Concluding Remarks

Critical disability studies is a significant framework, which can be used to improve the educational lives of people with disabilities. The information provided through this blog highlights how CDS was applied to different experiences faced by people with disabilities, which allowed for appropriate solutions to be produced.

For example, CDS emphasises how the dominant medicalised model of disability has resulted in a lack of financial resources towards education, how there is a need for the inclusion of people with disabilities within schools, and indicates that it is essential for each case of disability to be considered as unique as it allows for appropriate solutions to be discovered.

However, CDS is only a framework and there is a need for the theory developed through CDS to be implemented and put into practice. This will involve extensive discussions between those who face the lived experiences of disability and those in positions of power, and such discussions should result in policy reform which will ensure the inclusion of people with disabilities within the educational system.

Applying CDS to Education

CDS has allowed for the support for children with a disability in schools to grow. Education must be inclusive for children with a disability to be included and to have a fully equal society.

The 2016 Budget has allowed for an increase in education spending but this is not as much as Labour’s Gonski reforms would have allowed. “The Coalition has said it will give $1.2 billion for needs-based school funding between 2018-2020.” According to Glenn Savage of Melbourne University this falls more than three billion dollars short of Labors Gonski reforms. Savage believes that this “need-based” funding will be in regards to systematic reform such as standardised testing and changes in numeracy and literacy. In the same article John Fischetti says that “The $1.2 billion for targeted school interventions linked to test scores is no more than a rollback of Gonski reforms and a major setback for equity funding for Australian children with any learning differences.”

This video from the NSW Department of Education shows the difference specialised funding can make, usually when money is designated to a certain department it is for a specific need, by allowing the school to put money to where its own community needs it makes for a more productive learning environment.

The CDS has allowed for a more inclusive environment at schools, this can be seen in the example of Scarlett, whose application to a school was not taken into serious consideration because of her disability. Her family would not have won the case if there had not been any discussion surrounding equality amongst students. According to Commissioner Innes, “the greatest barriers which people with a disability face in our community are the negative assumptions made about them by other members of the community.” CDS allows for the emphasis to be placed on the student and their own unique situation rather than a universal solution, one major issue faced however is the emphasis placed on the disability rather than the students by universities when training teachers. 

According to Roger Slee there is an emphasis in teacher education to focus on the disability rather than the student, and future teachers are taught ways to ‘handle’ students with a disability. This Slee says continues the cycle of special schools and exclusion in the school system. With emphasis placed on the disability rather than the student educators can forget that the different situations surrounding each student will affect the way the learn and as such affect their ability to be part of the classroom environment. 

According to the Australian Human Rights commission, there are very few schools that are accessible to a student with a disability and if any changes were to be made it would be a huge cost. Another issue is the ability to get to school, and the lack of accessibility on public transport and private transport is not always an option due to the expense. This means that not only is it hard to be in the school environment it is also difficult to get there. 

In this video a mother (Stephanie) explains the issues faced by her sons with a disability in a school. There are issues in the playground and schools. Stephanie believes that it is vital for schools to integrate children not make special programs for those who have a disability. Integration allows for inclusion and acceptance.

While CDS does have an impact, it is failing in that it has allowed the government to forgo billions of dollars in school spending that could have been used for structural, and environmental change to benefit those students who are being neglected by the currently existing system. The CDS has also failed to install changes in the education of teachers regarding the ways in which they can approach students with various forms of disability because the current educational policy is built around the medical model and therefore limits the ways in which care and assistance can be offered to the students in the learning environment.

Even though CDS has failed in these situations it does have the ability to create change, it can encourage the government to once again give more funding to schools to make them more accessible and create change surrounding the education of teachers. This could be achieved through smaller classes to put less pressure on individual teachers who are struggling to cope with class sizes and student differences, different presentations of information for different students as few learn the same way, and community engagement in the application of government funding. By allowing schools to choose where their funding is spent rather than a detached governmental department deciding where to spend it, more allowances can be made so that all students receive an equal opportunity to learn.

Critical Disability Studies

“Critical disability studies start with disability but never end with it: disability is the space from which to think through a host of political, theoretical and practical issues that are relevant to all.”

Dan Goodley, 632. Dis/entangling Critical Disability Studies

Critical Disability Studies (CDS) is a form of understanding disability that prioritises the recognition of disability as an aspect of society and seeks to both promote awareness of the experiences of people with disability and to create a better understanding of disability to allow for social change. CDS works to critique the normative practises, beliefs and assumptions of disability and is critical of the medical discourses that have influenced the medicalised model of disability and contributed to the marginalisation of people with disabilities.

It places the importance of the discussion in the space where the ideas of physical impairment and the social construct of disability interact; which is the body of the individual who has been marginalised or disadvantaged by the perception or physicality of disability. The intention here is to reclaim the social identities of people with the lived experience of disability, also attempting to establish a connection between disability studies and practical life experiences. CDS values the voice of the individual, and encourages those who do live with disability to speak up and speak for themselves. Therefore, in CDS the lived experience of the people with disability over the knowledge of those who are perceived as experts but who only understand the issues from an academic standpoint.

In addition, CDS fights against the notion of othering that puts people with disability into a space where they are no longer viewed as a sentient, intelligent being. Rather, they are framed as a person who is defined entirely by the ways in which their experiences, those of impairment and disability, make them different from the social perception of the able-bodied individual. This is a harmful attitude that places the perceived 'normal' vs the 'other' who is abnormal and therefore cannot be approached with the same level of understanding.

CDS has been criticised for being too focused on the theory and too unconcerned with practical application. Implementing practical action is made difficult by the fact that many social practises and education policies are already built on the medical model of disability, but it is possible to build policies upon CDS. The current social realities of people with disability, even though there is more of a discussion surrounding the issues, are still tied in with marginalisation and discrimination.

Introduction

This blog is an attempt by three University students from Australia to provide a coherent explanation of Critical Disability Studies, and how it can highlight the discrepancies in the education system for people living with disability, as well as impact and potentially improve the policies that are failing them. We have put together a description of Critical Disability Studies in order for people to understand the theories of the model, as well as outlined some recent socio-economic developments in Australia that directly affect people with disability.

• Critical Disability Studies
• Addressing Education with CDS
• Concluding Remarks