Loving Disabled Children - Module 7

 I have admitted before on this blog that I am a rookie, but I was not only a rookie librarian when I started in 2021, I was a rookie to the elementary world.  For 33 years prior to this job, I served secondary students and educators.  My new principal at the elementary level, Jessica Agee, responded to my concerns by telling me to just love them - everything else would fall into place.  Isn't that at the center of what we are talking about here?  If we love all of our students, then we will serve all of our students appropriately.  

Heart drawn by a red crayon
Photo from Pixabay

As a teacher librarian, I serve students with visual disabilities.  Frankly, I think (and maybe I am wrong) that we should assume that we have many visually disabled students in the primary grades and that is because I believe that we have undiagnosed visual issues within our younger populations.  My own daughter's eye issues were not uncovered by me, but by her third-grade teacher.  Can you understand how it broke my heart driving my daughter home after she received her first pair of eyeglasses to hear her say "mom, the green on the trees are separate little leaves?"  How long had she thought that trees had an undefined green clump on top?

Cartoon tree with a green canopy.  Individual leaves are not discernalbe
Art from Pixabay

To adapt to my assumptions I always do my read-alouds with the vooks (books on video) pulled up on the screen behind me and I consider that to be serving students who might be in the back of the circle and unable to see the illustrations with clarity.  This becomes especially important as you try to teach the importance of the illustrator, illustrations, the Caldecotts, etc.  You may have to change the area of your library where you do your circle time and read-aloud, but it is well worth it!  Here is an example of a great resource for vooks.  Incidentally, I always mute them so I can be the reader, make them full screen, and go into the settings and slow the video down to 50% or 75% speed so I can point out elements of the illustrations before the image changes to the next page.

At home, I have a beloved niece who has mitochondrial disease.  She has been in a wheelchair since elementary school and she also has significant trouble with her fine motor skills.  She has never been able to read a book since she really cannot turn the pages herself.  Her speech, vision, and posture are all negatively affected by the disease.  One thing about her though, is she hears very well - we all say she has bionic ears and she has a great memory and great interest in the goings-on around her.  She loves being around people and loves being a part of what others are doing or talking about.  This includes the latest books that kids in her school are talking about.

A photo of my niece dressed up for Halloween

Using KidsRead2Kids is a great way to allow your students with various disabilities to access books.  For example, right now Pinocchio is all the rage with the great new film adaptation on Disney Plus.  So if you had a student like my niece who might want to read the book as others are now doing, she could access KidsRead2Kids classics and find a reading of Pinocchio.  

While I embrace the concept of Universal Design, I also embrace the concept of love and common sense as implied by Universal Design principle #3 (Spina, n.d.). For my student with autism and OCD, for example, just having a cushion to sit on is key to making the library accessible to him.  He doesn't like the germs on the floor and won't sit down for the read-aloud without a barrier between him and the floor.  A cushion may not be designed as adaptive technology, but in his case it is.  I do believe that I am not hitting the mark in my collection as identified by the ALA (Library Services for People With Disabilities Policy, 2016b).  My library would not be accessible for students in wheelchairs as my shelves are too close together and my collection does not include enough materials featuring disabled characters.  So, I have some work to do!

References

Library services for people with disabilities policy. (2016, September 22). Association of Specialized, Government & Cooperative Library Agencies (ASGCLA). Retrieved October 8, 2022, from https://www.ala.org/asgcla/resources/libraryservices

Spina, C. (n.d.). How universal design will make your library more inclusive. School Library Journal. Retrieved October 8, 2022, from https://www.slj.com/story/how-universal-design-will-make-your-library-more-inclusive