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Addressing Ableism in Schools
Equity, Special Needs | K-12
We’ve come a long way in ensuring students with disabilities receive the education they deserve. Advances in research, regulation, and funding have led to increased awareness and resources for K–12 classrooms across the country. However, many educators aren’t aware of the ongoing issue of ableism: that is, the discrimination and social prejudice against people with disabilities based on the belief that people with typical abilities are superior.
In this course, you will learn how to identify ableism and foster a more inclusive classroom environment for students of all abilities. You’ll examine how ableism, when unaddressed, can affect our interactions with students and ultimately impact their educational experience. After taking some time to reflect and address possible biases, you’ll turn your attention to developing classroom activities and lesson plans to combat ableism in the classroom. You’ll examine information and tools that will help you and your students avoid ableist language, break down barriers, and encourage a more welcoming space.
Using the tools from this course, you will be able to create a classroom culture of respect, rapport, and inclusivity, and ensure your students are more culturally competent classmates and citizens.
Connections to Practice
This course provides the following classroom connections:
- Strategies to assess ableist culture in schools through your professional role
- Language to support a more inclusive school culture
- Opportunities to evaluate real-world scenarios for inclusivity
- Models for creating anti-ableist classroom activities and lesson plans
Course Objectives
In this course, participants will:
- Examine the concept of ableism and the history of the disability rights movement.
- Interpret the Americans With Disabilities Act as it pertains to schools and classrooms.
- Evaluate instances of ableism and ableist mindsets.
- Adapt your role as an educator to combat ableism.
- Critique current subjects and lessons to address ableism.
- Evaluate tools and strategies for creating an anti-ableist environment, including explicit instruction on anti-ableism, and modeling anti-ableist behaviors.
Interested in School/District PD?
Request a Free ConsultationWhy Partner With Us
- Train your staff in as little as eight hours or delve deeper into complex topics in our longer courses.
- Replace in-person PD days with 100% online, self-paced training teachers can complete virtually.
- Get PD tailored to your school's unique needs with our customizable content and flexible solutions.
- Offer higher education rigor and quality designed to give your teachers targeted, relevant training they can apply immediately.
- Increase buy-in and morale by providing teacher choice while maintaining school/district oversight and strategic alignment.
Interested in School/District PD?
Request a Free ConsultationCourse Design
We intentionally plan and build our course offerings to solve real problems in education. We regularly update our existing catalog and develop new courses based on schools’ needs, trends in K–12 education, and continual feedback from educators. Depending on your needs, you can train your staff in as little as eight hours with our short courses, or delve into complex topics in our longer ones.
Our course writers are content experts with extensive subject matter credentials and classroom experience. They work closely with our development team to build an experience that is relevant, highly practical, and aligned with industry standards. Courses are not just filled with innovative techniques, but also illustrate how to apply these tools in practice. With each course, teachers develop tangible products such as lesson plans or assessments that they can use immediately in their classrooms.
Click below to learn more about our course design and unique features:
