Short book reflection: Disability and world language learning
The book that I read was “Disability and world language learning: Inclusive teaching for diverse learners” by Sally S. Scott and Wade A. Edwards. The book essentially serves as an introduction for university language teachers to three things: the needs of students with disabilities, the ways that most universities work to support them, and how to think through planning a course in a way that serves students with disabilities just as well as students without them. The sections of the book dealing with course planning emphasize a particular framework of course design called universal design for instruction (UDI; Scott & Edwards, 2019). This is an expansion of the architectural and product design principle known as universal design. Universal design is essentially the idea that a product designed to help the disabled can also help others. One example brought up in the book is the idea that a ramp cut into the curb at a street corner, while serving primarily to allow people who use wheelchairs to enter and exit the sidewalk, can also serve people carrying rolling suitcases or pushing strollers (Scott & Edwards, 2019). Similarly, the authors of the book advise an approach to education where services are provided that, while primarily helping those with disabilities, can also make life easier for those without disabilities. Among the suggestions for services to provide are posting resources online (so students with visual disabilities can have them read to them with text-to-speech resources), designing handouts in a clear, uncluttered way (to aid students with ADHD or similar issues with focus), and presenting information in multiple formats, such as both audio and visual (to help students who have impairments in one sensory domain but not the other). In all three of these cases, while students with disabilities are the main people helped, the resources can also be useful for students without disabilities.
In terms of using this book in a class, I do not feel that it could be used in a normal language class. The book is written for an audience of teachers, and since it focuses mainly on the concerns of teachers who have students with disabilities, I feel that students reading it might find it irrelevant to their concerns. In fact, the book does not even say much about the social justice issues related to disability outside of its narrow concern for how teachers can make their classes more accessible. Thus, a student who wanted to learn about the history of disability rights, or who wanted a more than cursory treatment of what it feels like to have one disability or another, would walk away from this book disappointed. I do feel, however, that this book is useful for its primary audience of language teachers, so if I were training teachers, I think I could make beneficial use of this book as a class material.
Since, as mentioned above, I could only see using this book if I were training teachers, I think I would center class discussion on what teachers could do if they had students with types of disabilities not addressed in the book. The book addresses many types of disabilities—from limited mobility to blindness and deafness to ADHD. It also addresses autism (which some consider to be a disability and some do not). However, one type of disability that the book does not address is one I have witnessed in a few students myself: when students have a condition (such as severe chronic pain) which means they regularly cannot attend class. I think it would be fruitful to discuss how to apply the notions discussed in the book (such as universal design for instruction) to a condition not discussed specifically in the book, so as to train student teachers to think of ways to help students with a wide variety of abilities.
Regarding the connections between the book and issues that have been discussed in class, I think the most direct connection between this book and the class is the idea of critical pedagogy. One element of critical pedagogy is the idea that teachers must constantly reflect on their teaching process so as to find ways to improve it, and this book is focused on encouraging that reflection and showing teachers productive ways to improve their instruction so as to better serve students with disabilities (and sometimes other students as a result).
Source referenced in this review:
Scott, S. S., & Edwards, W. A. (2019). Disability and world language learning: Inclusive teaching for diverse learners. Boulder, CO: Rowman & Littlefield.
Thanks for sharing the short book reflection, Jacob! I guess this is the book you once mentioned in the practicum class? I thought it was interesting that universal design aims to help not only the disabled but also others without disabilities. Usually we tend to focus on how we can help the disabled and try to treat them with a special care, but I like the idea of universal design trying to make the design accessible for everyone equally, regardless of disability. The examples you gave about how universal design can be incorporated in the lessons or classroom settings (making clear handouts, presenting info in both audio/visual formats, etc.) were helpful! I wonder if everything we do to make lessons better is considered as universal design in a broad sense? Like promoting pair work/ group work for more opportunities of participation and checking in with each other, giving step-by-step instructions so everyone, including the disabled, can follow the directions? I had not really thought about universal design in classrooms (apart from the architectural design in everyday lives), so it was interesting!
Very interesting! We talked in Thor’s Mobile Assisted Language Learning class about, in addition to augmenting/expanding normal lessons in cool ways, mobile phones can also help students with disabilities in various ways–another dimension in which to consider universal design!
I like the idea of applying the ideas in the book to disabilities that are not addressed. Even the ones that are addressed might be good to think about. My cooperating teacher for practicum has a blind student in one of his other classes, but because it’s an IEP course and not a mainstream one, he can’t get any university support for her! He’s had to transcribe every single page of the textbook pdf for her braille reader on his own time. Aside from being a ridiculous and horrible bureaucratic situation, it would be good to think about less-than ideal situations and how universal design could help with those before they arise.
This is a very good book Jacob, thank you for reading it and sharing your reflections with us. If I can add “disability” to the SJ course content next year, I’ll definitely use this book.
As for your comment about students with interrupted schooling-this might apply to migrant students as well – what connections did you make for this particular group of students and the book itself and the suggestions made for other groups?
Thanks for your well thought out reflection Jacob! I didn’t know you had interest in teacher training – you would make a great teacher trainer! It seems like this book is practical and useful. I want to see the materials it provides us teachers. I like that you drew attention to the fact that the book does not address some physical disabilities. What other things does the book leave out? How might you adjust your teaching to meet these students’ needs ?
Yes! Thank you so much for reviewing this book, Jacob. It’s so fascinating to read because honestly, even being (non visibly) disabled, I almost never think about accomodations. Having grown up in America, at least the SF Bay area, I thought that accomodations were just .. a right. Ramps everywhere, elevators where possible, crosswalk buttons that speak to you, translations of almost every legal document.
It’s so important that you raised this issue because maybe, like me, people just don’t think about it. LGBTQ+ issues are raised constantly, race issues as well. But there are countries where people with disabilities are literally shipped off to what can only be described as slave labor.
I might just have to pick up a copy.
Mari: Yes, I think that’s a fair expansion of the concept of universal design, since some people may need these changes more than others, but everyone will benefit (which I think is more or less what universal design is about).
Melanie: Yes, I think universal design helps students who have various needs even if they don’t have a diagnosis. That being said, one thing that disappointed me about this book is the fact that it assumed universities are always able and willing to provide resources to those who need it. It didn’t provide any guidance for a situation like that of the CT, where the university does not provide resources even when there’s a clear need. It even flat-out says that teachers cannot provide extra accommodations when the university does not instruct them to, since that could lead to accusations of unfairness.
Deniz: The one connection that I could make between the book and someone who has a chronic illness and has to miss class a lot is that I think the book’s suggestion to put class resources and lecture slides online on a class management system would also be applicable to these students, since they could still get class material that way even if they have to miss class. As for students whose schooling has been interrupted, I’m not sure. I actually faced such a situation when I was teaching in Morocco this summer. I had one student who had studied abroad in Jordan the previous year. Before coming to Jordan, she knew the Arabic alphabet, but that was all. However, since the school in Jordan saw that she knew the alphabet, she was not allowed to take the introductory Arabic class. Instead, that school put her into the intermediate-level class. Fast-forwarding to this past summer, she was placed into my intermediate class in Morocco. It was very rough for both of us because although she had a wide vocabulary, her ability to use Arabic grammar was weak, and oftentimes, when I was giving my students something related to grammar in class which was supposed to be a review, this student would be encountering it for the first time. She came to my office hours a lot, and I feel like she was able to benefit from the class, but I feel like there were several gaps in her knowledge that it might have been better for me to try to fill.
Kate: Haha I’m not actually particularly interested in being a teacher trainer. I was just thinking hypothetically about what kind of situation I would use the book in. And yeah, aside from the book leaving out how to help students who have to miss class a lot due to chronic illness, I also feel, as mentioned above, that the book doesn’t provide much help for teachers who have a student that seems to have clear needs but is not being taken care of by the school for whatever reason. Since the book also implies that a teacher could suffer consequences for providing more resources to a student who has not been told officially that they can get accommodations, I’m not sure what I would do in such a situation.
Ann: I’m glad the book sounds interesting to you! I became interested in ableism due to a friend I had at UCLA who was dealing with both mental illness and physical disability, and was facing difficulties from professors who refused to be accommodating. From discussions with this person, and reading up on the issue, I’ve come to realize how widely ignored the issue is, even in some social justice circles.
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