Team 5: Ableism and its negative effect on education in Mexico

Team: Ana Cristina Torres Elvira, Jennifer Tais Rivera López, Santiago Filiberto
Ramirez Morán, Jesús Eduardo Vazquez Flores and Dara Elizabeth Araujo
Vargas.
Our idea: “Educatn” is an educational campaign, with verified-by-
specialists information about people with disabilities. For middle
school education programs.

Our solution for presenting the topic to middle graders is to interest

them by designing resources, combining the use of digital presentations
and games that will involve the interactive learning of information that
will help kids understand how there are people who a differently abled,
but also how that doesn´t mean they are worth less and that they
shouldn´t be treated differently.

An article written by Beanstalk Mums says that it is important to explain

to kids the existence of physical disabilities, dyslexia, down syndrome,
etc and the importance of inclusivity, to help a friend on a wheelchair to
move around through teaching adaptative equipment, and to seek
similarities, for example, how they can still play hide-and-seek and run
around.

The world of education is always finding ways to innovate its ways of

teaching so that it will adjust to a student's learning method. However,
this system leaves out students who have a disability, creating an
environment of stress and misinformation that leads onto a harsh
adjusting into society. An article written by the Perkins School of the
Blind states that the acts of academic ableism can be:
- Not following disability accomodations
- Innacessible school materials
- Questioning if the person is actually disabled, etc.

- Vision: To design a world where people with disabilities have an equal

opportunity to live a good education.
 - Mission: To raise awareness and promote empathy through innovation
to the information about disabilities, build a world that has accessibility
in every aspect for those with disabilities.
- Objective: Promote the creation of equal opportunities in the education
system that are conscious of the needs of disabled students.
- Civics and Ethic assignature.

The article written by MedicalNewsToday says that ableism brings the problem
of giving people and the general public a negative view of disability as it
creates the idea of being nondisabled the ideal of society and disability as if it
was an abnormality. A systemic oppression that affects disabled people just for
something they didn't even chose, this can make them feel alone and
depressed for not being accepted like the other people they meet. A little
example of ableism could be asking someone what is wrong with them. Or
questioning if that disability is real. According to a study made by Human
Rights Watch (HRW), in Mexico, people who have disabilities live in households
where neglection and abuse are common, most of these situations being that
there is no access to justice and independent living for the disabled is almost
impossible with the lack of pension. The opportunities for them to be able to
get out from this situation is to get a good education, but the education system
is neglectful to the needs and ignore the importance of finsing a teaching
method that accomodates to their learning methods.

• What is Ableism?

The article “Words Matter, And It´s Time to Explore the Meaning of Ableism”,
published by Forbes, says that there are a lot of “textbook” definitions for
ableism that barely do any justice of how it is to have a real-life disability. We
think it is important for people to understand that there is a difference between
understanding ableism from a social structure/institution and from an
individual point of view.

According to the article “Ableism: Types, examples, impact, and anti-ableism",

published by MedicalNewsToday, says that there are two types of ableism:

1.- Personal Ableism:

▪ “Feeling instinctively uncomfortable around disabled people, or anyone

who seems “strange” in ways that might be connected to a disability of
some kind.”
▪ “Holding stereotypical views about disabled people in general, or about
certain sub-groups of disabled people”
▪ “Resenting disabled people for advantages or privileges you think they
have as a group”.

2.- Systemic Ableism:

 ▪ “Laws and regulations that restrict the freedom and equality of people
with disabilities”.
▪ “Social policy that seeks to “care for” disabled people through intensive
supervision, protection, and isolation from everyday society”.
▪ “Policies and practices that seek to reduce or eliminate disability from
society, not just as a benefit to any individual disabled person, but as a
perceived benefit to society as a whole”.

Why is Ableism a social problem?

According to the article “Words Matter, And It´s Time to Explore the Meaning
of Ableism”, published by Forbes, ableism hurts people. It promotes the idea
that disabled people are worth less than people who aren’t disabled, enables
people to use ableist language and trivialize conditions, the design of buildings
is inaccessible for people who are in wheelchairs as they don’t consider ramps,
there is discrimination in education as schools refuse to make accommodations
to try an teach someone who is disabled or simply understand their learning
rhythm isn’t the same as the other students, employment discrimination as
there is a belief that disabled workers are less productive and they will also
refuse to modify the work environment to be accessible for employees who
have a disability.

Would this app work for middle schoolers?

The article “How to Teach Children About Disabilities and Inclusion”, written by
Baylor University says that disability education is an important part of social
development that should be revisited at different ages open_in_new to help
children learn more as they grow and build an understanding of the world and
their role in it.

The Middle School Disability Awareness Curriculum wrote an article which

explains the tools to help students understand and learn about disabilities.

- Learn about different disabilities

- Teach respectful ways to talk about disabilities
- Talk openly and honestly about differences.
- Show support to their classmates and people in their community with
disabilities
References:

• Pulrang, A. (2020, 25 octubre). Words Matter, And It’s Time To Explore The

Meaning Of “Ableism.” Forbes. Recuperado 11 de septiembre de 2022, de

https://www.forbes.com/sites/andrewpulrang/2020/10/25/words-matter-and-its-

time-to-explore-the-meaning-of-ableism/?sh=3b3296527162

• Sullivan, D. (2017, 7 noviembre). Ableism: Types, examples, impact, and anti-

ableism. MedicalNewsToday. Recuperado 10 de septiembre de 2022, de

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/ableism

• Tips for Handling Academic Ableism in the Classroom. (2022b, agosto 3). Perkins

School for the Blind. Recuperado 15 de octubre de 2022, de

https://www.perkins.org/resource/tips-handling-academic-ableism-classroom/

• Middle School Disability Awareness Curriculum. (2022, 4 agosto). Changing

Perspectives. Recuperado 10 de octubre de 2022, de

https://changingperspectivesnow.org/middle-school-disability-awareness-

curriculum/
• Kazi, R. (2021, 22 diciembre). 8 simple ways to bring educational campaigns to

life. Recuperado 16 de octubre de 2022, de

https://www.digital22.com/insights/simple-ways-to-bring-educational-campaigns-

to-life

• Reynolds, K. (2022, 4 julio). How to teach your children about ableism. Beanstalk

Mums. Recuperado 16 de octubre de 2022, de https://beanstalkmums.com.au/teach-

children-ableism/