On Special Education

This picture shows actor Mark Hamill congratulating Caitlin, the first-prize winner in her grade category at the Braille Challenge, along with second-place winner Michael Chang, a high school senior from California, and third-place winner Albano Berberi of Massachusetts, who will enroll in Wheaton College in the fall.

It occurred to me after posting the first part of my Q&A session with Caitlin that some readers may be curious how she has been composing her responses:

I guess it's kind of a multi-step process, but it's second nature to me now. If someone has written a long email that I want to read in Braille, or one that I want to respond to very extensively, I copy it onto a CompactFlash card and read it on my BrailleNote. I compose and edit much better if I can "see what I'm doing," so to speak. I love the PC, but I'm a Braille reader and writer at heart, and it shows. The BrailleNote is a notetaker with a refreshable Braille display, a Braille keyboard for input, and speech output. On the BrailleNote, I read, responded to and edited the questions in Braille, then had the BrailleNote translate it into text, and sent it back in an e-mail.

Usually, though, I respond to all e-mail on my PC. My PC has a screen reader called Window-Eyes which enables me to use the keyboard to navigate with speech reading aloud as I type. I also surf the web, instant message with my friends, and use LiveJournal and Facebook this way, so that I can keep in touch with my friends and the latest web trends.

The only changes I've made to Caitlin's responses is to compress them slightly and make some minor stylistic changes. Now, back to the questions:

You’ve said that when you started your sophomore year in high school, you started participating in your individualized education program meetings. What was that experience like?

I dreaded IEP meetings from the beginning. Sure, I knew that they were important and that they were about my future. But what kind of kid wants to sit with her parents and her teachers and even administrators and have her academic record, goals, successes and shortcomings analyzed? I know I sure didn't, especially since my friends often tell me that, when I'm embarrassed, my face resembles a tomato and I look like I'm on the verge of tears. Not exactly the kind of reputation I'd like to cultivate. But as I drew nearer and nearer to college, I sucked it up and attended, because I wanted to make my own decisions and play a part in shaping my future. The IEP meetings were always very informative and positive, but they were still a little daunting, even after I became accustomed to them.

What would you like teachers to keep in mind if they have students with disabilities in their classes? What can they do to be more sensitive?

My ground rules: (1) Don't treat her any differently than any other student. If you're in the habit of reading papers out loud, don't hesitate to read hers just because she has a disability and you don't want to draw "even more attention to her." Similarly, if you're in the habit of criticizing everyone's work, criticize hers just like you would anyone else's. She'll feel worse if you pick on everyone's but hers, and her friends will think that her disability excludes her from receiving negative feedback. Remember, she's just like any other student.

(2) Be organized. Talk to your students and find out what they need from you. Do your best to be there for them in any way they need without laying it on too thickly. Being able to talk to your student and learn his needs is the key.

(3) Be accommodating, but don't baby her along. If you were late handing an assignment in to be prepared for her, give her extra time to complete it. But if she pulls the "I didn't have time to do it...I was busy" stunt, then impose the same treatment that you would for any of your other charges. No special privileges just because she has a disability; after all, how will she learn if everyone babies her along?

(4) Let him make his own decisions. Don't force him to sit with the table full of smart kids instead of his friends, just because you feel that the smart kids will pick up his slack. Don't hang around him when your class goes on a field trip just because you're worried that he'll need your guidance. Certainly offer your assistance, but don't be offended if he declines. Most kids will ask for help if and when they need it, and when you're a teen, it's not cool for the teacher to be making a fuss over you while you're trying to socialize with your friends.

(5) Communicate! It's great when teachers check in now and then, just to make sure the student has everything she needs. Of course, doing this after class or in an email is always preferable. Don't interrupt lectures to ask if she wants something clarified. Ask her later, or wait for her to come to you with questions.

(6) Be helpful! Being descriptive, clear and precise will assist all your students, not just those with disabilities. Asking if anyone has questions, describing an image or presentation in words as well as showing graphs or pictures, and reminding the class as a whole that the homework is listed on the board will benefit all of your students. Remember, there are many different kinds of learners, and expressing ideas in multiple ways is often very helpful.

I'd like to ask the same question about IEP meetings. You mentioned that sometimes they could be a little nerve-wracking! Is there a way that school administrators can make them better? Because a lot of students don't even choose to participate.

I know that when I was young, I just thought that IEP meetings consisted of everybody sitting down and droning on and on about what I was bad at and needed to work on. Students need to be told that their IEP meetings are helpful in planning their future. The meeting is a tool that will enable them to be successful students and people later in life, and their input is valued and essential. I always made my parents promise not to embarrass me (they didn't always listen, though,) and I found it helpful to talk separately with my [teacher for the visually impaired] afterward to evaluate how the meeting had gone. Let's face it: I can't always be completely honest with tons of people in one room, especially when I'm still reeling from being the center of so much attention. Not being a person who reacts well to criticism, I always found the meetings to be pretty emotionally draining. Remember that a disabled student's friends rarely have IEP meetings, so he probably won't have anyone with whom he can commiserate.

Keeping the meeting informal, positive and upbeat is always a plus. Being super-serious and not cracking a joke will just make her more nervous. I also think that, though assessing grades and prior events is important, the meetings should be focused more on improvement and the future than on negative issues and the past.

You mentioned that you were interested in going into education yourself. What would you like to teach, and what draws you to that profession?

I have always loved reading and writing. For this reason, I will be attending the University of California at Santa Cruz, where I will be majoring in English literature with an emphasis in creative writing. I hope to be a middle school English teacher someday. I love teenagers, and for that reason, I have often thought of becoming a therapist for young people...but teaching is really my calling. The idea of influencing young people, introducing them to literature and getting to know them through their writing has always excited me. I'd also love to be an author, but, of course, that's a big dream. However, I've already written two novels (young adult fiction), and I'm hard at work on my third. I plan to begin sending my first book, which I've been editing for almost a year, to publishers soon. Cross your fingers for me!

I thank Caitlin so much for these thoughtful responses. I hope to include more direct interviews with students in my blog over the coming year.

Posted by Christina Samuels at 3:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I met a number of wonderful students when I visited Los Angeles for my recent story on Braille literacy, including Caitlin Hernandez, an 18-year-old high school graduate from Danville, Calif.

Caitlin is a three-time winner of the Braille Challenge, which tests students' spelling, reading comprehension, transcription speed and accuracy, and proofreading skills. She plans to attend the University of California at Santa Cruz in the fall, and is interested in being an English teacher.

She has been generous enough to offer some great thoughts on what it's like to be a student with a disability in a mainstreamed environment. She has been blind since birth, with a rare condition called Leber's congenital amaurosis. It appears in about 3 out of every 100,000 births.

Tell us a little bit about yourself. Have you attended public school your whole life?

I was born on April 5, 1990 in Walnut Creek, Calif. My mom, Debbie, who works as a Braille interpreter for a blind middle school student, and my dad, Mark, who is a San Francisco police officer, raised my sister, Courtney, who is four years my senior, and myself in Martinez, California until 1994. Then we moved to Danville, where we stayed.

From age 5, I was fully mainstreamed in our district. "Blending in" was never an issue. I loved my teachers, my schoolwork, my friends, and, of course, the playground. Elementary school was where I began to exercise my three main loves in life: reading, writing and singing. By the time I finished second grade, I had completely mastered the Braille code. I had begun learning it at age three. Braille literary code supposedly came to me easily, but Nemeth, or the math Braille code, was and is another story. I've always been an English lover, and math was a struggle during elementary school and onward. Still, as I moved through school, my parents, regular education teachers, special education teachers, TVIs (teachers of the visually impaired), and O&M (orientation and mobility) instructors all worked together to enhance my education.

Have you always been fully included in the classroom? How did your school district handle your Braille instruction? Was there a teacher in your school, or did a teacher visit you a certain number of hours or days a week? How did this change from elementary school to middle school to high school?

I always saw myself as "just another kid" in the classroom, and I mean that in an extremely positive way. I didn't like a big fuss made about the fact that I was different -- that I had Braille books and a clunky Braille writer and walked around with a white cane (when I was a good kid and remembered to use it instead of just tearing off with my friends) -- and I think that everyone knew and respected that. My blindness rarely caused me to feel singled out or even "different" from the other students. In elementary school, regular ed classroom teachers usually had me present a little schtick at the beginning of the year: "This is my Brailler...this is my enormous version of our history book, which is fat for you and is twenty-six volumes for me...this is my cane...don't ask me to guess who you are, because it kind of bugs me." But as I moved into middle school, such explanations became more common knowledge, and I integrated and mingled with my sighted peers with fewer questions on their part.

The San Ramon Valley Unified School District worked in tandem with the county to send me itinerant Braille teachers. As I grew older, became more independent and learned to become my own advocate, the assistance from TVI-S and O&M instructors lessened. In kindergarten, I had an aide every day at almost any given time. By fifth grade, I had an aide for about half the day. By eighth grade, I only had help in math, science and my resource period, which was basically a study hall. And by my senior year, the aide and I spent most of our allotted four hours a week talking about the books we were reading and our weekend plans.

How did your teachers handle having a blind student in their classroom? What were some of your best and worst experiences with this?

I am lucky in that I have had very few negative experiences in the mainstream classroom. I never minded being the only blind child at my elementary school, probably because I never really thought about it. I never felt isolated from my classmates. After all, we all liked the same things: having sleep-overs, going roller skating, eating ice cream, hanging out at the park, reading, watching Arthur and Rugrats and Bill Nye on TV, playing Go Fish and Trouble and Monopoly...the list goes on.

In high school, though, things sometimes got trickier. Not all high school teachers are aware of or prepared for the planning that goes along with educating a blind student. Math teachers, in particular, were fantastic about letting me have extra time on tests because of my difficulty with the subject, and science teachers, too, were incredibly accommodating and clever about adapting activities in a way in which I would understand and benefit. As for bad experiences, they certainly did exist. My favorite teachers were those that gave me all my work on time, didn't give me any "special treatment" and, quite frankly, let me do my thing without interfering. But sometimes there can be teachers who see a special needs student as an opportunity to educate the class. "If Caitlin can do this," they might say, "then you, who can see, should certainly be able to." I don't see myself as a better or worse student because of my being blind, so, of course, I resented being held up and singled out in this way.

Where possible, I always like to take my exams in class with my classmates, so that they know that, even though I get double-time for some of them, I'm not getting outside help. Some teachers don't like me taking tests with their students, though, because they feel that my typing and Braille reading are distracting to the other students. This was often cause for some embarrassment on my part, not to mention questions from my classmates: "Why is Caitlin leaving again? Is someone helping her with the test?" And then, of course, if I got a good grade: "It's because she leaves the room...she couldn't really have gotten an A on her own." If there's one thing that I don't like, it's people thinking that I'm not as good as my sighted peers, or that I need more help than they do just because I read and learn in a slightly different way.

Tomorrow: Caitlin talks about participating in her individualized education program meetings, and gives tips for teachers who have a student with a disability in their classroom.

Posted by Christina Samuels at 4:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Here's a perfect story for me to come across after spending the weekend in Los Angeles for the Braille Challenge: a teacher in Connecticut who has created a class for sighted students to learn Braille. That's a unique approach to sensitizing sighted students to the needs of blind students, and it's exciting that one of the students involved said she plans to be a teacher of blind students when she graduates from college. I wish the story had more comment from the blind students, though.

Posted by Christina Samuels at 10:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)