Do you include 'disability' within your teaching materials?

Today, December 3rd 2023, is International Day of People with Disabilities.?

This is an important day for us all. It is a day to celebrate the achievements, and to promote the rights and well-being of people with disabilities. It is also a day when the World Health Organisation joins partners around the world in calling for action to achieve the UN sustainable development goals for, with, and by persons with disabilities.?

The Equality Act (2010) defines disability as:

“…a physical or mental impairment that has a substantial and long-term negative effect on their ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities.”

And according to the Office for National Statistics in the most recent (2021) Census of England and Wales, 17.8% of the population - 10.4 million people - are disabled. That’s almost one person in every five.

?In fact, the disabled are the world’s largest minority group. This is important for us to consider, because people with disabilities often feel they are struggling to be ‘seen’. The impact for us, as educators, is that we may not fully be representing disability in the materials we use with our children.?

Therefore, I thought I’d share four diverse examples around this theme with you, in order to highlight the ways in which they can help us to support a growing positive diversity awareness in our young children.

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Firstly, Rob Burrow, the former rugby league player living with Motor Neurone disease (which affects the brain and nerves and inhibits the ability to speak in some cases), has recorded a CBeebies bedtime story - ‘Tilda Tries again’. In order to deliver the story, he used an eye-controlled computer-voice, complete with a Yorkshire accent. He is the first person to read a story to children on the BBC in this way.?

This example acknowledges the importance of both role-modelling and representation when it comes to young children. The more opportunities to be exposed to the rich variety of differences in the people around them, the more chance they have to grow up understanding and accepting that differences are just that - they don’t make another person better or worse in any way, they just make them different. This is a message that stands repeating regularly.

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Secondly, do you know about the Sunflower-lanyard? This is an initiative that was introduced at Gatwick airport in 2016 and has now grown to include other airports and transport hubs in the UK, along with two big supermarket chains. The lanyard is green in colour, and it is decorated with pictures of sunflowers.?

This lanyard is a discreet way of demonstrating that an individual has some invisible disability/ies. It’s often the case that someone doesn’t want to draw attention to themselves in public areas, but they are aware they may be likely to need a little more help than others in certain situations. Wearing a lanyard is a way of signifying to trained staff that this person may possibly need a little extra help and support.?

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Thirdly, the ‘purple light up’ hashtag (#PurpleLightUp) is gaining traction around the world in offices and workplaces. Its aim is to celebrate and draw attention to the economic contribution of the 386 million disabled employees around the world. It is doing so by colouring its resources and buildings in the colour purple around this time of year.?

It’s a visual reminder to others of not only the needs but also the benefits of being truly inclusive. Often, organisations tend to use the attitude of: ‘this is how we do things here’, rather than thinking about the best ways in which to accommodate individuals with broad differences. They need to be reminded to ask the really valuable questions, such as ‘how can we support you?’ or ‘how can we make it better for you?’.

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And finally, there is a growing awareness of the need to adopt ‘people first’ language. This movement encourages us to use respectful grammar when describing others. Instead of referring to someone as ‘a diabetic’ or ‘an addict’, we could choose to reframe our language to say ‘a person with diabetes’ or ‘a person with a substance use disorder’.?

As you may know, ‘respectful language’ is one of my soapbox topics. Simply, how do we expect to receive respect from others, if we don’t show them any through the words and language we choose to use when we’re interacting with them??

‘People first’ language is exactly this. Basically, we need to acknowledge the person themselves first, and then their ‘trait’ second. By doing so, the ‘trait’ doesn’t then identify the person. The trait might be a transitory condition, whereas the person themselves are ‘permanent’.?

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So how are these four examples connected?

I believe they may help us to reconsider the ways in which we think about disability. For example;

Rob exemplifies the transient nature of disability (-he hasn’t always been a person with MND)

The Sunflower lanyard reminds us that many disabilities are invisible

#PurpleLightUp encourages us to think more carefully about our own inclusive practices, and

‘People first’ language demonstrates the subtleties of meaning in the language we choose to use

These examples can be turned into actionable learning for us all so simply. Just by taking the time to think a little more deeply about our own approaches to the term ‘disability’, we can start to make a difference. It has certainly made me stop and think a little more.?

I am going to work harder at finding more representative examples to use with my young learners. I am going to remember that disability is often invisible to me, and therefore, I need to be less judgemental and a little bit kinder. I’m going to be more vigilant in my own, approach to inclusivity. Instead of thinking ‘I know best’ when interacting with others, I’ll ask them the ‘how to’ questions. And finally, i am going to be more careful in the language choices I make.?

Those are my resolutions for all my tomorrows. What are yours going to be?