What is a disability ?

Definitions of disability differ because of differences in attitudes, beliefs, orientation, discipline, and culture (see page 5 -- 6).

Is having a disability necessarily a handicap ?

We learned from the civil rights movements of the 1960s that discrimination and bias can "handicap" groups of individuals, or keep them from participating fully in society (page -6).

How have people with disabilities been treated over

the course of history ?

History of Special Education

Although many Americans believe that special education began in the United States in 1975 with the passage of the national law we now call IDEA, special education actually began over 200 years ago (page 9).

History of Special Education

Itard and Victor (page 10)Edouard Seguin (page 9) -- in 1846 he

published The Moral Treatment, Hygiene, and Education of Idiots and Other Backward Children.

History of Special Education

Negative beliefs about people with disabilities took hold in the first decades of the 20th century. Children without disabilities were now required to attend school under compulsory school attendance laws, but children with disabilities were prevented from attending school. The excuses presented for excluding these children from school or shocking by today's standards. One state Supreme Court justified excluding a young boy with cerebral palsy because he "produces a depressing and nauseating effect upon the teachers and school children" (page 11).

History of Special Education

Table 1.1 Landmark Court Cases (page 13)Table 1.2 Landmark Legislation (page 14)

History of Special Education

In the early 20th century, the job of raising America's consciousness about the problems facing people with disabilities rested primarily with professional organizations, but in the latter part of the century, people with disabilities began to speak on their own behalf (page 19).

History of Special Education

Many volunteer and parent organizations began to organize after World War II (page 19).

People with disabilities have also formed their own advocacy groups, becoming effectively organized during the late 1980s and 1990s (page 19).

Civil Rights Issues

Normalization -- "making available to all persons with disabilities or other handicaps, patterns of life and conditions of everyday living which are as close as possible to or indeed the same as the regular circumstances and ways of life of society" (page 20).

What is special education ?(page 19 -- 23)

What is special education ?(page 19 -- 23)

FAPELRE

Person first language (page 24 -- 25)

People with disabilities expressed some strong feelings about the words and phrases used to describe them (page 24).

Concerns about Special Education (page 26 -- 31)

Solutions ?