@disabilityinsight

📣Disabled students can go to school and it can be normal📣 Sharing again: As a continuation of my last post, I of course had to elaborate a little on the very detrimental, very common usage of disabled students as general inspiration porn. How many times have you seen those viral videos go around social media where a disabled student is lovingly selected for the school’s football team, or we watch a disabled student bravely make a graduation speech? I can’t be the only one who cringes at these. I find these videos to be incredibly ironic, convenient. The reality is that the average American is far more exposed to these inspiration porn videos than awareness to the inaccessibility, the lack of inclusion, and the bullying often experienced by the average disabled student. These videos give Americans an excuse to peacefully rest their heads at night with the false assurance that our school system offer the upmost education to our “special” population. “Everything’s fine” we tell ourselves while we watch a heartfelt video of a disabled student (miraculously!) walking across the stage at graduation while the flames of accommodation denial and abuse the student endured trails behind them for the rest of their life. Not all disabled students have bad school experiences - which is wonderful - but all deserve authentic and positive experiences. Disabled students don’t exist to inspire you. They don’t deserve friends who use them for attention, or a coach who pats their head and calls them a good boy just to make the local news. They deserve activities that are rethought and reinvented so they can be as involved as possible. They deserve friends who like them for who they truly are. Don’t let the inspiration porn created of disabled students distract you from the work that needs to be done for them. (ID in comments) Hashtags #DisabilityInsight #DisabilityAlly #DisabilityAdvocate #DisabilityAdvocacy #Ally #Advocate #DisabilityInclusion #DisabilityAwareness #Ableism #AbleismExists #AbleismAwareness #DisabledStudent #SpecialEducation #SpecialNeeds #Disability #Disabled #DisabilityJustice #DisabilityRights #Accessibility #DisabilityStudies