Dance & Disability Discourse & Panel-October 15th, 2016

So many issues and topics were brought up in this panel and this was the first one I’ve been involved in related to dance and disabilities although I must stress…Deafness is not a disability.  We view ourselves as a culture and often times in lingo between feeling foreign in our own home country.

One of the topics we heavily discussed is how in schools children with different disabilities are grouped together in special needs classes when many of them need different kinds of attention and generally don’t belong.  There’s a stigma of teachers and other adults not wanting to deal with them because they require more time and this is apparent ableism happening everyday in those classrooms.  We need to stop this segregation and implement full inclusion and full access for everyone.  The question most people have is how?  The answer…ask those with disabilities what you can do to make it for accessible for them and implement that along with educate others about this implementation.  Education and advocacy are the key here.  Not sure where to start?  Just ask or do your own research.

Honestly I did not speak much at the panel, I already am a “think before I speak” individual and then by the time I plan to contribute something someone else has already said it.  It was a “popcorn” style panel meaning people can jump in with their opinion anytime someone else has finished and this is difficult for Deaf individuals because by the time the interpreter is finished interpreting one person’s input another person has already started with theirs.  Mr Antoine Hunter shared some very good points one being that we need to revamp our books in education.  Currently they are written by “experts” who are not actual experts in that field.  Why are there hearing individuals writing about Deaf culture?  Why are there white researchers writing about African American history?  The other issue is that many qualified individuals from minority groups do not get the chance to have their articles or books published due to lack of opportunity or funds.

However while we were talking about inclusion, I threw in that while we must try to stop segregation in schools and education we also must attack segregation from the top.  There is too much idolism in our society, there is only space for ONE African American Ballerina, ONE Latino Artist, ONE strong Mexican leader, ONE Deaf dancer…No!!  There are several other individuals who are doing just as much or more that are not being recognized.  It’s as if the American culture treats us as a checklist…okay we have one black person, one Mexican, one with a disability so we’ve got our diversity handled and no one can say we are not diverse…This mindset needs to change and it can only start with us.  We have to step up as leaders and tear this mindset down to rebuild it the right way.  This means putting ourselves out there, writing articles about our work or the work of others we feel should be recognized, make films and documentaries, be active in social media.  What are some other ways we can tear this mindset down?

Then after the panel was finished someone asked me about Deaf institute and inclusion in education.  I wish they asked this during the panel as of course I jumped at the opportunity to educate about Deaf culture and needs in education and would love for the other panelist to hear about this.  This is a completely different ballgame.  Deaf institute education wants to preserve our own language and culture and its important we do so and should not apply to full inclusion principles with Hearing schools.  Not to mention there are generations of Deaf family who want to keep their traditions and roots alive through institute.  It will naturally evolve over time.  If we are talking about the mainstream, we definitely should implement full inclusion here in the presentation of having an instructor teach fully in ASL while the students are mixed Hearing and Deaf.  This has proven to be very successful and if you are wondering how the hearing children will learn if they don’t know ASL…they will learn.  Children are fast learners and highly adaptable to learning multiple languages at a young age.  This is the same concept of speaking Spanish at home and learning in English at school.  However if you try to force this on Deaf students, it is not as successful.  It makes more sense for hearing to learn ASL than for Deaf to learn how to hear and speak.  Europeans learn 4-5 languages in school easily, should Americans continue to be limited to only one language?  This serves as a barrier in disguise of a privilege.