Throughout history, Disabled people have always been considered as lesser human beings. In the French grammar, words such as "mongol, arriéré, débile, imbécile, idiot..." were all previously used to qualify people with disabilities. People with disabilities were always referred to in degrading language. The English word 'Handicap' has a very negative connotation as it originated from the words "handing the cap", an expression used to imply begging. Even today some people are still stuck with these backward beliefs. Some even refrain from touching people with disabilities fearing that they might be contagious, but these people do not know what they are missing. People still perceive and conceptualize 'impairments' and related challenges especially physical, in negative and 'disabling' ways. Such perceptions and conceptualizations affect the treatment, growth, development and opportunities of the children in all aspects of their lives.
Having spent more than half of my teaching career with children and adolescents having physical and mental impairments (of more than 20 different types), I firmly believe we have a lot to learn from these angels who are devoid of attitudes such as hypocrisy and selfishness which have become a second nature for so-called 'normal' human beings. In fact having had the luck to interact with disabled children as well as those considered to be the elite in the academic perspective almost every day, I have been convinced by my experiences and findings that : "Disabled people are Intelligent" and that there exists many similarities amongst the disabled and the intellectuals.
Intelligence by its very definition is very subjective. An oxford dictionary explanation would be : 'the ability to acquire and apply knowledge and skills'. Intelligence is not often associated with disability because for many people the word disability itself means an absence of intelligence. Hence many will be shocked to know that some of the most intelligent people on earth such as Isaac Newton, Ludwig Van Beethoven, Albert Einstein and Charles de Gaulle amongst others have all, at some point of time, suffered from disabilities. Newton, De Gaulle and Einstein were diagnosed as autistic. (latest research by Michael Fitzgerald, Professor of Psychiatry at Trinity College, Dublin in 2008 and Professor Simon Baron-Cohen of Cambridge University in 2003), Beethoven admitted his deafness in a letter dated 29th june 1801 addressed to Franz Gerhard Wegeler. These people proved their intelligence in what is considered as mainstream fields. But there are other fields where intelligence is required but sadly enough achievements are not so widely acclaimed. Maintaining that our culture has defined intelligence too narrowly, Gardner proposed, in Frames of Mind (1983), the existence of at least seven basic intelligences ; since then an eighth has been added (Checkley, 1997 ; Roper & Davis, 2000). Gardner's work has encouraged educators and parents to view children as equals regardless of a quotient produced from an intelligence exam or of academic areas for which they develop competence. Practitioners of Multiple Intelligence understand that children do not fit a single prototype.
Gardner sought to broaden the perception of human potential beyond the confines of traditional IQ scores, seriously questioning the validity of determining an individual's intelligence through the practice of taking the person out of his or her natural environment and asking him or her to attempt isolated tasks never done before--and probably never to be done again. Thus, Gardner suggested that educators view intelligence as the capacity for solving problems and fashioning products in context-rich and naturalistic settings rather than place the traditional importance on the ability to produce a large quotient. Gardner proposed the following intelligences : Linguistic intelligence, Logical-mathematical intelligence, Musical intelligence, Bodily kinesthetic intelligence, Spatial intelligence, Interpersonal intelligence, Intrapersonal intelligence. The works of people like Gardner have helped understand the diversity of intelligence and also given food for thought for professionals of the special needs sector. More recently there have been a lot of articles linking emotional intelligence and the disabled. All these contribute to the conclusion that intelligence is subjective and if someone is badly performing in one field this does not mean that he is not intelligent. For example, many are those who are academically very brilliant but cannot perform simple tasks such as riding a bicycle or even preparing a simple dish. Hans Asperger (1938) once said " Not everything that steps out of line, and thus 'abnormal', must necessarily be 'inferior'. " This reminds me of one experience I had with a suspected case of autism. One day a child with suspected autism insisted with my colleague that he wanted to paint the picture of a bus. With no picture readily available, my colleague took a sheet of paper and drew a beautiful bus for him to paint. After some time we went to see what the child had done. We were both surprised to see that despite all the colours we had given him he had used only red, brown and black and had spread the paint unevenly without respecting the boundaries of the drawn picture. My colleague then asked him why he had ruined the beautiful drawing, the innocent angel replied in these words "Can't you see ! the bus is burning ! " We looked at the picture again and were shocked to notice that the little one had truly made a lively burning bus out of the drawing. In fact the problem was not in the child it was with us. I am not ashamed to admit that in that context we proved to be less intelligent than him. This experience came as an eye opener for me and changed my perception forever. In fact everyone is intelligent in his very own way and in his field of interest and aptitude. If he is provided with the right conditions he will certainly perform to the best of his possibilities. The role of the Special needs Educator is also that of a facilitator providing children with disabilities everything that they requires in order to tap their potentials to the fullest. The Special needs Educator must make sure that the needs of all 3 types of learners (Visual, Auditory and Kinesthetic) are met during his class. These are the minimum requirements for inclusive and child centered education. In Mauritius we are lucky that we have both political will and policy commitments for Special Education. In fact, the government has been showing unwavering commitment to the cause of the disabled and this has been clearly articulated in the Policy and Strategy Paper 2006 and the Strategy Plan 2008 - 2020 (where the words special needs appear in 25 occasions) and the more recent governmental programme (no. 150). Now it's time for those directly involved in special education to act and if the right measures are taken great progress can be achieved as the special needs sector can help solve to a large extent the key problems of both the Primary and Secondary sector. We must never forget that :
"In every DISABILITY there are always unDIScovered ABILITIES "
Selvom Mootien
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