In the article “Confronting Ableism on the Way to Justice,” activist Keith Jones remembers the bias and deficit-based approach he experienced in school: “Being Black and a child with cerebral palsy, or ‘crippled’ as I was called, neither I nor my classmates were expected to put forth any effort to learn. So, little effort was spent on teaching us.” Now, Jones, a leader within the disability rights movement, advocates for disability representation in the broader social justice struggle, including in education because “we can’t have inclusive schools without disability-inclusive spaces and accommodations for learning.”

Slide deck from WEMTA 2022 presentation on how to create a diverse collection, including lots of links to additional resources and an example audit.

Addressing health disparities and cultural sensitivity is considered a crucial skill in the healthcare sector. Adding topics of diversity and inclusion in your class curriculum will bring awareness to health inequities in healthcare systems and talk about ways advocate and create system change.

Spurred by the spectacle of a circus tent outside his Oakland apartment, a disabled filmmaker launches into a meditative journey exploring the history of freakdom, vision, and (in)visibility. Shot from director Reid Davenport's physical perspective - mounted to his wheelchair or handheld - I Didn't See You There serves as a clear rebuke to the norm of disabled people being seen and not heard.

In this multidisciplinary lesson, students examine stereotypes about people with physical disabilities. Using clips from Still Tomorrow, a documentary about Chinese poet Yu Xiuhua, who has cerebral palsy, students will gain awareness of the clues they use to judge people. To better understand Yu’s condition, they’ll conduct research about cerebral palsy and write an “advice blog” addressing stereotypes about people with disabilities. As part of that research, students will consider how they choose what to click on when they do online searches.

This episode of “A World of Difference: Embracing Neurodiversity” explores making reading fundamental for dyslexic students. See how public and private schools in Atlanta and Orlando approach focused remediation. Experts offer tips to support struggling readers at home. And you’ll meet the Winner Twins, a popular sci-fi writing duo, who show learning differences don’t close the book on success.

In this lesson, students explore issues of accessibility as they step into their immediate communities to determine a range of physical barriers to those living with disabilities and conceptualize ways to remove some of those obstacles. The video clips provided with this lesson are from When I Walk, a film by and featuring Jason DaSilva, who has been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS). The documentary chronicles Jason's struggle to adapt to the realities of living with MS while holding on to his personal and creative life. With Jason's body growing weaker, his spirits, and his film, get a boost from his mother's tough love and the support of Alice Cook, who becomes his wife and filmmaking partner. POV offers a lending library of DVDs that you can borrow anytime during the school year — FOR FREE! Get started by joining our Community Network.

While funded programs in Missouri exist to guide families whose teens with disabilities enter young adulthood, families still struggle to find what they need because of barriers such as time, income and paperwork. Kansas City parents say programs are hard to find and systems are confusing. In this episode, families and disability experts outline challenges they face and what they wish existed.