Emerging America - Disability, Citizenship, and Civil Rights
Emerging America - Disability, Citizenship, and Civil Rights
*This lesson was developed by Emerging America and links to an external source.
Summary:
Lesson 1 is essential to introduce study of disability. Lesson 2 integrates disability into study of immigration. This lesson could also stand alone, or it could support a larger immigration unit. Lessons 3 & 4 work together but could also work separately. All three lessons can be taught in one grade or introduced over multiple grades.
Lesson 1: What is "Disability"?
Introduces ideas about disability in part to ensure that students approach the topic and their peers with respect and kindness. Optional activities deepen understanding of disability and disability rights.
Lesson 2: Immigration: Who Is In? And Who Is Out?
Examines immigration to the U.S. from the 1880s to 1920s including how it focused on disability.
Lesson 3: History of the Disability Rights Movement
A teacher's presentation and student discussion explore strategies for change across 200 years of struggles for disability rights.
Lesson 4: How Disability Activists Created Change
Analyzes the work of disability rights activists. Small groups move between stations. Students evaluate sources, and then they develop a claim about civic engagement strategies based on evidence.
This entry links to the resources that are owned by the creators and listed here for easier access within our database of lessons and resources.
Subject and topic:
Civics and History, Disability History
Grade level:
4 - 5
Duration:
Lesson 1: 35 minutes plus optional activities.
Lesson 2: 130 minutes, or more with an extension. (Lesson can stand alone.)
Lesson 3: 45 minutes.
Lesson 4: 120 minutes.
Our Notes for teaching these lessons:
Please note that the format of Emerging America lessons at the time of review was not well-suited for screen readers with the excessive use of tables and images with insufficient descriptions. We share this for blind teachers as well as teachers who have blind students who may need additional description provided.
We welcome your feedback as you teach these lessons, Please share your notes with us by emailing us.
General guidance for this unit:
We recommend being familiar with the social model of disability as well as some of the others that are useful in considering how disabled people are viewed in society.
Consider respectful kindness vs objectification or patronization. Teachers may find the Stella Young Ted Talk informative to guide this understanding.
Lesson 1:
We recommend that to avoid accidentally teaching that disabled people existed only in the past letting students know about modern DeafBlind people as well. Some examples include Haben Girma, Alan Constable, Donald Gibson, Jelica Nuccio, John Lee Clark, Robert Tarango
We recommend replacing the phrasing about Laura Bridgman being the first DeafBlind person to have formal education in the US to reflect this accurate information:
"She was the first person celebrated nationally within the formal education system. The fact that there are no other records do not mean that others were not also educated.
Be prepared to talk about what is recorded/information that is promoted v. actual facts.
Lesson 2:
“What are they thinking” questions can be problematic as we tend to project our own biases and prejudices and assumptions onto someone else. Looking into a camera may present a different appearance than a candid photo as well. When are you developing empathy and where are you projecting own biases.
Word list may be more detailed than necessary.
This is an important and rarely discussed topic. We encourage you to use this lesson in conjunction with a larger discussion of disability and immigration.
There are opportunities to look at modern day immigration policies as well.
Here’s an article that provides additional information:
Lesson 3:
This lesson shows the history longer ago and beyond the Independent Living Movement and we encourage teachers to include those moments and not omit them.
Some other important moments however are missing from this lesson, such as the Olmstead Decision of 1999 and the ADA Restoration Act of 2008.
Lesson 4:
This is a good introduction to this part of history. Please be aware however, that this is only a part of the work disabled people have done to ensure our civil rights and that that the work isn’t finished.
An additional conversation this lesson could lead to is about the various definitions of disability.
Students would read the ADA definition of disability and consider what legislation is and why it needs to define terms.
Students would consider why medical and social settings, for example, might define disability differently.
They would think about when it might be better to have disability defined and when it’s not necessary or an invasion of privacy.
Examples, laws or medical situations require definitons, but social interactions do not
The minimum requirements of the ADA are in place in order to have sanctions, they aren’t there to provide instruction on how to best meet those requirements.
As mentioned in previous lessons, keep in mind not to imply that this work was finished in the 1990s. Not only has the ADA faced being challenged since then, our civil rights are still not guaranteed today.
Links to download lessons:
Homepage for Disability, Citizenship, and Civil Rights Unit
Lesson 1: Introduction: What is Disability?
Lesson 2: Immigration: Who Is In? And Who Is Out?