Ability and Ableism – March 30

            I am able-bodied, but I am classified as disabled due to my learning disability. When I was 7 years old, I was diagnosed with Central Auditory Processing Disorder (CAPD). When I was in grade one, my teacher told my parents at the very end of the year, that she noticed something was wrong with me at the beginning of the year. She noticed that I was having a really hard time focusing, I had a really hard time seeing the board, I had a hard time hearing, and the most important one was, I was having a really hard time processing words when someone was talking to me. I don’t remember struggling as I was so little. As I got older, I could see where I had a hard time with things, and that’s when I became kind of aware.

            When I was diagnosed, I was one of the only kids in my entire elementary school that had a disability. While being one of the only kids, I got very bullied and teased because no one knew how to react to someone with a disability. I was taken out of class for most of the day to spend with an AI and she would give me one on one help. As time went on, I was learning how to cope with having it and what things worked for me. I always need to sit at the front of the class or I have a really difficult time hearing or focusing. I was treated very different and to this day when I tell people I have a disability, I get weird looks or I get treated differently.

            While reading through “Chapter 6: Understanding Privilege Through Ableism”, I came across a “disability Bingo” on page 94. While reading the spaces, a lot of them applied to me and how it was growing up for me. I would mainly hear things from the “General Annoying Ignorance” or “Smug Superiority/Condescension”. I heard a lot growing up “you don’t look like you have a disability” or “you speak so well for having something wrong with your brain”. I would have a lot of people talk really slow to me, which doesn’t make a difference.   

            The whole reason I thought of going into teaching is that I got a job with the Catholic School board as an IA. I have been working there for almost 2 years now and I absolutely love it. I love working with all the special needs children and being able to relate to some kids I get to work one on one with. While working with these children, I have become aware of how hard it can be for some of these children and I really want to help them. My main reason for wanting to be a teacher is, I want to help children just like me and make other students aware and normalize it so kids don’t grow up as I did. I want to make both able-bodied and disabled kids feel normal in my future classroom and not have to worry about things when they are in my class.