Year: 2005
Type: article
Abstract: : In the following essay, I explain how my experience as an included student with cerebral palsy influenced my identity as an individual with disabilities. I also outline how my discovery of disability studies has influenced my role as a teacher, educator, and researcher in special education. Key Words: disability, identity, inclusion Since the age of two, I have been in some type of educational setting. Like countless other parents of children with cerebral palsy, doctors told my parents that I likely had severe mental retardation, that I would never walk, talk, or write my name, and they should consider an institutional placement. Thankfully, my parents rejected this negative approach. However, they did believe that getting as much therapy as possible was best, and the best place to receive therapy at that time was in a preschool for children with disabilities. Therefore, my first stop on the “road of knowledge ” was a preschool for “crippled ” children. Not Like “Them” Most of the other preschoolers had mental retardation, and even at that young age, I recognized that I was different from them. Somehow, I also recognized the negative stigma attached to mental retardation and did everything I could to distinguish myself from “those ” kids. With the speech and
Authors: G. Denise Lance, Ph. D
Institution: University of Kansas
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W2164749706