Blog Post#5: Ability/ Disability
Our last class session began with an APA lesson plan through a power point by Julian. I thought it was good material to know but it went too fast to really write anything down. However, he did say he would email the power point, which would be good to have and very useful. Afterwards, we continued to discussion and summary of the article by Jenkins. I thought the article was fairly easy to understand but summarizing in class provided clarity. We then discussed the similarities and differences between Hurtado’s article and Torres’. I had already done so in my blog post so it was a refresher as well as a chance to think about other similarities and differences I didn’t before class. The activity that I enjoyed the most was answering questions regarding the two articles relating to our experiences, first in small groups, then as a class round robin style. I enjoyed it because it gave me a chance to get to know other students who I hadn’t gotten a chance to talk to much before. I was able to put myself in their perspective. My small group was an interesting dynamic because only one of us truly understood the Latino/a experience, but nonetheless I feel like I learned a lot and enjoyed simply making small talk with each other. It is always a pleasure to hear everything that the students in class have to say.
The new readings assigned were about Abilities/Disabilities and how they relate to diversity, especially on college campuses. I have become increasingly aware of this topic on college campuses due to the various changes they have made, such as being able to open doors by pressing a button or the “Accommodations for Students with Disabilities” section on class syllabi. Although I have seen the changes made on campus I didn’t realize the struggles in depth that students with disabilities might face in the college campus setting. Although many achievements have been made so far, as mentioned in the article by Bryan and Myers, there are still more needed. I believe that, in order to make changes, other students and faculty do need to understand more fully the various types of disabilities and what can be done to accommodate everyone. The articles clarified some of those things for me and I liked to be able to learn about personal experiences in the article “What Do Disabilities Have to Do with Diversity?” I was already aware that certain students are treated differently, in fact everyone is treated differently, but I hadn’t thought much about the topic of Ableism. The article on Ableism made me realize the ways that people with disabilities have been oppressed. This topic was never discussed in schooling growing up. In a way I feel as though it was pushed under the rug. I have been around plenty of people with disabilities, physical and intellectual, and I wish there was a way to educate every one of what they go through and how we can make college a more welcoming environment. That being said, I truly enjoyed reading the articles this week.
I chose this image because it provides an overall view of disabilities and what can be done to accommodate everyone. For me this image helped me understand the various disabilities and encompassed the idea that I had been unaware of the ideas expressed in the readings.
