Below you will find information on diffferent types of disablities, including history, law and links for additional resources related to each group.
Types of Disabilities:
There are fourteen categories of disability under IDEA legislation. These fourteen categories determine who is eligible for free and appropriate public education under special education law. Disabilities include physical and mental impairments as well as multiple impairments in which a combination of impairments creates special needs that cannot be accommodated through methods used for any one of the impairments. While physical and mental challenges can often be recognized and addressed very early in the education process, cognitive learning disabilities often are not diagnosed until the third or fourth grade as students begin to fail courses due to an insufficient skills set. An RtI (Response to Intervention) is a time tested method to deliver high-quality instruction and intervention based on a child’s needs. Instruction and goals are reassessed and changes based on students’ needs. RtI came to the forefront due to the 2004 reauthorization of the IDEA Act which states that a local education agency may use a process to determine if a child responds to a scientific research-based intervention as part of the evaluation procedures. There is no specific protocol or format that spells out how to conduct an RtI but educators have the ability to test interventions with specific students to determine which intervention(s) are effective in bringing about success.
Sources:
http://www.nichcy.org/disabilities/categories/pages/default.aspx
http://www.nichcy.org/pages/rti.aspx
http://www.iriscenter.com/resources.html
History of Special Education
Treatment of individuals with disabilities was harsh through much of human history. While some periods in history were more kind towards individuals with disabilities than others, there was little if any attempt to rehabilitate individuals to enable inclusion in mainstream society. Following WW1 this attitude began to change in the United States as an attempt was made to rehabilitate soldiers returning with traumatic injuries. Birth was given to the notion that individuals with disabilities possessed the ability to contribute to society given adequate rehabilitation. A social change movement in the 1960’s added momentum to the effort to offer services to individuals with disabilities as for the first time there was a concerted effort to identify and help individuals who were disenfranchised by society. The civil rights movement in the 1960s also contributed to the process of providing services to the disenfranchised in society. Since the 1960s there have been numerous models developed to better understand the process of offering services to individuals. Each model appears to emanate from either the perspective of the disabled or the perspective of caretakers. Each model offers a unique lens with which society can understand and address individuals with disabilities.
Source:
http://www.jik.com/ilarts.html
Law
The Bureau of Education for the Handicapped (now known as the Office of Special Education Programs) was created in 1965 and laws that granted rights to students with disabilities began to emerge during the 1970s. Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and legislation we now know as IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) were two key pieces of legislation. Section 504 requires a level playing field for students meaning changes need to be put in place to enable students with disabilities to participate fully in the education process. Section 504 does not provide funding however making provisions more difficult to enforce. The IDEA legislation applies to a subset of the individuals to whom Section 504 applies. Specifically, IDEA applies to individuals between ages 3-21 who are determined by a multidisciplinary team to qualify within one or more of thirteen specific disability categories and who require special education services. The NCLB (No Child Left Behind) legislation called for all students, including those with disabilities, to be proficient in math and reading by the year 2014. More recently the Race to the Top program within the department of education calls on states to advance reforms around adopting standards and assessments that prepare students to succeed in college and beyond, build data systems that record students growth and success, develop and retain effective teachers, and turn around low performing schools.
Sources:
http://www.wrightslaw.com/advoc/articles/504_IDEA_Rosenfeld.html
http://www.dredf.org/advocacy/comparison.html
http://www2.ed.gov/programs/racetothetop/index.html
Differentiation Strategies
Differentiation is a strategy teachers can employ to alter instruction and assessment methods in ways that align with the strengths and background knowledge of students. Differentiation strategies can include simple things such as anchor activities in which students complete a brief activity to organize and prepare themselves before beginning work, authentic assessments in which students demonstrate skills and competencies that realistically represent situations found in real-world applications and graphic organizers which are used to structure and organize the information being taught. Differentiation strategies can be used to made coursework compelling and engaging as well as to mitigate difficulties ranging from language acquisition to learning disabilities.
Sources:
http://www.members.shaw.ca/priscillatheroux/differentiatingstrategies.html
http://www.kinnelonpublicschools.org/boe/Curric/Learning/DiffStrats.pdf
Hall, T., Strangman, N., & Meyer, A. (2003). Differentiated Instruction and Implications for
UDL Implementation. National Center on Accessing the General Curriculum. Retrieved June 25, 2010 from: http://www.k8accesscenter.org/training_resources/udl/diffinstruction.asp (site goes down now an then)
