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Chapter 7: Education of People with DIsabilities

Glossary of Key Terms

Ableism: A set of beliefs or practices that discriminate against or devalue people with disabilities. This can include making jokes at the expense of people with disabilities, failing to ensure accessibility, questioning if someone "actually" has a disability, and treating people with disabilities as if they have deficits that need to be "fixed."

Accommodations: Changes that allow a student to access the curriculum or demonstrate learning in different ways without substantially changing the instructional level or content. Examples include reading directions aloud, providing extended time, or reducing the number of questions while maintaining content coverage.

Assistive Technology: Technology and devices that enable students to achieve in ways that might otherwise be difficult or impossible by helping reduce obstacles. Includes both traditional devices (walkers, wheelchairs) and modern technologies (specialized computer hardware and software).

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD): Not considered a learning disability but can fall under "other health impairments" depending on the degree to which it impacts major life functions such as learning.

Deaf Community: A cultural and linguistic minority group of deaf individuals who share cultural outlooks, values, and use sign language. Particularly fostered by residential schools and institutions like Gallaudet University.

Developmentally Delayed: A term used to describe growth of the brain that is delayed but not permanently arrested, a condition believed to be ameliorated by education.

Difference Principle: John Rawls's concept that any privileges or benefits attached to offices and positions must be open to all under fair equality of opportunity, and any resulting inequalities must provide the greatest benefit to the least advantaged members of society.

Disabilities as Treatable Conditions: The shift from viewing "deviance as willful behavior" to "deviance as a neurological condition," producing a new consciousness that disabilities could be treated through education and intervention rather than punishment or isolation.

Disability Studies: An academic discipline that has emerged over recent decades to develop understanding of the social model of disability and to increase access to civil rights and quality of life for people with disabilities.

Distributive Justice: John Rawls's concept that all social values (liberty, opportunity, wealth, social supports of self-respect) should be distributed equally unless an unequal distribution of one or more such values benefits everyone.

Education for All Handicapped Children Act (Public Law 94-142): Landmark legislation passed by Congress and signed into law on November 29, 1975, requiring free appropriate public education for children with disabilities and establishing key principles including IEPs and the least restrictive environment.

Equal Educational Opportunity: The principle that all persons should have equal access to education regardless of their differences, including disabilities. Supported by philosophers like Kant and Rawls and embedded in American democratic ideals.

Equal Protection of the Laws: A constitutional principle, particularly from the Fourteenth Amendment, that requires states to provide equal access to public schools to all citizens, with compelling reasons required for any exclusions.

Eugenics: A discredited theory combining Mendelian genetics and social Darwinism that promoted the "mentally healthy" and advocated segregating or sterilizing the "unfit." Coined by Sir Francis Galton in the 1880s, it significantly influenced early 20th-century special education practices.

Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE): The right to appropriate educational services at no cost to the student, parent, or guardian. A key provision of IDEA requiring services for all applicable children.

Identity-First Language: Language that places the disability as part of someone's identity (e.g., "autistic person" rather than "person with autism"). Preferred by some within the deaf and autism communities who view their disability as a central part of their identity.

Inclusion: An educational movement that seeks to break down segregation based on disabilities and promote equal access to education in general education classrooms and schools. Refers to students with disabilities having access to the standard curriculum alongside their non-disabled peers.

Individualized Education Program (IEP): A required educational plan for individuals with disabilities ages three to 21 that ensures appropriate educational services designed by a team including the student's parent/guardian, teachers, and relevant specialists. Must include performance assessment, annual goals, and expected duration.

Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA): The 1990 renaming and expansion of PL 94-142, changing "handicapped" to "individuals with disabilities." Has been amended several times, most recently in 2004, while maintaining core provisions like FAPE, IEP, and LRE.

Intelligence Scale: A measurement tool developed by Alfred Binet and Theodore Simon in 1904 to measure varying levels of intellectual disabilities, and by 1908 extended to "normal" children. Became the basis for widespread intelligence testing.

Labels: Terms used to classify and describe people with disabilities. The chapter emphasizes how labels can reinforce prejudices and affect students' sense of self-worth.

Learning Difficulties: Challenges in learning that came under the influence of medicalization in the 20th century. A broader term than learning disabilities, encompassing various obstacles to academic achievement.

Learning Disabilities: A specific classification that emerged in the 1930s-1960s for students with learning disorders not attributable to intellectual disabilities, particularly disorders in language, speech, reading, and communication skills development. Defined as disorders in basic psychological processes.

Least Restrictive Environment (LRE): The legal requirement that students with disabilities be educated with nondisabled peers to the maximum extent possible, with separation from general education only when the nature or severity of the disability requires it.

Mainstreaming: A late 20th-century term for integrating students with disabilities into regular schools and classrooms. Primarily designed for students with the least severe disabilities, though similar to inclusion in its grounding in civil rights and integration goals.

Medical Model of Disability: A view that disabilities are biological deficiencies or medical conditions requiring treatment or cure. This model helped establish special education as separate from general education and dominated early approaches to disability.

Medicalized Theory of Deviance: An intellectual shift viewing what was called "deviance" not as willful behavior requiring coercion but as unintentional behavior requiring treatment or therapy. Profoundly impacted how children with special needs were educated.

Mental Measurement: The use of psychological testing to assess intelligence and mental capabilities. Also called psychological testing, it became prominent in early 20th-century special education through the work of psychologists like Binet, Goddard, and Terman.

Modifications: Changes that substantially alter the curriculum, instructional level, or content for students with disabilities. Must be considered carefully to ensure students are supported to meet the same standards as other students.

Normalization: A concept that originated in Europe and was popularized in the U.S. by Wolf Wolfensberger, intended to help people with mental disabilities achieve a life as close to what was considered normal as possible. Addressed how labels and stereotypes influenced behavior and emphasized physical and social integration.

Oralist Approach: An educational approach for deaf students emphasizing the senses of touch and sight to help students learn to speak, rather than using sign language. Promoted by figures like Alexander Graham Bell and traced back to 16th-century Spain.

Person-First Language: Language that emphasizes the individual before their disability (e.g., "person with autism" rather than "autistic person"). Advocated by the disability rights movement in the 1980s to emphasize individuals' humanity.

Physiological Method: Édouard Séguin's approach to teaching students with intellectual disabilities, involving motor and physical sensory training, language and speech training, and socialization. Based on the belief that intellectual disabilities resulted from developmentally delayed brain growth.

Psychological Testing: See Mental Measurement. The assessment of mental capabilities using standardized instruments, which became prominent in early 20th-century special education.

Respect for Persons: An ethical principle, particularly articulated by Immanuel Kant, that every human is equal in their humanity and each is a personality of absolute worth. Requires treating other persons as ends and never as mere means to ends.

Response to Intervention (RTI): A three-tier model requiring research-validated instructional interventions in core subjects in general education classrooms. Involves screening, targeted interventions, progress monitoring, and increasingly intensive support for students who need it.

Sign Language: A system of communication using hand signs, gestures, and grammatical rules used by deaf individuals. American Sign Language (ASL) was influenced by Laurent Clerc's work and became central to deaf culture and community.

Social Model of Disability: A contemporary view that conceives of disabilities not as biological deficiencies but as individual differences that are only perceived as disabilities because of biases entrenched in society. Contrasts with the medical model.

Universal Design for Learning (UDL): Curriculum and instruction employing multiple ways of presenting subject matter that recognize sensory and cognitive differences among learners. Involves providing multiple means of representation, engagement, and expression to benefit all students, not just those with disabilities.