As I talked
about in my previous blog, it’s very hard for families to take care of children
with disabilities when they are already living in poverty since it’s very
costly to keep up with, but what about those children who have a disability and
attending school. They have even more challenges to face because of the costs
and struggles they face getting to and from school. It’s great though that they
are able to attend school and get adequate education that they deserve and are
entitled too, but how easy is it for them to access the help that they should
be able to get.
Fortunately
there are technologies out there that people can use to assist them when trying
to learn and attend school with a disability. “To Ensure that disabled students
can engage, they require adequate assistive technology.”(Hanafin, 2007). But
it’s sad to see that these students can’t always get the help and technologies
that they need. “Students with disabilities … are evaluated by schools to
determine whether they are eligible for special education services and, if
eligible, … which ones.” (Reschly, 1996). As an example we see that some of the
people who needed to get notes from class printed off for them weren’t able to
get them since the professor thought that they would then just go and pass on
the notes to their fellow class mates. (Hanafin,2007). How is this sort of
thing helping the students with disabilities strive for a better education?
When
looking into this issue we can view it from a socialist or Marxist ideology we
can see that they value freedom, collectivism and equality. This means that the
people that follow this type of ideologies thinks that everyone should deserve
freedom, so anyone would be able to attend school, including people with
disabilities. They believe in collectivism which is basically a term that
explains that idea that people need to rely on other people to live and get by
with different everyday things. This really relates to my topic. People with
disabilities need help (for the most part) from other people. They need
assistance with mobilization, talking, hearing, reading, walking, etc. all things
that would affect a person’s learning. With saying that they also believe in
equality and that includes equality of people with disabilities, so these
people with disabilities should be treated with respect and given the aid they need
to attend school as much as another person who did not suffer from a
disability.
Although
we are doing what we can to make it possible for disabled students to attend
and do well in school, I don’t think enough is being done. These people are
facing an everyday struggle and now they want to attend school on top of that.
That takes a lot of courage and strength which I idol. They are just as
deserving of schooling as anyone else so why are there restrictions on the help
that they can get? It just doesn’t make sense to me.
By: Chelsea L
The Education Act includes provisions to address the needs of students with disabilities who have been identified as “exceptional pupils”. School boards must provide special education programs and services to these students. (Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2001, SO 2001, c 32)
ReplyDeleteEven though this law is in place money is still needed to provide these services to "exceptional pupils" to put them on an equal playing ground with others.
For this law to be fully enacted it needs support from both Federal and Provincial governments. This will ensure that anyone who is identified with a disability will obtain the required services needed to be succesful in school and the workforce.
Jen M