Youth and disability
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Approximately 180-220 million young people live with disabilities globally, with 80% living in the developing world, therefore lacking access to education, healthcare and employment. Disability includes physical, mental or mental illness. Many young people live a healthy and stable life, although people with disabilities may have more obstacles than those without because of their possible limitations, created by physical weakness and social incapacity.[citation needed]
Legal regulations in the United States
Before the 1970s, there were no major federal laws that protected the civil or constitutional rights of Americans with disabilities. The civil rights movement started off the "disability rights movement", which focused on social and therapeutic services for those with disabilities, and in 1975 the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) was created. This law establishes the rights of children with disabilities to attend public schools, to receive services designed to meet their needs free of charge, and to receive instruction in regular education classrooms alongside non-disabled children.[1]
The IDEA also authorized federal grants to states to cover some of the costs of special education services for youth aged three to twenty-one.[1] Additions to the law focused on improving access to general education and curriculum (inclusion programs), developing appropriate assessments, implementing appropriate disciplinary procedures and alternative placements, and creating transition services for youth leaving the education system. This transition can be difficult for youth with a disability if it is too sudden- many of these youth struggle with the independence that graduation allows. In 2004, additions were made to promote better accountability for results, enhance parent involvement, encourage the use of proven practices and materials (increase research on current practices), and reduce administrative burdens for teachers, states and local school districts. Before 1975, only one in five children with identified disabilities attended public school, and many states explicitly excluded children with certain types of disabilities from school; these included children who were blind or deaf, and children labeled "emotionally disturbed" or "mentally retarded".[1]
Current special education system
The current special education system can offer many different supports and services including transportation, speech-language pathology and audiology services, psychological services, physical and occupational therapy, therapeutic recreation, counseling services including rehabilitation counseling, orientation, and mobility services, medical services for diagnostic or evaluation purposes, school health services, social work services in school, and parent counseling and training children.[1] Each unique student and their unique symptoms of their disability is going to require different supports from another youth with a disability (even if it is the same disability). Within the classroom, there are many different ways that teachers and administration can adjust their work to meet the needs of the youth in their classroom with disabilities. Just a few of these adaptations are curriculum modification, small-group or individual instruction, and teachers who are especially skilled in motivating students, adapting instructional materials, teaching reading skills and language arts, and managing student behaviors. Specific accommodations might include tutors or aides, more time for students to take tests, alternative tests or assessments, modified grading standards, slower-paced instruction, shorter or different assignments, more frequent feedback, a reader or interpreter, a peer tutor, or special behavior management approaches and programs.[1]
