Brittany Stanford

EDEX 523
Reflection Paper
April 20, 2015
Coming into this class I feel like I knew very little about students with
disabilities. Growing up, in my school district, students with disabilities were
almost always confined to special education classes so I had very little
contact with them with the exception of seeing them at lunch. Throughout
this semester I have learned so much about students with disabilities that I
hope will make me even more successful as a future educator such as ways
to effectively incorporate students with disabilities into my classroom,
legislation like the ADA, and the importance of disability awareness into my
curriculum, among other things.
To begin, I feel as though I learned a lot about the ADA and other
legislation that pertains to equal rights for those with disabilities. I have
always associated the civil rights movement with African Americans and then
women, completely overpassing the importance the movement had on
Americans with disabilities. The activity we completed that required my
group to investigate and evaluate the accessibility of Wardlaw really taught
me a lot about ADA regulations and the struggles students with disabilities
must encounter when trying to get around our campus. The list of
regulations included the smallest things that I have never thought about
before such as being able to open a classroom door handle if I dont have a
hand or being able to fit through the doorways if I were in a wheelchair. Since
this class, I always take notice of the accessibility of building and classrooms

I go in around campus, noting the inconveniences students with disabilities

might have. In addition, I have a completely new outlook on the significance
of the ADA and other legislation for students with disabilities.
Furthermore, I was surprised to learn how well a lot of this information
can fit into my curriculum as a future high school social studies teacher. In
addition to the legislation, there are several important historical figures and
celebrities that played a role in the in creating equality for individuals with
disabilities. The legislation, as well as the important historical figures could
easily be incorporated into my curriculum as a future high school social
studies teacher. The final masters project I created provided me with several
good lesson plan ideas and made me realize how easily I can teach disability
awareness and sensitivity to my students. For example, learning about the
successes of president Franklin Roosevelt while living the majority of his life
with Polio can serve as a reminder to my students that individuals with
disabilities are just as capable as anyone else. These types of disability
awareness and sensitivity lessons can also be incorporated into other
classes, not just social studies.
Lastly, I was surprised to learn about the opportunities colleges, such
as USC, offer to students with disabilities. For example, the students that
came to talk to our class about Carolina Life and their experiences here really
opened my eyes to how normal and capable students with disabilities truly
are. This, along with some of the TED talks videos we viewed and particular
chapters from our textbook we read, taught me a lot about how to treat

individuals with disabilities. Prior to taking this class, I had never even heard
of disability-first language, however, the necessity of putting the person
first in front of their disability makes so much sense to me now and I intend
on using this in my everyday life as well as in my future classroom.
Moreover, I learned the importance of treating students with disabilities the
same as I treat any other student in my future classroom. One class
discussion we had that really impacted me was when Dr. Pettus discussed
several students with disabilities who got to college and were overwhelmed
with the work load expected of them because their high school teachers
never required them to do the same work as everyone else. If I have a
student with a disability in my high school social studies class, it means that
they are most likely at the same grade level as the rest of the students in my
class. Because of what Ive learned in this class, it will be important for me to
require my students with disabilities do the same amount of work as
everyone else in order to best prepare them for the future.