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The task of addressing the historical, political, and social issues pertaining to individuals with disabilities may be somewhat intimidating for many instructors. Without direct work experience or schooling in the area of disabilities, many may feel unprepared to delve into the complex issues surrounding equal access, mainstreaming, and legislation. The purpose of this article is to share a simple classroom activity that allows instructors to expose their students to a "disabling" environment, thus helping to facilitate discussion and reflection about disabilities and, hopefully, to change students' preconceived notions about individuals with disabilities.
I have used this activity in my Elementary Physical Education, Lifespan Motor Development, and women's studies classes. This activity may also be used in any course that includes discussion about disabilities. I must emphasize that this activity does not imply that students will know or feel what it is like to be an individual with a disability (one can never know what it is like to be someone else), nor does it mean to simplify the multifarious nature of disability. Rather, this activity is meant to serve as a tool to help instructors introduce basic concepts and to foster a deeper understanding of disability. Because this activity directly involves the students in the experience, it is imperative that instructors understand that students may have different feelings and reactions to this activity. I address these issues by moving the students quickly through the activity (which usually takes 10 minutes), acknowledging their feelings during the processing period and lecture, and making the activity fun rather than threatening.
I created this class activity after taking the Women with Disabilities graduate course at Texas Woman's University. In that class, I became interested in the Disability Rights Movement and in the Social Model of Disability, especially with regard to disability sport. Disability has traditionally been viewed through the lens of the medical model. According to this view, a disability is caused by a physical or mental impairment. Something is believed to be wrong with the disabled person, and he/she is seen as needing "fixing" in order to fit into the able-bodied world. Conversely, the Social Model of Disability begins with the premise that disability is not an individual problem. In this model, society disables some people by creating physical barriers, by not providing accessible facilities, and by fostering inaccurate, discriminatory notions about individuals with disabilities. The disabled people's movement believes the "cure" does not lie in fixing people; rather, solutions lie in the restructuring of society and the changing of people's negative views of individuals with disabilities.
The Activity Set-Up
The set-up, or the "disabling" of the environment, occurs before the students enter the classroom. I weave a ball of string throughout the classroom so that students must duck under and step over the obstacles as they enter the class and make their way to their seats. As one student described the scene, "When I opened the door to the classroom today, there was a challenge set before us. There was string entwined in and around desk legs, around the podium, etc. The string was high and low." I also rearrange the desks and chairs so that some are facing the wall while others are bunched very close together. Lastly, I prepare an overhead that is projected against a wall, rather than a projector screen, and is set to be very out of focus. The photographs illustrate this classroom arrangement.
As the students make their way into the classroom, they are instructed not to touch the strings and not to rearrange the chairs; they must accommodate to the environment. Acting as though the set-up is nothing out of the ordinary, I proceed with the lecture using the out-of-focus overhead. Rather than stand where I am visible to everyone in the classroom, I sit down on the floor and speak softly to the three to four students who are seated facing the front of the class. As one student noted in her reflection of the experience:
The only open seats were pushed together in the back of the room and I squeezed in, and other people had to move their desks so I could get through. It was very uncomfortable and I was incredibly confused about the whole situation. The teacher started talking to a few students in the room but the rest of us couldn't hear what was being said. The images projected onto the screen were out of focus and I couldn't read them. I was frustrated that I couldn't see from where I was sitting that I couldn't take notes.
In the next two or three minutes, as the majority of the class become somewhat restless and amused with the classroom arrangement I ask them, "Why can't you hear or see me? These students [in the front] are having no problems with this arrangement." They often ask me to adjust the overhead, stand up, and/or speak louder. I suggest to them that the problems are not with the classroom or me but with them as individuals. I suggest that they might need to get glasses or hearing aids and that they need to be fixed, not the classroom. After another two minutes, as they continue to express some frustration and confusion, I begin to ask them for possible solutions to the problem. They suggest that I begin by standing up, talking louder, adjusting the overhead, rearranging the seats and taking away the string.
The Processing
Processing, or reflecting, on the experience begins immediately following the re-establishment of the typical classroom environment and is meant to link their feelings with the topics about to be discussed. Processing the activity comprises the majority of the lesson, lasting approximately 40 minutes for a 60-minute class. The first series of questions posed to the class revolves around their feelings upon entering the classroom, finding their seats, and being told that it was their fault that they could not hear or see the lecture. Most students report feeling helpless and agitated with the change in their familiar surroundings. We then acknowledge their feelings and parallel their experiences to students with a disabilities who have to face such challenges on a daily basis. I provide the example of one student in a wheelchair whose only option was to sit in the far back of a huge lecture room because there was no access/ramp to the front of the class. As one student noted:
By rearranging the classroom setting in an uncomfortable way with chairs backward, tables overturned, overhead information blurry, and teacher voices too soft, we [the students] were able to experience the frustration, anger, and discouragement (and a host of other emotions), that might be experienced by a student with a disability in a non-adapting or inflexible classroom - this was much more effective than simply lecturing on the issue.
After summarizing the general emotional reactions to the activity, I then conduct a lecture focused on the Social and the Medical Models of Disability. I discuss the history of the Disability Rights Movement and the various laws that have been passed to protect individuals with disabilities. I focus a great deal of attention on the stereotypes and negative public views about individuals with disabilities and how these views work to segregate and deny full 'human-ness' to individuals with disabilities. We explore the notion of what is and is not considered "normal" in American society and demonstrate how cultural messages privilege the whole, fully functional, able body. As an example of such bias, I show a short video clip from the 1996 Paralympic Games television coverage that centers on Paralympic swimmer Trisha Zorn. The piece depicts Zorn as someone who deserves pity and suggests that viewers (who are assumed to be able-bodied) should be in awe of her accomplishments because of her visual impairment. As one student summarized the video, "The piece [video] focused on what she could and could not do. When she spoke about herself she made it clear that she isn't suffering from her disability but that she lives with it and knows her own limitations as a human being but doesn't dwell on having a disability." I conclude the class by asking the students to brainstorm possible environmental and attitudinal changes that must be made at both the personal and global levels in order to give individuals with disabilities access to full and equal participation in society. One student noted:
Today we learned about the challenges individuals with disabilities face and how we can make the environment fit them instead of them fitting, or not fitting the environment. We also talked about how teachers should offer respect not pity, and opportunity rather than charity. Assumptions have a lot to do with how we view individuals with disabilities. Signs or emblems that depict individuals with disabilities are affecting our view. Instead of 'fixing' the person to make them 'normal' we need to respect other ways of moving, learning, and living.
Conclusion
According to written student reflections, the "disabling environment" activity has been one of the most meaningful experiences they have had in a classroom setting. Through the participatory experience, they are better able to transfer a 'lived experience' to the theory behind the Social Model of Disability. They are able to share personal experiences (their own or that of a family member) of exclusion or disablement while reflecting on their own biases and stereotypes: "I realize that often times I place pity on these individuals rather than give them the independent respect they deserve." They also begin to see how the world has been tailored to fit the person with a normal, able body:
This was an incredibly valuable experience because there are a lot of things that are taken for granted. I haven't experienced being in an environment that made it nearly impossible to learn. I never had a hard time walking through a door and into a classroom.
Finally, as another student noted, "It made me think about the obstacles that people with disabilities have to go through - the world has been designed to fit our needs, but many times it presents difficulties to people who fall outside the 'norm' - it was most definitely an eye opener."
Posted April 25, 2002
All material appearing in this journal is subject to applicable copyright laws. Publication in this journal in no way indicates the endorsement of the content by the California State University, the Institute for Teaching and Learning, or the Exchanges Editorial Board. ©2002 by "Beez" Lea Ann Schell.
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