Title
‘Fitting in’ at School at School: Disabled kids’ Pperspectives on Aadaptations Mmade at Sschool Findings from Schools, Homes, and Neighbourhoods Accessibility Audit: Disabled Children’s Assessments (ScHaN Project)
Authors
Lindsay Stephens, Bloorview Research Institute, Henna Aslam, Bloorview Research Institute
Patricia McKeever, Bloorview Research Institute, Sue Ruddick, University of Toronto
Background:
The Schools, Homes, and Neighbourhoods Accessibility Audit: Physically Disabled Children’s Assessments (The ScHaN Project), is a two-phase study designed to capture the insights of disabled children into their three primary environments. The study describes the social inclusion, physical accessibility and suitability of their homes, schools and neighbourhoods; how they navigate these environments and; their suggestions for improving accessibility and inclusivity.
Target population:
In phase one, in-depth case studies were conducted with 13 key informant school-aged children who use mobility devices and live in urban, suburban, rural and northern regions in Ontario, Canada. Children were between ages 10 and 14, attended a primary school or junior high, spoke English and were clients at a Children’s Treatment Centre.
Methods:
Phase 1 case studies used sState-of-the-art, child-friendly methods were used in the phase 1 case studies to determine disabled children’s views. Over three sessions children participated in actual and imaginary tours of their homes, schools and neighbourhoods; mapped their daily geographies by carrying a GPS enabled BlackBerry device, and engaged in open-ended interviews.
These case studies are being used to form the basis of a much wider survey
Issue:
Accommodations and adaptations are commonly viewed as positive changes to make spaces and activities more inclusive. Through close examination of the differences that children described in place based meanings, social expectations, and ideas of normal behaviour, we learned that the impacts of the accommodations and adaptations made for children are complex and environment dependant.
Results:
Findings show that in each context, the meaning of adaptations changes. The children used adaptations in all three primary environments but spoke most intensely about them at school, where several adaptations and accommodations were viewed as exclusive and unwanted. In a number of instances, adaptations meant drawing attention in ways the children didn’t like, or they caused other side effects that made it difficult to participate in the ways the children preferred. Common school adaptations that caused discomfort included adapted desks, adapted times for leaving class and adaptive technologies in the classroom.
Conclusion:
These findings are situated at the intersection between physical and social inclusion, and take seriously the multiple subjectivities embodied by children with disabilities in order to suggest how we might better tailor both physical and social adaptations to respond to the complex and varied needs and desires of these children.
Changes at school should be shaped by an awareness that being identified as different seems to be harder there, compared to an embracing acceptance more often found in the home, or a greater sense of entitlement experienced by children in the public sphere. One size fits all adaptations may be more hurtful than helpful if the environment person fit is not taken into account.