Welcome to the first day of our four day series discussing disability awareness and attitudes with LINCS community member, Dr. Margaret Patterson. Dr. Patterson served as the Director of Research at GED Testing Service from 2008 to 2011, and is currently an independent researcher with R-ALLY: Research Allies for Lifelong Learning.
Each day we will focus our conversation around a sub-topic of the larger conversation on disability. We will also highlight recent research in the field of disability studies that will help us to consider important questions for working with adult learners with disabilities. The sub-topics for each day are outlined below, along with the research document that Dr. Patterson will be referencing.
Monday - Disability Awareness: National Disability Authority (Ireland) Literature Review on Attitudes toward Disability
Tuesday - Accommodations Awareness: Issues of Language and Learning: Adult Learner Leadership in Education Services (ALLIES) baseline data
Wednesday - Postsecondary Accommodations: National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) College Students Speak: A Survey Report on Mental Health
Thursday - Specific Issues in Learning and Attainment: Adult Transitions to Learning in the USA: What Do PIAAC Survey Results Tell Us?
In addition to sharing her knowledge of research from the field, Dr. Patterson is looking forward to learning from your personal experiences working with adult learners, across the spectrum of disabilities.
To get us started on today's topic of disability awareness, please take a moment and read the statistics Dr. Patterson highlights below. You can also find the full research document online here, for your reference. Next, consider how these numbers may be reflected in yours, and your learners', experiences.
Please share your responses by adding a comment to this discussion thread. Please include the item number(s) (1-4) you are responding to in your comment. You do not have to reply to each item to share your experiences.
Item 1: In 2001, an initial public survey revealed that about half of those surveyed (48%) knew someone with a disability personally. Do the adult learners you work with know an adult with a disability (perhaps as a friend, neighbor, or relative)? What is their relationship with the individual?
Item 2: The literature review noted a positive relationship between an adult knowing someone with a disability and the adult’s attitudes toward disabilities. Thinking of the adults in your learning center, how do you suppose their awareness of disabilities might relate to their attitudes toward disabilities? If more contact is indeed associated with more positive attitudes toward disabilities, how could adult education centers facilitate that contact?
Item 3: Five year later, the same public survey found that 71% of adults knew someone with a disability, a very large increase. Do you as an adult educator believe your adult learners’ awareness of adults with disabilities is changing, and if so, in what ways?
Item 4: The literature review discusses how people are “socialised into thinking about ‘normal’ and ‘not normal’ categories of people” as children (p. 28), and the split into “normal” or “not normal” may reflect people’s unconscious fears or vulnerabilities when they meet someone with disabilities. Do you agree or disagree that this split really happens? If you agree, what concerns might the split reflect?
We are looking forward to a great discussion with all of you this week. If you have questions, please ask them. If you are experiencing any issues with LINCS, please e-mail me directly at michaelcruse74@gmail.com
Best,
Mike Cruse
Disabilities In Adult Education Moderator
Comments
Good morning, everyone - greetings from DC! It's a pleasure to be part of this series on disabilities awareness and attitudes. Mike and I are really looking forward to your thoughts and comments today and throughout the week.
Today we are focusing on the topic of disabilities awareness. As you think about the four questions we posted, what are your reactions? Eager to hear from you,
Margaret
I should have taken notes about the questions, since I can't see them on this same page, but basically I agree that an awareness lowers our affective filters and helps us relax around others with disabilities. Whether it's a physical disability that helps us understand why a student is often absent, or an educational disability that points us to scaffolding our activities a little more, we do see these students in Adult Education. Maybe not as much in ESL, but it's difficult to separate second language challenges from learning disabilities/problems.
Hi, Dawn -
Thanks for your comments. Tomorrow's topic will include conversation on disability and English Language Learners. Stay tuned for more discussion on the topic!
Mike
Thank you for your comments, saintd! I like your point about awareness helping adults relax around people with disabilities. Could you please elaborate a little more on what you mean about the difficulties of keeping second language challenges separate from learning disabilities? It sounds like you have had some experiences along those lines that might be of interest to others. Appreciate you joining us today,
Margaret
I do have relatives with learning disabilities . This pass semester I have had two adult learners. Both with severe learning impairments. One was 60 years old and the other 25. Both had the mental ability of a 10 year old. I taught them basic math. Counting, money patterns etc. it was very difficult to find materials to help them. I am not a special ed. Teacher. Are there any resources for me to access on my own?
Hi, Gwendolyn -
Thanks for your comments on your experience with students with learning disabilities. One resource you can access through the LINCS Resource Collection is Learning to Achieve: A Professional’s Guide to Educating Adults with Learning Disabilities. The six chapters reinforce relevant characteristics of adults with learning disabilities, matched with descriptions and examples of practical intervention strategies. You can access the full document here.
What other resources do community members suggest?
Mike
Hi, Gwendolyn,
In your post I noticed you mentioned having family with disabilities. Do you think that awareness helped you connect with the two adult learners you mentioned in terms of awareness? In other words, if you had not known about learning challenges already, would that have made teaching them math any more difficult for you than you describe? To follow up on Mike's post (thank you, Mike, for suggesting this LINCS resource), I hope others will recommend resources that Gwendolyn could access as she considers how to help these two learners. Thanks for joining us, Gwendolyn!
Margaret
I have experience with disabilities. I went to college with the needs for a notetaker due to the tremors in my hands. I was asked if I needed help studying or tutoring. I was treated like I had a mental impairment instead of a physical impairment. This was very demeaning to me. I am and intelligent woman and hold three separate degrees, each time graduating with honors.
My husband has a learning disabilility that effects his reading ability. Most of his life he has been told he is stupid becasue of this. I have outlawed the word "stupid" in our house. He is smart and he learns ways other than reading. No big deal. He know more about tractors and their company lineage, about trains, and airplanes than I can ever hope to know. When he tries to teach me about such things, it doesn't stick in my mind. You could say that I am "stupid" in the ways my husband is smart and I tell him that frequently.
Hi, Misschristine, thank you for sharing your and your husband's stories with us. Good for you for keeping the language positive at home! A hallmark of LD is certainly high intelligence. The value of accommodations is in allowing those abilities to shine through. I also hear you mentioning quite a bit of persistence in your post. I'm curious as to how you think persistence has played a role in making accomplishments such as getting a degree?
Margaret
I did not develop my disability until adulthood. I believe that learned helplessness was not a factor as it is with many of the students I work with who have disabilities. I grew up being taught that I can accomplish anything I wanted to if I tried hard enough. As a matter of fact I remember as I child for about a week I decided I wanted to be a professional football player - a quarterback and my parents supported me. When I developed tremors and had to stop nursing, I decided to go into teaching and there was no hesitence. I already had experience with college, so I already knew what to expect and I just went and did it.