Disability inclusion in education

Chelsea Williamson, guest · [02:18]So I think first off, I want to start by saying globally, fifteen percent of the global population is people with disabilities, and I think people underestimate how many people with disabilities there are worldwide, and they also don't have a good enough understanding of what a disability is. So the legal definition of a disability is a long-term reoccurring impairment that prevents somebody from being able to access life to the fullest on an equal basis as others. And this includes something as simple as being able to enjoy life to the fullest. So thinking of your social activities just as much as the education space, as much as employment and everything. And I, I love that definition because it allows you to understand that a disability is not the thing that we immediately think of. It's not the barriers, but it's actually allowing people to see that beyond those barriers is a person.

Gershom Aitchison, host · [03:10]So that's quite generalized. What do you mean by disabilities? You, as I said, in my mind, it's somebody with a hearing aid or You know, sight impairment or a walking stick or something like that, what do you guys consider to be a disability?

Chelsea Williamson, guest · [03:25]So those are all disabilities. and a disability is anybody who has something, a barrier that prevents them from being able to enjoy life to the fullest. It could be anything, something as small as, not small, but something as what people have deemed to be trivial, but dyslexia and autism, so you've got your invisible disabilities as well. Those are also disabilities. So

Gershom Aitchison, host · [03:47]ADHD, dysgraphia, dyscalculia, By your definition, long-term depression, things like that too?

Chelsea Williamson, guest · [03:55]Depression, anxiety, definitely. Mental health, there's, there are definitely disabilities. in fact, the World Health Organization says that seventy percent of disabilities are invisible. So you might think of somebody with a hearing aid or somebody in a wheelchair, but actually seventy percent of disabilities are invisible. It's the ones that we can't see.

Chelsea Williamson, guest · [08:08]My approach generally when I, when I approach schools, I, I like to custom make my training because I also understand that no school, even if you have two schools that cater for the same disability, they're going to have different needs, and every child is also different. So I like to first of all custom make each package, but also give each school the opportunity to see all of the accessibility features. That's

Gershom Aitchison, host · [08:31]good, yeah.

Chelsea Williamson, guest · [08:32]Because what I've seen in my experience is if I go into a school, for example, that has neurodiverse disabilities, and I only show them speak, screen, dictation, you know, your text-to-speech, your speech-to-text accessibility features, your color filter for learners with dyslexia, then they get a low vision child, and all of a sudden they don't know what to do, they don't know how to do it. So if I expose them to all of the accessibility features, it really helps them get that holistic, understanding of the accessibility features, first of all. And second of all, nine times out of ten in my training, when I show all of the accessibility features, Teachers start coming forward to me going, actually, I am colorblind, actually, I am hard of hearing, actually, and I get to start working with the teachers, supporting them as well as supporting the learners.

Chelsea Williamson, guest · [10:17]So, being neurodiverse myself, I use these accessibility features on a daily basis. so I love talking about them. You're never putting me on the spot. So my, my absolute favorite one is, it's called spoken content. So spoken content is broken down into speak screen and speak selection. What that means is speak screen, if I want to read a book, a whole paragraph, a whole page, I just swipe my fingers down, two fingers from the top of the screen, and all that text in that document will be read aloud to me. If I don't want to read the whole document, I can just highlight the sentence or highlight the word or highlight whatever the paragraph that I'm wanting to be read aloud, say speak, and it will just read that portion to me. Other things you can do is you can highlight a specific word and say spell. So fantastic for your learners with dyslexia, especially your auditory learners that need things read aloud to them. They, they can have those words read aloud to them. You can also highlight a word and say, look up. So it'll give you the definition of that word. This has helped me so much, especially be having dyslexia myself. I'll sometimes read something and I'll know that I know a word, but I don't know what the word is. So if I highlight it and I say, look up, it gives me that dictionary definition, and then I know I can continue reading from there. So that speaks screen and spoken content, which is ultimately text to speech. Then there's dictation, which is speech to text. It allows me to push a button on my keyboard, and then I can speak into my device using punctuation, it speaks emojis and all of that as well. So I can speak however I want to, and as I speak, whatever I say will be typed for me.

Gershom Aitchison, host · [14:12]One of the things that is a global phenomenon is that we're told that the screen time with kids is a problem. And I find a lot of conversations I have with parents are about screen time, and I think we need to differentiate between what screen time is, where it is your device is being used for entertainment and escapism rather than being used as a tool. And at Edu Inc, one of our big focuses on is that technology is not a crutch. It is a tool. You can rely on it, but sometimes you're in the middle of nowhere where you can't use the technology, and you still have to be able to do what you need to do. And working on your homework, working on the technology as a tool is not necessarily a bad thing if it is enriching your life and making it fuller. It's not just shoving a screen in front of a child and allowing them to disengage. This is an engaging process. Any thoughts on that?

Chelsea Williamson, guest · [15:03]So I believe that there's positive screen time and negative screen time, which is exactly... Yeah, it's exactly what you're talking to. You know, there is negative screen time where somebody is mindlessly playing games or watching videos, and that is negative over long periods of time. But when we're talking about using Apple technology for children with disabilities, it's not even about screen time. We say that your iPad or your Apple device becomes an assistive device, and we have to acknowledge that difference. Because for a user who struggles with literacy skills, for example, to be able to hold up your iPad, take a photo of a sign, and then know... and have that sign read aloud to you, that's life-changing. That has the potential to save someone's life, actually, at the end of the day, give them much-needed information, to be able to go into the store and not be able to identify objects, and then use your device to be able to help you in that process. You're struggling with communication. There's a beautiful story, a learner that I'm working with in Cape Town, he has, he's non-talking autistic, which means that he cannot communicate through spoken, language. So he uses his iPad as a communication device. He types what he wants to be said into his device, and as he types a word, it gets spoken aloud for him. That is, that's not even screen time, that's an assistive device. That is his voice, and that has enabled him to access education on an equal basis as others, and that's the power of these devices. It's not only fun and a nice to have, but it's a necessity for a lot of these children and a lot of people with disabilities.

Chelsea Williamson, guest · [17:25]So my, my journey has been quite interesting. When I moved to South Africa, it was about halfway through high school, I was actually asked to leave the school that I attended in South Africa because they didn't know how to deal with me. Later on, when I started engaging with technology in higher education, I all of a sudden went from a child who was Barely passing in high school to the top student in my class. I got ninety percent in my honors year at university, and I've just completed my master's in law. So when I went into tertiary education, I was involved in the disability unit, which meant that I got access to technology, which really enabled me to succeed. In my honors year, I got ninety percent. I was top student, which in comparison to in high school, I was struggling to get by. I was told I wouldn't be able to finish school. That was a big achievement. But then when I got access to technology, was top student in my honors, and I've now just completed my master's in law and focusing on disability rights, and none of that would have been possible without access to technology. Technology has allowed others to be able to see the potential in me and me to see the potential in myself and believe in myself as well.

Gershom Aitchison, host · [18:51]One of the words that I have personally a strong feeling towards is using the word disability when it comes to kids and the neurodiversity that they have in that space. I don't want kids to think they're disabled. I want them to think that, you know, I personally believe that those challenges are part of their superpower and are going to make them stronger, better people. Why are you using the word disability, and do you think that it has a psychological impact negatively on students?

Chelsea Williamson, guest · [19:20]I ironically think it has a positive impact. People without disabilities have made this word disabled or disability a swear word, because they're scared of it, because going back to what we said in the beginning of the conversation, immediately they think, oh my gosh, it's somebody without an eye, it's somebody in a wheelchair. And when you take away neurodiversity from that term disability, you're actually removing people from their right to be able to access accommodations. And like I shared in my story, when I was in school, people didn't acknowledge my disability. They didn't give me any accommodations because they didn't know what it meant or how to support me. And it was only later on in life when I got to the disability unit and I learned, oh wait, I do actually have a disability. It's why I have this barrier. It's why I have this struggle. It's why I can't do this. But because of my disability, I can use this, I can use this, I can use this, and I can overcome those barriers. And using the word disability for me personally Has empowered me to have access to my accommodations. And we actually see this conversation being had on quite an international level. the United Nations, they use what's called person-first language, which means calling somebody a person with a disability. So you're acknowledging that they're a person before they have a disability. And if we all work together at removing the stigma from that word disability, we can all start to see that disability is not a swear word. It's actually such an empowering thing if you use it in the correct context. When you say things like to a child, and this is my opinion, and I, I, I hope that you understand where I'm coming from, but when you say to a child, you have a superpower, it's great in school, but what happens when they reach higher education? People don't see it as a superpower. You get seen as a burden. And now all of a sudden you haven't engaged with the right language to be able to describe what it is that you have and the support that you need, so you're actually setting them up to fail later on. Life. And yes, I have strengths. Don't take that away from me. There are things that I can do far better than anybody else because of my disability. And yes, those are my superpowers, but you can't negate the barriers that I'm faced with on a daily basis as well. And I wish people engaged with me on a, on, at a very young age on what my barriers are and how to overcome them, rather than just focusing on my superpowers.