Online Resources
Disaboom is a website I found that has great information and resources for people with a variety of disabilities. There are articles, videos, and sources of support. One of the things that drew me to this website is that is a real and viable source of any kind of information a disabled person might need to find out in order to live a more successful life. There is not one ounce of pity or “inspirational” stories of triumph (although I do love those); it is authentic and factual. Some of the information provided focuses on:
- Accessible Homes
- Accessible Travel
- Adaptive Driving
- Adaptive Sports
- Additional Disabilities
- Arthritis
- Assistive Technology
- Cancer
- Care giving
- Dating and Relationships
- Disability Rights
- Disabled Veterans
- Education
- Emergency Preparedness
- Pain
- Entertainment
- Health and Wellness
- Living Forward
- Neurological Disorders
- Parenting and Family
- Regional
- Women's Health
In addition to all of this information, there are also many current articles and videos that are current with the ever changing tides of disability information. Although this is not necessarily a great resource for teachers of disabled students, it can give them basic information of the trials and tribulations that their students must face on a daily basis.
Teachnology is another great website that provides many great resources for teachers. It provides information that involves:
- Teacher Helpers
- Best Teacher Web Sites
- Teacher Articles
- Teacher Catalog
- Teacher Dictionary
- Teacher Forum
- Teacher Newsletter
- Teacher Timesavers
- Teacher Web Sites
- Teaching Tips
All of these resources appear on the homepage of this website. Once you dig deeper into what the website has to offer regarding special education, inclusion, and cerebral palsy, you can see how this could become a go to website to use in your classroom. The cerebral palsy page contains basic information about the disorder, how it works within a classroom setting, related services, curriculum modifications and adaptations, and assistive technology. In addition to all of that information, the page also offers links to other cerebral palsy resources on the web.
Cerebral Palsy Source is a website that almost acts as an advocate for people with cerebral palsy. It’s Cerebral Palsy and Education section depicts what student’s rights are in accordance with the IDEA laws and how to ensure you or your child are receiving the education you are entitled to. Additionally, this website also has pages that focus on IEP for Cerebral Palsy Patients and Teaching Children with Cerebral Palsy. One of the reasons this website impacted me was the thought that if there are websites that focus on the legal rights of people with cerebral palsy, then there must be numerous instances where unfair treatment occurs not just in our classrooms, but everywhere in society. I know we have come a long way in the last 50 years, but we still seem to have a good long way to go. This website could be a helpful tool for teachers so that are aware of what their CP students are entitled to under the law. Parents can also benefit from the information provided by the Cerebral Palsy Source if they need legal advice about the treatment of their child.
Teaching Tips is an expansive website of various links to assist teachers in becoming effective par layers of knowledge. The website is basically a giant lists of resources. Digging deeper into the site, I found The Ultimate Guide to Special Needs Teaching: 100+ Resources and Links within the website content. This page is a virtual gem for addressing any type of disability that may be present within your classroom. Whether you have an entire class of students with special needs, or you’ve welcomed a student with a disability into your traditional classroom, this massive list of resources will help you research different disorders and conditions, review special lesson plans, and find the support you need to work with your students and help them succeed. The disabilities addressed include various links for blind students, deaf students, ESL students, autistic students, mentally challenged students, physically challenged students, general materials and resources for special needs students, inviting special needs students into a traditional classroom, technology and special needs students, terminally ill students, and teacher support. There are lesson plans, accommodations, and ways to enhance the learning experience for any type of disabled student within your classroom. This is definitely a resource I will be using to make my classroom a positive learning environment for all of my students.
The Exceptional Teacher's Factsheet is a short PDF file created by the Faculty of Education at Brandon University in Canada
The University of West Virginia
Introduction
General Courtesy
General Strategies
Teacher Presentation
Laboratory
Group Interaction and Discussion
Field Experiences
Research
Testing
Each section has information about how to handle yourself around your CP students as well as different strategies to make learning easier for your students. One of the sections I found to be most helpful was the General Courtesy portion because no other site I have looked has given these types of tips. We need to understand as teachers that even though we may feel a need to coddle our CP students, it actually comes across as quite derogatory. Some examples of the tips included within this section include:
- Accept the fact that a disability exists. Not acknowledging this fact is not acknowledging the person.
- Ask the student to tell you when he/she anticipates a need for assistance.
- Don't lean on a student's wheelchair. The chair is a part of the body space of the student who uses it.
- Don't patronize students who use wheelchairs by patting them on the head. This is a sign of affection that should be reserved only for small children, and most of them do not like it either.
Moreover, this website has ways of accommodating your CP in other school settings such as the science lab and field experiences. All of the information included touches on topics that I would not have thought about. This website is a great learning tool for teachers in an inclusive classroom or special education teachers.
This was chosen as one of my resources because I think seeing real people with a specific disorder can sometimes have a greater impact on a person than reading a lot of basic information. Watching this video not only inspired me to be great at reaching my CP students, but it also gave some insight into the complexities of raising a child with CP. Watching how Samual and his brother interact and how his brother embraces him and his differences truly makes you want to make all of your students understand that just because you may be different, you still have many of the same dreams as other kids your age. Moreover, as a teacher I want to spend a lot of time with my class teaching and learning about acceptance. Raising students to have more compassion and understanding of all people can only succeed in creating more well rounded adult advocates for all peoples with disabilities. This video has an abundance of love and support for Samual and it truly makes you want every disabled child to experience the same such support.
The journal article "Inclusion on the Bookshelf" should be a must read for all teachers. The article focuses on the lack of contemporary fiction based on disability acceptance. Even though it has been over thirty years since the United States segregated special education students, it appears the publishing world has failed to publish books depicting disabled children in a socially accepted light. Most fiction involving disabilities focuses on the disabled child and how he copes with his disability. I know this to be true because during my research for children's fiction involving cerebral palsy, many of the books had outdated themes that cast the disabled child in a segregated, labeled, lonely, and lost world. The article goes on to explain that "finding books that are disability-positive may take some digging, but it is worth the effort. Truly inclusive books serve to dispel stereotypes, prevent bullying, and support students who are labeled disabled (Jackson, p.63)". Teachers need to understand that prejudice is a learned behavior and the way to change that among your students is through education. The article includes some highly positive books to use in your classroom that involve a character whom has a disability. I was especially interested in Reaching for Sun by Tracie Vaughn Zimmer. It is a book of free verse poems about Josie who has cerebral palsy. Reading this article will help teachers see that just reading a book about a disability will not change your students views about disabled people. The book needs to have meaning and show the disabled person as someone has hopes and dreams just like everyone else.
Jackson, C. (2009). Inclusion on the bookshelf. Teaching Tolerance, Fall(36), 63-68.
This article focuses on how children with cerebral palsy view their assistive devices. It is a study based students of various ages with cerebral palsy in Tawaiin. The researchers interviewed 15 Tawaiinese students, their parents, and teachers about whether they liked their devices and why. Because devices often times are connected to CP students bodies (wheelchairs and leg braces), they can have the function of making the users' condition more noticable. Additionally, the article talks about if the student feels he is in an unsupported environment, they may have negative feelings about their devices and their willingness to use them. Four factors were evident when students felt positive about the devices they used. They included their desire to overcome the physical limitations of having disabilities, the view of themselves as students made them accept the use of the device in the school setting, their willingness to use the device was inspired by their enthusiasm for socializing and school participation, and the high frequency of use of their device made other students more accepting of it. Basically, the purpose of the study was to show that for CP students to feel positively about their devices, they need a high support system among their parents, teachers, and administrators. This is a useful article for all teachers and parents so that they may create a supportive environment for the student to grow and have a say in what devices truly make thier lives better.
Huang, I. , Sugden, D., & Beveridge , S. (2009). Assistive devices and cerebral palsy: the use of assistive devices at school by children with cerebral palsy. Child: care, health, and development, 35(5), 698-708
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