Terminology with Special Education Students

Before we parted for spring break we talked about the quality and quantity of literature published about persons with disabilities.  During class, we focused a lot of our discussion on the proper terminology and what is considered appropriate and offensive.  This is a reoccuring topic for me because this is the field that I have chosen to go into.  

I thought that "Al Capone Does My Shirts" was a great way to show how we have grown in our society to accepting people with special needs; yet, we still have a long way to go.  I am studying to be a teacher for Special Education students and Deaf Education students and I think this book was a great interpretation for how society has changed their views, terminology and overall knowledge about persons with disabilities.  And how society will continue to change their views, terminology and knowledge on persons with disabilities.

Now, we talk about proper and improper terminology used when talking about persons with "disabilities."  I have never been a fan of labeling individuals nor do I think that labels define who a person is or how they identify themselves.  Which is why I think it is very important to get to know an individual first to find out about who they are and how they identify themselves.  But, we all know that in order for a person to receive services they have to identify themselves as having a "disability."  This is very hard to do for people in the Deaf culture because they do not consider themselves to have a "disability."  There is a great article on this called "Deafness: 1993-2013: The Dilemma" by Tucker.  Check this article out if you get a chance because it talks about the two trains that Deaf individuals have to choose between: Train 1- Technology (Cochlear Implants, Hearing Aids, and FM Systmes) or Train 2- Disability (ADA and IDEA).

I would like to further my research on the quality and quantity of literature portraying Deaf individuals because it is an area of interest for me.  I will keep you posted on the information that I find!