Disability awareness/rights in schools – how do you feel?

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Comments

  • blondieblue227blondieblue227 Va, USA Posts: 4,509
    Heatherj43 wrote:
    Its a shambles out there for disabled kids.

    It is.
    Knowledge of rights is very important. A person should know rights that pertaining to them, and also other rights.
    For example the ADA is there but I feel is not strong because people don’t know it. or worse yet, claim they didn’t realize it the law. It’s all right there in black and white!
    This can’t make for a strong country.

    I’m very blessed to have had parents and other adults ‘fight’ for my education. I went to a special needs preschool. They saw how smart I was and organized an aide to write for me, then BAM! I was in regular classes.
    I think it may have been where the school system was near to too. Not in a big busy city, near a well known college.
    Hillary Clinton is known for her no child left behind work. I think she started that in the early 80’s. I’m glad she fought hard.

    While I’m glad I was mainstreamed, I sometimes wonder why.
    Why spend so much resourses on me when society as a whole still has their barriers up towards me?
    The kids I went to school with saw me everyday. They were used to me. I was shell shocked when I met the real world. it feels like such a waste in some ways....me in public school.

    So include disability rights in schools. Maybe then people with disabilities won’t be looked at as alien when they go out on their own after graduating school.
    *~Pearl Jam will be blasted from speakers until morale improves~*

  • JeanwahJeanwah Posts: 6,363
    Heatherj43 wrote:
    Its a shambles out there for disabled kids.

    It is.
    Knowledge of rights is very important. A person should know rights that pertaining to them, and also other rights.
    I wish it was easier to know and stay in the know as to the law and my daughter's rights. School's are admittedly stupid about the law for any child with special needs, and until advocates remind them of the law, they carry on like they can do what they want. I just feel a bit in the dark as to what I can and can't demand for.
  • blondieblue227blondieblue227 Va, USA Posts: 4,509
    Maybe you can catch up on the law pertaining to disability and school at your local independent living center. Click here to find yours: http://www.ilru.org/html/publications/d ... index.html

    When you’re not an expert there’s always somebody around that is to ask! :)

    Jeanwah wrote:
    and until advocates remind them of the law, they carry on like they can do what they want.

    i hate people that ingore the law! :x
    in my opinion the disabled community is way too passive when it comes to that.
    I want people with disabilities to riot in the street! And it ain’t happening. :lol:
    *~Pearl Jam will be blasted from speakers until morale improves~*

  • IamMineIamMine Posts: 2,743

    i hate people that ingore the law! :x
    in my opinion the disabled community is way too passive when it comes to that.

    It's holidays, honey....don't get me f**king pissed off!!! ;)

    And it's not an opinion, it's a fact. :x

    I know I know... ((hugs))

    I'll reply more later.... good discussion/information here... keep it up!
    JA: Why do I get the Ticketmaster question?
    EV: It's your band.
    ~Q Magazine


    "Kisses for the glow...kisses for the lease." - BDRII
  • blondieblue227blondieblue227 Va, USA Posts: 4,509
    hehehe
    replace that with:

    **thoughts of sugar plums, sugar plums dancing in your head**
    *~Pearl Jam will be blasted from speakers until morale improves~*

  • blondieblue227blondieblue227 Va, USA Posts: 4,509
    no need to sign in or up to sign this:

    Add History of the Disability Rights Movement to School Curriculum Petition
    to be presented to the US Department of Education
    http://www.gopetition.com/online/33286.html

    I agree this is necessary. People with disabilities are the largest minority group. Disability does not discriminate although, people with disabilities are often discriminated against. An education of disability history and rights would be befeficial to society.
    *~Pearl Jam will be blasted from speakers until morale improves~*

  • IamMineIamMine Posts: 2,743
    signed up!

    thanks! :D

    i will find an article that i think others will find interesting and learn from.... i gotta look for it first! arggh..... local disabled person fighting against the university for denying him to live on the campus because of his disability! jeeez.
    JA: Why do I get the Ticketmaster question?
    EV: It's your band.
    ~Q Magazine


    "Kisses for the glow...kisses for the lease." - BDRII
  • blondieblue227blondieblue227 Va, USA Posts: 4,509
    not surprised.
    i hear about that from time to time.
    or something like the dorms aren't accessible etc.
    *~Pearl Jam will be blasted from speakers until morale improves~*

  • IamMineIamMine Posts: 2,743
    I couldn't find it... someone must have threw away the papers around here. :(

    But, I googled and found a similar story posted on npr:

    http://www.npr.org/templates/story/stor ... =121998657

    Intellectually Disabled Student Wins Dorm Suit

    by Joseph Shapiro
    December 29, 2009

    micah_custom-1-1.jpg
    Micah Fialka-Feldman attends Oakland University, one of many schools and community colleges that are setting up programs for students with Down syndrome.

    Here's one reason Micah Fialka-Feldman wants to live on his college campus, instead of remaining at home with his parents: To get to college in the morning, he takes the public bus near his home, then transfers to a second bus. The trip takes about two hours.

    Fialka-Feldman, 24, attends classes at Oakland University, as part of a program for students like him, with intellectual disabilities. The campus is about 20 miles from where he lives with his parents in Huntington Woods, Mich.

    A few years ago, Fialka-Feldman helped his younger sister Emma move into her dorm room when she went off to college at Mount Holyoke. It gave him another reason to want to live on campus: He thought he was missing out on an important part of college life. But his school said because he was in a special program and not a full-time student, he couldn't live on campus.

    So Micah sued.

    Early yesterday morning, his cell phone rang. It was his lawyer with the news: He had won. "I'm happy and I'm proud," say Fialka-Feldman.

    A U.S. District Court judge in Michigan ruled that Oakland University had discriminated against Fialka-Feldman. The new school term starts Tuesday. And Fialka-Feldman says he hopes to move into his new dorm room by Sunday. He's got his computer, his radio and his bedding ready. He's got the posters he wants to put on the wall, including ones with quotes from civil rights leaders. One says: "A community that excludes one member is not a community at all."

    To live on campus, he says, "means I would have the full college life and ... I could go to Friday night things in the dorm, like Friday night activities like a film night or like a basketball game and going out with friends."

    His father, Rich Feldman, adds: "The judge's decision is a wonderful victory for Micah's dream to live in the dorm and a victory for so many other students and folks with cognitive disabilities. Now it's their right to be fully included in the college dormitory experience."

    A spokesman for the university said officials there have not had time to evaluate the decision. The school can appeal.

    It's pretty common these days for kids with intellectual disabilities like Down syndrome to go to their neighborhood schools and to be mainstreamed with all the other kids. And when these disabled students finish high school, they often want to go to college. In recent years, scores of community colleges and universities have opened special programs and invited students with intellectual disabilities to enroll. Oakland University has been a pioneer in opening up to these students. But the colleges can't always keep up with the rising expectations of disabled students and their parents.

    Fialka-Feldman takes regular classes, and students act as tutors to help him follow along in class and keep up with his homework.

    He has taken classes at Oakland since 2003 and the new term will be his last on campus. "I'm taking a class on public speaking. And a class on persuasion," he says.

    He's already been pretty good at persuasion. In the course of fighting this case, he has spoken twice to the school's board of trustees, and he pressed his case in court. The university's study government voted to support Fialka-Feldman's right to live on campus, and the student body president, Kristin Dayag, was at his side at his court hearing earlier this month.

    "Micah has really found his voice," says his mother, Janice Fialka. She remembers when Micah was 2 or 3, and still didn't speak. "I remember vividly asking the speech therapist, do you think that Micah will ever talk. And she hesitated. And that hesitation, which was probably only four seconds, felt like a lifetime," says Fialka, a social worker who now is a speaker on disability issues. "And basically she was saying, 'We don't know.' And now he's speaking in front of all kinds of people. So this is quite a journey of surprise, and the importance of believing that every person has a gift and should be supported in their dreams."

    A generation ago, parents couldn't dream for their kids with disabilities. Before the 1975 special education law, public schools weren't even required to teach them — and about 1 million then didn't get any education at all.

    Even today, lots of these kids aren't capable of going to college — and for many of them the future remains bleak.

    But Paul Marchand, with the advocacy group The Arc, says parents now have higher expectations. "Parents want the best for their kids. They want their kids to get a job; they want their kids to be as independent as possible. They want society to accept them. They want their kids to be as typical as all the other kids of their age, including going to a college."

    Last year, Congress passed legislation that for the first time makes it possible for people with intellectual disabilities to get federal college loans — even if they're not in a full-time program.
    JA: Why do I get the Ticketmaster question?
    EV: It's your band.
    ~Q Magazine


    "Kisses for the glow...kisses for the lease." - BDRII
  • blondieblue227blondieblue227 Va, USA Posts: 4,509
    that was a great article. thanks for posting it!

    "A community that excludes one member is not a community at all."
    damn fine quote!

    by brother's name is micah too. :) as a kid people would think i was saying michael. no, micah with an A, it's in the bible. i would say. :roll:

    i love to hear stories like this, it means people with disabilities are getting out there and not staying at home. the more 'we' get out and say, 'here i am make room!' the better it'll be for all people with disabilities.
    *~Pearl Jam will be blasted from speakers until morale improves~*

  • IamMineIamMine Posts: 2,743
    that was a great article. thanks for posting it!

    "A community that excludes one member is not a community at all."

    damn fine quote!

    Agreed, that stood out for me too - that was my first thought to bold/quote it when I first read it in the newspaper...but glad you caught that as well! :mrgreen: How true!
    by brother's name is micah too. :) as a kid people would think i was saying michael. no, micah with an A, it's in the bible. i would say. :roll:

    hehehe, cute and unique name - bible or not!
    i love to hear stories like this, it means people with disabilities are getting out there and not staying at home. the more 'we' get out and say, 'here i am make room!' the better it'll be for all people with disabilities.

    me too! happy Saturday! :mrgreen:
    JA: Why do I get the Ticketmaster question?
    EV: It's your band.
    ~Q Magazine


    "Kisses for the glow...kisses for the lease." - BDRII
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