In the past, school systems have taught history through an outdated prospective which disregarded this country’s civil rights movements. However, the education system has evolved and civil rights movements are embedded in classroom assignments, such as black civil rights movements and women’s civil rights movements.
Unfortunately, there is one civil rights movement that remains unknown to our young students and for that matter most adults — the great fight for disability rights. This civil rights movement is based on the same principles as the others and a statewide curriculum has been developed by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.
The barriers people with disabilities face are no different than other disability rights movements that are freedom to vote, freedom to be served at place of business, freedom to use public transportation, freedom to education. Basic discriminatory behavior are common threads running through all civil rights movements. The DESE curriculum highlights these inequities and the subsequent protests through a DVD and classroom assignments.
Stavros and the Amherst Disability Access Committee have had productive meetings with the Amherst school system, which is planning to use this curriculum. We are asking you to contact your school system to inquire whether they are planning to teach this curriculum, particularly for October’ Disability Awareness Month.
For more information, visit www.doe.mass.edu/frameworks/mcu/#TeachDisabilityStudies
Joseph Tringali
Amherst
The author is a Stavros informational advocate and member of the Amherst Disability Access Committee.