Throughout the year, college instructors are required to have mandatory faculty training. This month it is “Disability Cultural Responsiveness for Faculty: Improving Communication and Understanding.” It was led by Sara Sanders Gardner, the autistic designer of Bellevue College’s Neurodiversity Navigators Program, established in 2011.
Consequently “autistic people prefer identity first language, i.e., “disabled, autistic” whereas parents and professionals often prefer person first language, i.e., “person with autism. Yet, according to Gardner whose pronouns are (they/them), the latter “is awkward syntax, separates the disability from a person, and shows a desire to be distant from the disability.”
In fact, “a push to treat autism as a cultural identity is challenging notions of it as a disorder.”
Unlike past training which promoted euphemistic language, now teachers are to avoid euphemisms such as “on the spectrum,” “differently abled,” “challenged,” or “diffability” because “embracing the word ‘disability’ and normalizing it as an aspect of identity has the potential to lead to positive psychological health outcomes.”
Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 is a national law that protects qualified individuals from discrimination based on their disability. This includes individuals with physical or mental impairments that limit major life activities.
According to Gardner, it is “not necessary to know the details of, or even the name of, a student’s disability to respond to, include, and communicate with them effectively.” Thus, words need to be used to “avoid a clinical relationship” — rather, it should be a “human relationship.”
Instead, one needs to consider “what barrier is the student experiencing and how can they be supported by recognizing their strengths?” For example, wearing glasses would indicate a disability concerning sight but no one really sees wearing glasses as a disability. But clearly some disabilities are not readily apparent. What is the effect on a person’s self-esteem? (As a side note, I have always admired how Israel incorporates autistic individuals into the military. Thus, a disability is turned into an asset.)
But juxtaposed with some truly helpful ideas, is a radical divisive philosophy.
Enter the social justice/descriptive model. Instead of attempting to “fix” or correct the disability, we need to “seek to empower” and also “question cultural constraints.”
And, then there are the additional leftist code words, e.g., “intersections of identities,” “the role of power and privilege” and “disability justice & intersectionality.” In essence,
“Disability justice is a framework that examines disability and ableism as it relates to other forms of oppression and identity (race, class, gender, sexuality, citizenship, [emphasis mine] incarceration, size, etc.). It was developed starting in 2005 by the Disability Justice Collective, a group of ‘Black, brown, queer and trans’ people.” In disability justice, “disability is not defined in ‘white terms, or male terms, or straight terms.’
“Disability justice also acknowledges that ‘ableism helps make racism, christian [sic] supremacy, sexism, and queer-and transphobia possible’ and that all those systems of oppression are intertwined.
“We are in a global system that is incompatible with life. The literal terrain of the world has shifted, along with a neo-fascist political terrain.
There is no way to stop a single gear in motion – we must dismantle this machine [emphasis mine].
And here we have the end game. This is straight out of the communist/leftist/Marxist playbook.
Thus, as instructors we need to:
- Support students in changing names and pronouns in campus systems
- Educate and advocate and call out micro aggressions
We are to “avoid societal constructed ideas of normalcy, productivity, desirability, intelligence, excellence, and fitness.” They are “deeply rooted in eugenics, anti-Blackness, misogyny, colonialism, imperialism, and capitalism.”
inspiration porn” which is the “portrayal of people with disabilities as being inspirational to non-disabled people.” It is porn because “of the objectification of one group of people for the benefit of another group of people” and this is “patronizing.”
Moreover, according to this training, “it’s okay to be weird in public.” After all, “ability privilege is an advantage that someone has because they do not have physical or cognitive limitations on their daily activities and interactions.” Thus, “it is okay to flap your arms in a classroom. People who don’t like this can sit in another part of the classroom.”
Consequently, it would appear that everyone who strives, who competes, who is born white, or is a Christian, or a male or heterosexual or believes in legal immigration is engaging in the worst form of bigotry. Identity first is good for this training, but some identities are not acceptable if they do not align with the leftist/progressive world.
Leftwing ideology is about bullying all the time. Only this time, there is a patina of respectability and concern that cloaks the real agenda.
Notice how christian is lower-cased in the disability justice world but Black is capitalized. Given the Left’s animus against religion and grammatical norms, this is not surprising.
I venture to say that of the dozens of instructors who listened to this 90-minute lecture, perhaps a handful did some additional research as I did. Certainly, some of the ideas have merit, but far too many listeners will be fully mesmerized by these seemingly positive ideas without being aware of their incipient dangerous and destructive actions.
In fact, one of the pictures (Castaneda & Peters. 2000) showed a picture of mostly white faceless male figures and this, according to the facilitator, is problematic. This needs to be acknowledged in order to “provide more equity.”
In addition, it was reiterated that people “cannot tokenise or marginalize — instead we need to make space.” So the facilitator stated that as a white autistic woman, she will always step out of the way of other people and let them go first “in order to avoid her privilege.” She reiterated the need to “own our boundaries.”
Tokenism is a central tenet of the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion crowd.
The speaker speaks of oppression and privilege and asserts that it is important to consider our position when interacting with others. So most of the faculty who are white are sitting there listening to this — I wonder, do they actually believe they are privileged oppressors?
In essence, “such virtues as merit, excellence, hard work, fairness, neutrality, objectivity, and racial colorblindness are racist or sexist, or were created by members of a particular race, color, sex, or national origin to oppress members of another race, color, sex, or national origin.”
In addition, biological reality is moot as instructors are told that students are “very hurt” if their chosen pronouns are not used.
Ultimately, one wonders why there are so many disabled American students.
Is there a cottage industry that has developed because our government, medical, and food industries have created conditions causing disabilities in youngsters?
On the one hand, we are to have high expectations for the disabled but on the other hand, certain accommodations need to be met. Where is the fine line?
How are instructors supposed to realistically evaluate and grade a student’s progress? How much leeway should a disabled student be permitted? Students who require it already receive extra time for testing.
Do universities receive funds from the federal government for these training sessions? How much?
Will certain groups allow themselves to be stigmatized because of their race or religion, all under the guise of helping the disabled?
In reality, such woke mandated programs skim over patently prejudicial ideas under the rubric of assisting the disabled. Thus, the Left has added another identity victimization group to their ever-growing brew.
Are the disabled ultimately being used/abused by the Left to achieve a dismantling of our system? Is this reverse inspiration porn?
In essence, participants are lulled into believing they are being compassionate all the while they are being targeted and conditioned by the woke community whose ulterior motives are nothing short of destructive.
Eileen can be reached at middlemarch18@gmail.com
Image: National Human Genome Research Institute
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