped into believing that “Artie” the disabled character on Glee might in fact be a disabled actor. (I have to say I never bothered to find out though.) But Kevin McHale is only “confined” to a wheelchair while acting on Glee. And not always then. I learned this while in the middle of watching the “Dream On” episode. When I saw McHale get out of his chair and dance around on his legs on camera, I was pretty horrified. In our television dreams, disability isn’t real! Blech. 

I was also pretty disappointed about Hollywood’s “inability” to find and cast a disable actor, but that's nothing new. The misconception that it is harder to find good disabled actors is stronger than with any other minority group. Well, duh, if your definition of good acting means less disabled.

This is the most aggravating and terrifying part of casting able-bodied actors to play disabled roles. When Kevin McHale says that he’s proud of his character, that “Artie” helps viewers “see past disability”, what exactly does he want them to see? Less icky, messy disability?

Just two decades ago the word “institution” was synonymous with the physical structures that still house many of our institutions. Today most of these same institutions also live online and a growing number are only available to us through the virtual world. This means that often our first encounter as well as the daily, ongoing business we conduct with institutions happens all while in front of a computer. For people with disabilities that has meant new barriers, but also new lessons for how to build an accessible Internet. That’s why it's such good news that the Department of Justice (DOJ) is finally considering regulations to help enforce the Americans with Disabilities Act in this brave new electronic world.

Still, the DOJ probably won't get it all right without the input of people with disabilities. Their own site is problematic in several key ways - for starters, the contrast of much of the text with the background is extremely low. Also, you have to navigate through a link at the bottom of the page that is in a really tiny font to get to another page concerning “Accessibility”. Once there, the new page offers no information, save for an email address to which questions can be addressed. Why isn’t there more information here?

I am disabled and proud. I have a doctorate and two daughters. I live in a nice condo with my partner. I’m retired and volunteer regularly in my community. People come to me for help. I rarely worry anymore about others’ attitudes toward my impairment; they’ve probably got it wrong anyway.

Some might say I’ve overcome my disability. But that implies that having had polio is the cause of all my problems, which is far from the truth. I can say that I have overcome a personal history of internalized shame about my body, beginning with my parents who, so deeply rooted in their religious views, believed me to be a child and a martyr for God well into my twenties. In fact, I have overcome a great number of bigoted attitudes that conflated my polio with who I am on every level and what I may or may not be capable of. Like many people, I have overcome prejudice.

Truly, we live in a world with a vast array of wrong-headed ideas about each other and often experience our lives in isolation. It was not until I found community through the Independent Living Movement here in the United States that I learned how to survive and even thrive in a prejudiced world. Deborah Cunningham, also a polio survivor, helped me begin to see that having a disability did not make me a second class citizen, someone with little or no value to society. In fact, given the right resources, I contribute in meaningful ways wherever I go.

One of our primary goals, in fact, by introducing this blog is to help write a history that has gone too long unrecorded and to help give voice to a large number of people who have been too long silenced.