To celebrate National Disability Mentoring Day (October 16), the WEEA
Equity Resource Center would like to share an activity from its most recent
publication, Gender Matters: Training for Educators Working with Students
with Disabilities by Harilyn Rousso and Michael Wehmeyer. Gender Mattersis
an in service training program that helps teachers and other professionals
working with students with disabilities recognize bias, and create a gender
equitable classroom environment that benefits all students. This guide is
an excellent way to inform educators about the double discrimination based
on gender AND disability that girls and young women with disabilities often
face. To order Gender Matters ($25.00 plus shipping and handling), call
800-793-5076 or go to:
https://secure.edc.org/publications/prodview.asp?1519
Check out this activity designed to increase career opportunities for
students with disabilities (excerpted from Gender Matters):
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Activity 5: Designing Introductory Activities to Expand Career and Life
Options for Students
Situation 1: You overhear Bill, who has a cognitive disability, telling a
few of his friends that he hopes to work as a teacher or a teacher's aide
in a day-care center one day because he likes little kids. They laugh at
him
and call him a sissy and a girl. So he decides that maybe he'll work in the
maintenance department in a day-care center, since he's seen men in those
jobs. Design a lesson or activity that demonstrates that jobs involving
nurturing and caring for children and adults are appropriate for men.
Situation 2: Susan likes science but she doubts that it will be possible
for her to become a scientist. She has limited coordination in her hands
and arms as the result of cerebral palsy, and during science lab, she often
finds herself relying heavily on her friends for assistance in manipulating
materials. She's also worried that science may be too brainy a field for a
girl, particularly a girl with a visible disability who already is seen by
boys as unattractive and not feminine. Design a lesson or set of activities
to demonstrate that girls with disabilities involving even significant
limitations can become scientists, and that girls can be both smart and
attractive.
Situation 3: Marie, who has multiple disabilities, tells you that she's
sure that she will either grow out of her disability or die before she
becomes an adult, since she's never seen or met any adult women with
disabilities. Design an activity that would provide Marie and her disabled
peers with access to positive adult role models with disabilities. If your
activity involves the participation of adults with disabilities from your
community, be as specific as you can about how and where you would recruit
these role models and what you would ask them to do with students. If you
happened to teach in a small town in which there were few or no adult men
or women with disabilities, what alternatives to direct contact with
disabled adults might you devise to address Marie's need for role models?
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We also have a WEEA Digest entitled "Connecting Gender and Disability"
which summarizes the status of women and girls with disabilities, the
challenges and discrimination they face--as females and as persons with
disabilities--and how school systems can improve education. For a free
single copy, call 800-225-3088.
National Disability Mentoring Day is an event sponsored by the American
Association of People with Disabilities designed to encourage students and
other people with disabilities to explore their career options.
Jolene Pinder
Marketing Coordinator
WEEA EQUITY RESOURCE CENTER at EDC
55 Chapel Street, Newton, MA 02458-1060, USA
Tel: 1-800-225-3088 (TTY 800-354-6798) or 617-618-2326
Fax: 617-332-4318
Email: WEEActr@edc.org
Website: www.edc.org/WomensEquity
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The national Women's Educational Equity Act (WEEA) Program is
a federal mandate to promote educational equity for girls and women.
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