Disability and Education

Term Paper # 101625

Canadian Studies
Education > Higher
Education > Special

This paper explores the barriers to education that students with disabilities face in Canada.

1,139 words () | 5 sources | MLA | 2008 United States

Paper Summary:

The paper discusses how students with disabilities face considerable challenges in their efforts to achieve an education in spite of their rights being defined and protected by the law and by policies enacted by educational institutions. The paper shows how a range of institutional and social factors block the educational aspirations of students with disabilities, at both the secondary and postsecondary levels, even in progressive societies such as Canada. The paper emphasizes how laws and policies are not enough without the will and the general acceptance of the need for inclusion, support services and accommodations for students with disabilities.

From the Paper:

"People living in Western countries such as Canada tend to believe that they live in societies governed by laws. However, one of the ironies that is commonly noted in the scholarly literature on disability with respect to access to education is the fact that not only the spirit, but often even the letter, of laws supporting the rights of students with disabilities are often ignored or violated by educational institutions, boards and local and regional governments. As critics note: "According to the National Clearinghouse on Postsecondary Education for Individuals with Disabilities, "administrators sometimes react to requests by interpreting the laws arbitrarily and by setting contradictory or inequitable policies. . ."(Wilson and Lewiecki-Wilson 298)

Sample of Sources Used:

Kleege, Georgina. "Disabled Students Come Out: QuestionsWithout Answers." Disability Studies: Enabling theHumanities. Eds. Sharon Snyder, Brenda Jo Brueggemann, and Rosemarie Garland-Thomson. New York: Modern Language Association of America, 2002, 308-316.
Liachowitz, Claire. Disability as a Social Construct.Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1988.
OECD - Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development Disability in Higher Education. Paris: OECD Publications, 2003.
Remus, M. "Learning From Our Experiences in Education Policy: The Story of Segregated Schools in the United States." As if Children Matter: Perspectives on Children, Rights and Disability. Toronto: Roeher Institute, 1995, 91-96.
Wilson, James, and Lewiecki-Wilson, Cynthia. "Constructing aThird Space: Disability Studies, the Teaching of English,and Institutional Transformation." Disability Studies:Enabling the Humanities. Eds. Sharon Snyder, Brenda Jo Brueggemann, and Rosemarie Garland-Thomson. New York:Modern Language Association of America, 2002, 296-307.