Access is a Civil Right - Capitol Crawl
This lesson plan is a guide for how you can have a discussion with your students about the history of the ADA and, more specifically, the Capitol Crawl, which was a protest that was successful in urging congress to vote on the ADA. The lessons center around a 9 minute video that tells the story of the Capitol Crawl. There is a worksheet that goes with this lesson.
Black Disabled Art History Lesson
Students will select a Black Disabled artist from Leroy Moore’s Black Disabled Art History 101. Students will research their selected artist and their works. Students will choose a piece of artwork created by this artist and analyze it using a critical artistic framework. This lesson can be adapted for a wide range of ages.
Image description: Cover photo of Black Disabled Art History 101
Blind Willie Johnson Lesson
Students will learn about one of the most influential blues guitarists of the early 1900s, Blind Willie Johnson. They will read an article detailing his life and how he is remembered. The class will then listen to an example of his music, and covers of his music. Students will also discuss how blind musicians can help advance the discussion concerning the stigma of disability.
Image description: halftone photograph of Blind Willie Johnson
Calendar of Events
A calendar of events that recognizes various days (and months) is an easy way to bring the conversation about disability into your classrooms and schools. Including discussion of disabled people throughout the year sends a message to all that disabled students are recognized and valued as a part of the education community.
Image description: calendar page tilted at an angle, reading glasses rest on the bottom corner of the calendar
Circle of Friends Lesson
Students will participate in an exercise and discussion on disability and segregation. In this lesson students will map out social interactions in their everyday lives. After they complete the exercise the teacher will facilitate a discussion on segregation. Students with disabilities who grow up in institutions are effectively segregated from the rest of the population, so their social circles tend to look very different from the students in class. This lesson is split into two class periods.
Image description: Overlapping circles with various disability icons inside each circle
Coloring Books, Pages and Clip Art with Disability Representation
Including coloring pages and artwork in lessons (some of these allow you to use as clip art) that includes disability representation furthers the goal of regularizing disability by seeing it and offering opportunities to learn and ask questions.
Image Description: small images of the coloring books on a yellow background
Defiant Lives Disability Rights Lesson
Students will watch “Defiant Lives: The Rise and Triumph of the Disability Rights Movement in the United States, England, and Australia.” It covers important milestones in disability activism, from breaking people out of nursing homes to advocating for equal rights. The discussion topics in the film vary from institutionalization to passing legislation. The film highlights in particular, the vast differences between the medical model of disability and the social model of disability. For 5 days, students will watch a segment of the film and record their own thoughts and then discuss their thoughts with a partner and the full group. The last two days students will work together to create their own plan to address an issue in their own community.
Image description: Defiant Lives poster showing stairs and projected onto the stairs is a pink and black wheelchair and disability activist. Text at the top says Defiant Lives and text at the bottom says the Rise and Triumph of the Disability Rights Movement
Disability and Disability Arts Invisible Disabilities/Autism/Poetry/Golden Shovels Poetic Form
Lesson title: Disability and Disability Arts - Disability and Disability Arts Invisible Disabilities/ Autism/Poetry/ Golden Shovels Poetic Form
This is a three part lesson to introduce the student to disability and a disabled artist's work. Disability arts is an art form where the context of the art takes on disability as its theme. Disability art is about exploring the various realities of what it's like to be disabled. The theme of disability may be used in a variety of ways in how the artist chooses to represent the theme in their work. This lesson uses poetry created by Ian Fay.
Disability and Disability Arts - Invisible Disabilities - “See Me; Invisibility” Paintings Lessons
Disability and Disability Arts - Invisible Disabilities - “See Me; Invisibility” Paintings Lessons
This is a three part lesson to introduce the student to disability and a disabled artist's work. Disability arts is an art form where the context of the art takes on disability as its theme. Disability art is about exploring the various realities of what it's like to be disabled. The theme of disability may be used in a variety of ways in how the artist chooses to represent the theme in their work. This lesson uses 3 paintings created by Mali Fenning.
Disability History through Primary Sources
As our friends from Engaging America state, “Primary sources … can provide entry points and deepen exploration into historical events. Primary sources add immediacy, such as the faces in a photograph, the emotional tone of a drawing or song, or the complex look of a handwritten document. Documents from multiple points of view can illuminate conflicting ideas and events. Varied media, including maps, oral histories, published reports, and graphs offer many options for connection and investigation”.
We share these collections or primary sources as tools to continue introducing disability into the conversation from natural perspectives, using disabled people to tell their own stories whenever possible.
Image Description: Article from Dallas Times Herald, Wednesday, January 14, 1986 in section “Community Close-Up” titled “Police on sidewalk wheelchair ramps changed”
Full image description can be found at: https://adaptmuseum.net/gallery/picture.php?/451/category/16
Disability Justice Lesson Plan - Education Amplifier
In this lesson plan, you’ll find six modules that you can mix and match, that all teach about different aspects of disability rights and disability justice.
Image Description: Education Amplifier’s illustration of Lydia X.Z. Brown
Easterseals Short Films Lesson Plan
Students will review the social model of disability and then apply it to 4 short films created for the Easterseals Disability Film Challenge. “The Easterseals Disability Film Challenge gives filmmakers—with and without disabilities—the opportunity to collaborate to tell unique stories that showcase disability in its many forms (disabilityfilmchallenge.com).” Students will watch the 4 winning films, and then break into groups to focus on analyzing one film as a group.
FDR Hiding his Disability Lesson
Students will engage in discussion about the Stigma associated with disability. They will then learn about FDR and how illness made him lose the ability to fully walk. They will then learn about how FDR, the people around him, and the press worked to keep his disability as secret as possible. This will lead to a discussion about the impact of his decision to hide his disability, and how taking a prideful approach to his disability could have changed how people perceived him and others with disabilities.
Image description: photograph of Franklin D. Roosevelt
Hephaestus - Greek Mythology
Students will read about Hephaestus. After reading each passage, they will be able to reflect and write about how Hephaestus is portrayed in that specific passage. Using evidence from each passage, the students must justify their opinions.
Image description: Statue of Hephaestus
Laura Hershey Poetry Lesson: “You Get Proud By Practicing”
Students will analyze Laura Hershey’s poem, “You Get Proud By Practicing.” A poet, author, and activist, Laura Hershey first published the poem in 1991. To better understand its context, students will learn about neuromuscular diseases, disability activism in the 1980s, and the passing of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA). Students will then analyze the poem for repetition and figurative language and understand what Hershey suggests it means to get proud. After discussing the poem, students will write and share their own poems about getting proud using those literary devices.
Image description: photo of Laura Hershey
The New York Times - ‘26.2 Miles Is Easy. Getting Around New York City Is Not.’ - Lesson Plan
In this lesson, students will learn why it’s easier for one athlete to win a marathon in New York than to navigate the city in a wheelchair. Then, students will evaluate the accessibility of public spaces where they live.
Image Description: "The Learning Network Teaching & Learning with the New York Times" Below the text is an illustration of a green chalkboard with a lightning bolt.
Out of my Mind - Book Discussion Guide
Out of My Mind is narrated by a girl with cerebral palsy who's very intelligent but unable to express herself by speaking or physically. When Melody is integrated into some general classes at school, many kids are purposely mean; others, including teachers, are cruel through their assumptions that Melody is incapable of understanding them. With the help of her parents and some supportive friends and teachers, Melody acquires a machine that allows her to communicate better than she ever has before (Common Sense Media). At last Melody has a voice… but not everyone around her is ready to hear it (Draper, 2010). This book discussion guide can also be adapted into a full assignment if that is more applicable for your student group.
Image description: Cover from the book “Out of My Mind”
Patient No More: People with Disabilities Securing Civil Rights
Teaching the story of the 504 occupation, the focus of the Patient No More exhibit, will undoubtedly leave students with a new perspective toward living with a disability. “Patient No More” offers a story about the creativity and strength that comes out of the disability community, an incredible example of how change can happen from the bottom up. It's also a story about how disability rights have changed the lives of all Americans in ways they might not realize.
Image Description: “Patient No More - People with disabilities securing civil rights” black and white photo of protestors with capitol building in the background, many in wheelchairs, one with a sign on the back of their wheelchair that says “We Shall Overcome”
Personify a Word with Social Media Lesson
Students will research concepts related to disability and then create a physical Pinterest board in groups. Each group will present and discuss their concept in a gallery walk style. This lesson highlights the social model of disability as well as introducing disability topics.
Image description: the word “personification” repeated over and over at an angle
Posters with Disability Inclusive Content
Posters with disability representation. Most are free to download, though some can be purchased as well.
Image description: Corkboard wall with many signs of assorted size and colors.