In Rethinking Disability Simulations - Part I, I
shared with you one self-advocate’s view that disability simulation activities
do not work to change long-term attitudes about disabilities. I took this to heart and have begun to rethink my own practice. So, what are some
alternatives to disability simulations for teaching disability awareness? Watch a few
Public Service Announcement (PSA) videos as a class.Here are some suggestions:
Discuss the message of
each PSA and the collective message with students. Connect the message to Jewish text.Give students an opportunity to create their own PSA. Give students the
opportunity to assess the synagogue for accessibility. Provide them with a
checklist or survey from sites such as http://www.ada.gov/
or http://www.wbdg.org/resources/assesstools.php
Do you have other suggestions?
Be sure you never miss a post from Removing the Stumbling Block:
Emily’s
article called “I Won’t Pretend That Disability Simulation Works” struck a nerve;
but I didn't really want to confront it. You see, I have led disability
simulations and have believed them to be effective, so this article put me in
the position of needing to reflect and potentially rethink my practice.
That’s a good thing!
I have written often about the importance
of reflection in improving our inclusive practice. It would be hypocritical
if this didn’t apply to me, too.
In my role as an Education Director of a synagogue's religious school, I have the good fortune of being able to use my skills to enable students of all abilities to learn and thrive. As an advocate of inclusion, I help guide my community to ensure that everyone has equal opportunities to participate and find meaning in all aspects of synagogue life. Yet, not all synagogue have a professional who advocates for inclusion. What can parents of children with disabilities do to ensure their children are fully included in religious school?
First and foremost, open and supportive communication is essential for a successful Jewish Hebrew school experience for any child, but especially those with special learning needs.
Be forthcoming about your child’s strengths and weaknesses. Do not
assume that the school will turn you away or will not be able to
accommodate your child’s needs. Share your child’s IEP, successful
strategies from home and other information that will make it easier for
your child to be successful. I am not suggesting that this is a magic
bullet. There may be bumps and disappointments along the way. But
without the willingness to have the conversations, you will never know
what is possible.
I believe that we need discussions about disabilities to become
mainstream, we need keynote addresses by people with disabilities and we need
the vision and goals for every professional development workshop or conference
to reflect a commitment to inclusion.
The
following is an excerpt from a stunning sermon written by my friend and
colleague, Rabbi Rachel Ackerman, Associate Rabbi and Director of Education at Temple Shalom in Chevy Chase,
Maryland. Although written for the Torah portion Noach, I am proud to share it
here in honor of Jewish Disability Awareness Month, as its message of inclusion
is timeless. Rachel is willing to share the full sermon with anyone interested.
I offer this sermon to you as a teaching – as a
conversation – as an opportunity for us to reflect.
It’s a different look at the classic tale of Noah
and the ark.
There are a lot of questions we can ask about the
animals on Noah’s ark.
How many types of animals were there? How did they
all fit? Did they come on by twosies-twosies or by sevens? What did they all
eat? How did they all get along?
One question most of us have never asked is, “How
did the animals physically get onto the
ark?”
Perhaps we don’t ask this question because the
answer is obvious. There must have been a ramp.
In nearly every picture of Noah’s ark, every Noah’s
ark children’s toy and every image of the ark engrained in our minds, there is
a ramp. But, the text never tells us there was a ramp, and the commentaries
I’ve sifted through don’t mention anything about it. All we know is that the
animals came through an opening and got onto the ark.
Yet, it’s obvious. Without a ramp, it would be
challenging for the animals to get on the ark. For some, stairs would be quite
difficult, and for those without opposable thumbs, the rope ladder I saw in one
picture seemed like a fairly ridiculous option.
The animalsneeded a ramp to enter the ark.
And many peopleneedramps to enter our synagogues and other Jewish communal
institutions. It’s obvious.
We’d
like to imagine that all of our institutions are completely accessible, but we
know this isn’t the case. As Rabbi Avi Weiss of the Hebrew Institute of
Riverdale wrote, “A photograph in my office says it all. It is of a man sitting
in his wheelchair at the bottom of a flight of steps, leading up to the
entrance of the synagogue. Over its door, is emblazoned the sentence [from
Psalms], “Open the gates of righteousness for me, I will enter through them.” The man sits with his back to the doors,
unable to enter. As a Jewish community we have failed him…”
When we don’t have ramps, we fail members of our
community. The ark needed a ramp. Every Jewish institution needs a ramp. People
need ramps to get onto the bimah.
They need lifts to get into a mikveh and
elevators to access the floor where they have a meeting or class.
And, over the years, we have become better about
installing physical ramps.
Stairs, however, are not the only stumbling blocks.
There are Jews with physical, developmental, and
learning disabilities; Jews with hearing, speech, language, health, and
visual impairments; there are Jews with traumatic brain injuries.
Thinking about the variety of opportunities that our
synagogues and other institutions provide: worship, camping, religious school, how many people still sit with their
backs to our doors, unable to enter?
As a Jewish community, how many Jews are we failing?
--------
As Jews, particularly Reform Jews, we sometimes look
out the windows more often than we
illuminate what’s going on inside our institutions.
We look out windows, see injustice, and we leave the
walls of the synagogue to engage in tikkun
olam.
We look out the windows to people wedon’tknow, people who will never walk
through the walls of our institutions, and we are, rightfully, called to action…But,
we also need to shine the light inward to see the people inside our
institutions. We need to see the absence of those individuals too afraid to
come inside and unable to access Jewish life.
If we shine the light inward we will see the man who
stopped coming to services because he was shushed for his uncontrollable ticks.
If we shine the light inward we will see the camper
with Asperger’s Syndrome who was spit on by the other kids in the cabin when
her counselors left the room.
If we shine the light inward we will see a
rabbinical student with a learning disability who, listening to the advice of
rabbis on the field based on their
personal experiences, did not document this disability on her rabbinical school
application. And if we continue to shine the light inward we will see her
advising other prospective rabbinical students to do the same.
--------
How long will it be before we build ramps, physical
and metaphorical, that allow every person, regardless of ability, to access
Judaism?
How long will it be before we shine the light inward
so that 100% of our community can look out the window together and engage in tikkun
olam?
It is ourresponsibility to teach everyone according to his or her needs.
It is our
responsibility to removestumblingblocks.
It is our
responsibility to make sure that OUR houses of prayer ARE housesofprayerforALLpeople.
We needtoacknowledge
our fear and discomfort, and then allow ourselves to become vulnerable to what
we feel ill-equipped to handle; we need to be vulnerable and admit the failures
of our community so that wecan become more accessible.
If we shine the light and face what we fear, we can
begin to engage in the work of repair. Then, when we shine the light, we have
the potential to see:
Camp counselors and teachers who are trained to work
with children and adults with Asperger’s Syndrome.
Rabbis, cantors, and lay leaders who employ
modalities of service leading and Torah study that are accessible to those with
learning disabilities.
A teenager with Autism who leads his congregation in
acts of social justice.
Children and adults who have learned that the values of compassion, relationship,
and friendshipfar outweigh the initial discomfort experienced in
getting accustomed to symptoms of disabilities.
We need to shine the light inward.
Be sure you never miss a post from Removing the Stumbling Block:
Jewish Disability Awareness and Inclusion Month is a unified initiative to raise disability awareness and support efforts to foster inclusion in Jewish communities worldwide.
Inclusion is not a program or a classroom or a place. Inclusion isn't social action or something nice we do for other people. Inclusion is an
attitude; it's the way we treat people and it reflects the way each of us wants
to be treated. Inclusion is belonging.
As you
may know, one of the national events planned for Jewish Disability Awareness
Month is JDAM Reads! For the past few
years, there have been both child and adult book choices.
The
adult selection this year is “Hope Will Find You” by Rabbi Naomi Levy. In this
novel she shares her journey as a parent of a daughter
diagnosed with a potentially life threatening disability. Please join me THIS
Thursday, Feb. 13 at 9pm EST for a live Twitter chat to discuss the book using
#JDAMreads14.A Twitter chat is a unique
way to share thoughts and reflections and I hope that many of you will
participate. If you have never participated in Twitter chat before, here is a goodresource to get started. If you are still feeling hesitant, please feel
free to reach out and I will be happy to guide you through the process.
In addition to this chat, Rabbi Levy will conduct a live webinar to discuss her
novel, sponsored by The Jewish Journal, on Thursday February 20, 2014 at 2pm
EST, 1pm CST, noon MST, 11am PST.
There is an ad for Guinness beer that made the rounds a
while back. It’s not your typical splashy display of barely clad women
and flashy cars. Rather, a group of men are shown playing a game of wheelchair
basketball. At the game’s end, all but one of the men leaves his chair, and
together they go out for a beer.Have
you seen it?
A few
weeks ago I attended our synagogue’s Kabbalat Shabbat service. This
once-a-month service has an earlier start time than our traditional service and
is followed by a congregational potluck dinner. This shorter service is ideal
for many; our youngest children who aren’t ready to be out past bedtime, teens
who want to go out with friends later in the evening and adult members who
don’t want to be out past their bedtimes (come on, be honest, 9:30pm feels late
after a full week of work!). Our Kabbalat Shabbat is also a wonderful fit for
an adult member of our congregation with developmental disabilities.
I have
been thinking about writing this story for some time now. Sharing this man’s
story would seem logical and meaningful on this blog. But quite honestly, it’s
pretty unremarkable.
I mean,
he’s a really nice guy, but so are a lot of our members.
He lives
in a local group home and another member of our congregation picks him up each
month, but he’s not the only congregant who needs a ride.
Nonetheless,
I’ve kept an eye out for something remarkable to share. I’ve watched his level
of comfort increase, but that’s true of all of us as we spend more & more
time somewhere. The melodies of the prayers have become more familiar to him,
but that’s also true for each of us over time. I’ve also noticed how other
congregants have come to recognize him, but that, too, is characteristic of
people in general.
So I
have been trying, for sake of this blog, to find the right angle.
I’ve
been looking for that aha moment to share. But he’s been a member of our
congregation for the better part of four years now, and I have yet to find just
the right hook to demonstrate the value of inclusion. I’m sorry, it’s just a
pretty unremarkable story.
And that’s
the point.
Be sure you never miss a post from Removing the Stumbling Block:
I’m thrilled to have
participated in Jewish Disability Advocacy Day (JDAD) in Washington DC on
February 6.It was exciting to learn how
much this program has grown in just four short years.What began with a small group of twenty now
boasts participation of more than 70!Hats off to Dave Feinman the Senior Legislative Associate of the Jewish
Federations of North America and Rabbi Lynne Landsberg, Senior Adviser on Disability
Issues for the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism for not only
coordinating but inspiring such vast and meaningful participation.
There were two components to
the advocacy efforts of JDAD:
Asking
Members and Senators to sponsor the Achieving a Better Life Experience (ABLE) Act, which
encourages saving private funds for the purpose of supporting individuals with
disabilities
Asking
Senators to support ratification of the Disabilities Treaty, which promotes the rights of
people with disabilities across the globe based on the standard set by the
Americans with Disabilities Act
In her d'var torah, Rabbi Landsberg taught that as a
Jew, she looks forward to Shabbat. It is an opportunity to rest; to do less
than she did all week. However, as an individual with a disability, she
recognizes that there are far too many individuals with disabilities who do
nothing all week long as they are unable to find suitable employment.The joy of Shabbat is an opportunity to rest,
but we must never mistake rest with doing nothing!
Allison Wohl, the Executive Director of the Collaboration
to Promote Self-Determination, briefed us on the ABLE Act. In her remarks, she
shared her very personal journey of raising a child with Down Syndrome. She
shared that after watching the stunning film Praying With Lior (if you haven’t
seen it, you must!) her view of congregational life changed. In one of her most
compelling statements she remarked that Lior taught her that she wanted to find
a congregation that would celebrate her family, not simply accept them.
What a profound way to shape the culture of a synagogue
community!
We also heard from David Morrissey, Executive Director
of the US International Council on Disabilities, in a briefing about the
Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. He works to remove
social discrimination and its barriers, suggesting that what our society must
do is move away from the “medical model of disability,” a view of disability as
something that can and should be healed.
Finally, Rachel Laser, Deputy Director of the
Religious Action Center, quoted Leviticus 19:14 where we are commanded, “You
shall not insult the deaf, or place a stumbling block before the blind,” and
taught that we, as advocates for individuals with disabilities, must not allow
the stumbling blocks to get in OUR way of advancing the work of inclusion.
As I mentioned,
this opportunity pushed me to stretch outside my comfort zone. Political
advocacy is not my typical “wheelhouse,” but I am so pleased that I actively
participated in this day.
Be sure you never miss a post from Removing the Stumbling Block:
In Jewish Special Education MythBusters, Part 1 I discussed some
commonly held stereotypes about learning differences and special education in
Jewish education.In this edition I will
explore some commonly held social-emotional and economic myths.
Myth #4: One student’s negative
behavior can ruin a whole class. This is a big one in Jewish education classrooms.And the honest answer is: negative behavior
can “ruin” a class dynamic only if you (the teacher) let it.Teachers have a responsibility to manage
student behavior in a way that provides all students with a warm, supportive
and meaningful environment.If a child’s
behavior is challenging, find another way to meet his needs.This is not meant as an oversimplification,
but rather as a call to teachers to employ a wide variety of management
techniques to enable students to find success.Suggestions for how to do this can be found here.And if those techniques aren’t working, find
others.Do not give up on your students. Myth #5: Tailoring a bar/bat
mitzvah for a child with disabilities isn’t fair to all the other students Individualizing expectations does not take anything away from capable
students.Rather, it demonstrates
flexibility and a willingness to embrace a wide variety of needs within a
synagogue community.Children may
question why another student “did less” than he/she did, but it is up to us, as
teachers, parents and clergy, to explain to our children how to welcome
differences and to be proud of what he/she accomplishes without comparison to
what everyone else is doing.
Myth #6: Inclusion
costs a lot more money
Not so.While making
a facility full accessible is certainly an investment, there are many inexpensive
ways to be sure that a community is inclusive.Invest in professional development for teachers, lay leaders, clergy and
other synagogue staff.A full-day of
learning that brings all of these stakeholders together is a huge opportunity
for both learning and leading by example. Training everyone to welcome, accept
and embrace diversity will transform your community.I offer additional low-cost solutions, in Affording
Inclusion.
Myths are perpetuated by a lack of understanding.When Adam and Jamie conduct an experiment on MythBusters,
they help us to see, experience and understand what is flawed within our
current way of thinking.Their method of
presentation is fun and engaging, and we never feel “put down” or insulted for
our lack of knowledge.Rather, we dive
in, learn eagerly and believe what they show us because they make the learning
real.And so it is with inclusion.When we join in conversation with real-life
examples and hands-on experiences, attitudes can change, myths can be
eliminated and everyone wins.
Never miss a post from Removing the Stumbling Block:
Have you ever seen MythBusters, that science
experiment show on the Discovery Channel? It’s the one where the show's hosts,
special effects experts Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman, test the validity of
commonly held notions and myths from movie scenes, adages, Internet videos, and
news stories.My family loves this
show.There is just something really
cool about watching some long-held idea debunked right before your eyes.
Well, I may not be a scientist or a special effects expert,
but I am a Jewish Special Educator.And
there are many myths about special education. So here is my version of
Jewish Special Education MythBusters.
Myth #1:Students
with special needs and disabilities can’t learn Hebrew.
It is a misconception that all students with learning
challenges struggle enough learning to read English and should not even try to
learn Hebrew.While it is true that
children who have difficulty with their primary language may encounter similar
struggles when learning
a second language, some children have a natural propensity toward language
acquisition, even if they have a learning disability.Hebrew, in many situations, is taught
traditionally.Read & repeat
exercises that require children to sit still and wait their turn are
common.Employing multi-sensory strategies
that cater to a wide variety of learning styles can enable all students to
learn Hebrew in ways that meet their individual needs.
Myth #2:Special
Education (or inclusion) holds back the “other” students
A classroom rich with activities to meet students at their
current level of functioning maximizes all students’ potential for
success.It is a misnomer that having
different expectations for different students within in the same classroom
isn't fair.This is just wrong.Students should not be compared to one
another or to an arbitrary level of expectation.All students should be working toward
progress from their current level of functioning.When this is done successfully, no student is
“held back” or exposed to less challenging content that he or she is capable of
encountering.
Myth #3:Special
Education is just a watered down curriculum.
The strength of special education is in individualizing instruction, which
is not a watered down curriculum.Modifying teaching strategies and offering multi-sensory activities does
not compromise the content.Rather, it
is a way to ensure that all students can be exposed to and grapple with the
same content in a way that is both meaningful and productive.
Tomorrow (February 6) is
Jewish Disability Advocacy Day (JDAD) in Washington DC. It is coordinated by The Jewish Disability
Network; a network of national Jewish organizations engaging
in advocacy on disability issues. Co-chaired by The Jewish Federations of North
America and the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism,
this is an exciting opportunity to learn about legislative issues of importance
to individuals with disabilities and their families. The advocacy efforts
will focus on two key issues:
Asking
Members and Senators to sponsor the Achieving a Better Life Experience (ABLE) Act, which
encourages saving private funds for the purpose of supporting individuals with
disabilities
Asking
Senators to support ratification of the Disabilities Treaty, which promotes the rights of
people with disabilities across the globe based on the standard set by the
Americans with Disabilities Act
I anticipate that this will be a little bit like a
mini L’Taken
Seminar for Social Justice for grown-ups!
I’m looking forward to meeting quite a few people that
I only know online or by their Twitter handles. I intend to tweet throughout the
day, so feel free to follow me at @JewishSpecialEd
and keep an eye on #JDAM14
Finally, this will be an opportunity to stretch
outside my comfort zone since political advocacy is not my typical
“wheelhouse”. I think that it is genuinely significant for us to embrace such
opportunities as educators and leaders. I have written in the past about
leading by example, and recognize the importance of practicing what I preach.
Be sure you never miss a post from Removing the Stumbling Block:
I believe
that inclusion is possible in every congregation, in every religious school, in
every day school, in every Jewish organization.
I believe
that we can work together to ensure that every child, every adult, every Jewish
person has the opportunity to learn Torah.
I believe
that it is the responsibility of every teacher and every school
leader to learn the strategies necessary to make inclusive education possible.
And it is possible.
I believe
in inclusion.
I believe
that each of us is created b’tzelem elohim (in the image of God).
I believe
that all Jews have the right to live a meaningful Jewish life and that no one
can determine what meaningful is for anyone else.
I believe
in inclusion.
I believe
that every person has a gift to offer to society.
I believe
that it is incumbent upon us as human beings to help each person with and
without disabilities bring this gift forward.
I believe that
we must do as our sages implored, “Al tistakel b’kankanela b’mah
sheyesh bo – do not look at the container but at what is inside.”
I believe in
inclusion.
Be sure you never miss a post from Removing the Stumbling Block:
Today marks the first day of February and the official start
of the sixth annual Jewish Disability Awareness Month. JDAM is
designed to be a unified initiative to raise disability
awareness and support efforts to foster inclusion in Jewish communities
worldwide.
But I have to be honest. I struggle
with the concept of disability awareness. When we look around us we can readily
notice that people come in all shapes and sizes, each one of us different than
every other. I really do not think that we need people to become more aware of
disabilities, but rather to learn how to be genuinely accepting of one
another's differences. And I am not alone. I recently read a great post by
self-advocate Emily Ladau in which she writes, “My deepest passion as a disability
rights advocate lies not in the act of “raising awareness,” but in promoting
acceptance…Dr. (Martin Luther) King did not want to achieve “black awareness,”
and I can guarantee that if anyone tried to campaign for black awareness, there
would be more (rightfully) angry and offended people than you’ve ever seen in
your life. Why doesn’t the same logic apply for disabilities? Just as being
black is part of a person’s identity, so too is disability a part of a person’s
identity.”
And yet, we have entered Jewish
Disability Awareness Month. For me, the key distinction is that we work
to raise awareness that, yes, there are Jews with disabilities; but more
importantly, many of those Jews with disabilities are not yet meaningfully included
in synagogue and Jewish organizational life. The value of this month lies in raising
the awareness that there is so much more we can and should be
doing to include those with disabilities in our Jewish communities. (The
JDAM tagline: from awareness to inclusion, supports this notion.)
I will be blogging each day during
the month of February in honor of JDAM. You can read more here
about this initiative. I am excited to share my thoughts, and to read yours. I
hope to hear many new voices.
At the bottom of this post you will
find a place to link up your blogs. This will allow readers to find one
another’s posts, spread the word about their own and generally serve as an
online gathering space for JDAM blogging efforts.Feel free to come back often and link each of your #JDAMblogs
posts.
Tag every post with #JDAMblogs. The
purpose of the hashtag is to help us to find and share one another’s posts via
social media. I encourage you to tweet
at me and tag me on
Facebook so that I can share your content. (#JDAM14 is the other hashtag
being used for general JDAM information, resources and events.)
As a Jewish Special Educator, I
realize that the vague nature of “join me in blogging” might be overwhelming
for some. While you are free to blog on anything that relates to
disability, accessibility, inclusion, etc., some may appreciate prompts to get their
creative juices flowing:
Week 1: Personal/professional stories or experiences of Jewish
disability inclusion
Week 2: The value of inclusion, the meaning of
inclusion, the importance of inclusion
Week 3: Barriers to inclusion, challenges to overcome,
frustrations, goals yet to be met
Week 4: Success stories
And if writing is “not your thing”,
share a photo or artwork or a quote or a video. Honor your own expressive style
and do what is most comfortable and most accessible for you.Don’t shy away from sharing your voice!
Together our voices will be loud and we can move the
Jewish world from awareness to inclusion!
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