Disability Discrimination in Schools | Ableism in Education ♿ 

I am an autistic person and while I've always been accepted, it does sometimes infuriate me to see people using autism is an insult, joking about it, and generally not taking it seriously. There needs to be more focus on disabilities and ableism - for the latter, I've had a teacher who taught Learning for Life and Work who didn't even know what it was. Brilliant video.

The worst form of ableism I ever experienced was when I was around 11-12 years old. I live in India and I use a wheelchair. I had just finished my 6th grade and was going to graduate to 7th. However, the classrooms from 7th grade onwards, was in another building and it had no elevator. The principal refused to install an elevator, citing lack of funds, which was actually a complete lie. However, my parents had no choice but to pull me out of the school. Then the nightmare began, because we had to go on a literal city-wide hunt for a school that would accept me. Every time we mentioned that I was using a wheelchair, the answer was always no. Finally, after almost a month, we finally got me enrolled in a fairly new school, where I managed to complete my education

Thank you so much for speaking out about this! You are absolutely 100% correct! I know as someone who’s on the Spectrum, I have to do homeschooling because of stuff similar to this. I didn’t feel safe for years at school here in Australia, and never knew if I made it out at the end of the day alive or not. I had to go through 8 schools in 7 years before I had to do homeschooling, this included special needs schools and satellite and special needs classes in mainstream schools. I had to leave all of them because I wasn’t safe. Just one example was for 18 months from when I was 10 till when I was 12, I had a self proclaimed anti-christ who’d whenever he would see me would yell out “I’m gonna ******* k**l you!” and would chase after me, tackle me down, and try and choke me to death. I would get into trouble if I physically defended myself, and would get into trouble for screaming and crying for help as I was a “dobber”. I was forced to stay inside as this school found me more “controllable” while this person would go outside and intimidate other kids to do the same. The school had to set up a Walkie-Talkie system throughout the school to keep him away from me. But whenever a substitute would come in, they would let him do it all over again. One school had this kid who would physically and psychologically torment me to a point where I tried to k**l myself when I was only 9. After that, the school forced me to be with this kid at all times, otherwise I’d be forced inside and be yelled at by the staff. My parents pulled me out of there because they refused to do anything after a week. When schools are dealing with this, the quality of education decreases significantly. At one school, I would be lucky to get 2 hours per day, which was always timed to be during “free time”, so I basically had no education. I was only able to have 9 full days out of 15 months at that school as I was bullied so much and was so afraid for my safety, I’d have to run away to nearby construction sites, buses, and the National park next door. When we’d raise these concerns with schools or with the government, we’d always be dismissed and sidelined. One time when we were desperately trying to find a school to go to, we had a meeting with the Department of Education. My mother and a social worker were waiting at their offices for hours, but they never showed up. They then went and gaslit them saying that they “never attended the meeting”. We then pleaded to the Education Minister at the time, Rob Stokes, and our local MP Alister Henskens. The DOE made misleading statements about me and my health and education and they both believed them and dismissed us. As a consequence to that, I now deal with Anxiety, Depression and PTSD. And have no education except for basic homeschooling that just covers over the legal requirements. I only have 1 month left of a right to have an education, and there’s now no chance of getting it back except for TAFE. Please keep talking about this and keep it up! If you need any more info from me or want to mention it on this channel or have me on, please do let me know! I wish you all the best! Thanks, Matthew

Very helpful, thank you for highlighting some big massive stuff within education. I had no clue at the beginning but I am excited to see you make more videos that bring awareness about big issues within our education system. Great message. Thank you for such a brilliant epic video on disability within the education system. 👏👏👏👍

Hi there, thankyou so much for such an articulate video. I'm currently taking a Child Therapy course and writing a presentation on Social Injustice and physically disabled children in mainstream schools. Your video has reinforced a lot of my niggling thoughts. Thankyou

Thank you for speaking about this. I am sharing your video with Head of Education Wales. They failed to teach my daughter to read, write and spell. Thanks to Dyslexic Thinking, which is now seen as a valuable skill by LinkedIn Business and the online Dictionary, I was able to use Kindness, Art and Music to make reading fun, not stressful. Melody is now a Bookworm. Quite an achievement, especially as 9 Million (State Educated) Adults are Illiterate in the UK. They treated you really badly. Education Systems have the unwillingness to learn. Very ironic, they are not team players. Too much Elite Academic Bullying going on. We need a Kindness Qualification in Education and Government Services. ♥️ I would love to chat with you. 😊👍

Great video, because something like that happened to me yesterday and last week and as an adult student with a disability I couldn’t put my finger on it. What day issue was but now you’ve explained it as see what this kind of discrimination consist of.

I love the idea of ableism- because as a first grade teacher with 23 students that's what my school is pushing. I have two lovely students- one with Down Syndrome and another student who is legally blind but they don't have support staff for them. I'm expected to create a curriculum for them as well as lesson plan for the whole class and be able to support them they way they deserve- with no direction or support. I work very hard to try to do what needs to be done but we all suffer - my extra planning and supporting, my SEND students who don't always have access to me when they need it and the rest of the class when I have to take more time with my two SEND students. That's on top of the fact that my entire class is ESL and I teach all subjects in English only. Even just a little help would make the world of difference - but they have left it entirely up to me because they think it's the same as just making it easier.

I faced disability discrimination when I was in school back then and even after, as soon as I joined the army I progressed and I'm now a mechanic. I also know an autistic guy who has a Masters Degree and he is a computer programmer while the prejudice people are working at Mcdonalds.

I have mobility issues and asked for accommodation to teach online. My boss cut my hours because I needed accommodation. HR protects the managers instead of me!

Faced disability discrimination as a student and employee. I have Asperger’s, dyslexia and dyspraxia. Asperger’s wasn’t diagnosed until after university graduation. In primary school I was always treated like a naughty child, accused of never listening in class etc. The bullying was also horrendous from other students and even from some of the teachers. Whenever I told a teacher about someone name calling, attacking me, tripping me over etc I was always made to feel I started it. High school and College wasn’t as bad, but noticed I was never invited to certain school trips. Was never offered to do higher tier exams despite getting the highest marks possible on lower tiers. University was great and was given a specialist dyslexic tutor to help with essay writing. However had issues with particular lecturer who insulted me a few times on my speech. Sometimes I have issues getting the right words out and she constantly made me feel bad about this. During my time at University I took up volunteering to work in Schools and had a great time. It was decided I wanted to work as an Art technician / teaching assistant. I have also did a few roles in the catering and reception side too. After graduating and receiving a 1st I also had my diagnosis. The school I volunteered for just dropped me like a ton of books, every time I applied for a position in a school, my applications were constantly rejected despite having the qualifications. A lot of them were saying I needed another qualification I never heard of and wasn’t even in the job specifications.

Hi! I am shocked that this happened to you here in the UK. I hope that was in the past and today it does not happen anymore. Thanks for sharing! 🤗

I loved this topic. Thank you.

Ableism has been a massive problem in the education system in the UK since… forever. I was sent to mainstream catholic school from 1987 until 2000, and I learned virtually nothing partly because of an ableist catholic education system and partly because what I have is ridiculously rare. At first I was given 3-5 hours of homework a night and treated like a regular child and given no help. My parents had to fight for me to get ANY help whatsoever.

Great video Amy, your video's are brilliant. My two kids watch you nearly every day 🥰

Thank you for saying this! I am a special education teacher with an invisible disability and the ableism is incredibly frustrating. I work at a great school now but in the past it was awful

i was on what you call an iep most of my life through out public school i was in a special class of 10 until 12 lunch and then joined with the bigger class for the rest of the day the special class they made us sit in a horseshoe and we had teacher assistance psws that would help us with learning and some of us toileting issues and needed help i was someone who didnt go to doctors all the time so without tests done at the hospital here in canada they wont give you help on a drug card for benefits only if you have testing and diagnoses and here in canada i want to go back to get a grade 12 because i quit in grade 10 due to being bullied out and always having to move at the time because of high rental cost but anyway they said if i wanted my grade 12 i would have to do a course online because i dont have a covid vaccine or up to date flu vaccine

I'm dyslexic and am losing eyesight. I have faced quite a few of examples you have mentioned. I have had to masked or play down my symptoms thanks to the education system

Would love to chat with you about teaching with EDS/MCAS/ADHD/plus !

Thank you so much for this video, I hope it goes viral! What would your advice be to parents who come up against school staff who say there is a lack of funding to make reasonable adjustments? X

I am currently having to move my 6 year old and her older sister to a new school because they won't change her pick up time. She has two spinal conditions and is in pain daily. The school have asked for medical proof which i have given but they wont accept it. I would really appreciate some advice from someone who could help. Im currently going to a panel meeting but so stressed with the way the academy is treating me and my daughter. Xx

I was not diagnosed as any kind of neurodivergent till my junior year of HS when I was 16. I was not allowed to graduate my senior year due to absences. (Which we’re caused by chronic illnesses that is still undiagnosed-and I have been working to get diagnosed for 4 years, after having been gaslit about my own pain since I was 12.) I had good grades other than one F, which I had already scheduled to take again the following semester and graduate on time, and this was due to my huge fam helping me and our resources to a crap ton of tutors, since the school followed basically NONE of my accommodations-not even a paper copy of a syllabus. (And to put it into perspective, this was a school with 3,000 students, in a rich area-though with some economic diversity-in a very liberal and diverse area. We still had a shit ton of problems though, so it wasn’t a peace haven.) Literally not allowed to graduate with my class, because of physical presence (despite the online google classroom that allowed me to do any work) and this was RIGHT before Covid hit-where they immediately got rid of that requirement for attendance, literally only two months after I left to homeschool my last semester. (Which was literally such a privilege. If I had been poor or had other marginalizations like race I prob would have been fuuuuuucked.) This was after not being allowed to go to my cousins funeral for school attendance (missing two days, to see him one last time after he unalived himself), being forced into medication when my accommodations were not met, and being in a therapy center seen as “hospitalization” legally for a month due to school refusal-which was caused by daily ableism, and the school doing NOTHING about sexual harassment that was so bad I had to leave. (And just to be clear, this was the people at the top, counselors, and other mental health “professionals”, that I filed reports with. The few security guards and janitors I was friends with helped me and literally dragged the boys bothering me away so I could eat lunch in peace. Will always appreciate them.) That’s just a small drip in the bucket, just my story, just one, and with a huge amount of white and wealth privilege to boot and aid my situation. School is garbage, and any kids I have, if I have them, will NOT be going to schools unless they change and treat kids like human beings with rights.

Hello my lovely Here enjoying your premiere and always learning here 💯👍🏾

I thought these massive ignorance were only in third world countries. It seems that people need massive awareness campaigns in order to know about how other people think and see the world and especially about learning disabilities.

This is the first video I have ever seen by you but this has made me feel valid and made me emotional. Usually school is alright but I have been picked on by teachers for struggling to dress fast enough after pe and throw a ball and do things like that( was once removed from the class dance in the class assembly) because I am dyspraxic and had teachers get angry or irritated when i ask for my extra time for my dyslexia. Only one teacher, or maybe two, has ever read what my class room arrangements are supposed to be, like I am suposed to be able to walk around because I faint due to nerve issues easily and sit in the middle of the classroom with the slides printed out if there is lots of writing because of poor tracking ect. I used to in primary school ( our school had a step behaviour system) get in later than others because my nan often forgot my sister's lunch ( I would always go in ask if I could go get her lunch and come back and the teacher said yes) and get a step for not being there, one for being slow writing because dysgraphia and then one more because I wasn't where everybody else was then had to everyday work my way back to a step 1 so that I never got golden time taken away. I am also suspected to be autistic and I get treated like a child a lot and the school doesn't know how to deal with me because I also have trauma and issues like that and just say everything wrong is sensory overload and make me sit in this awful sensory room which is loud and cold and smells weird. I have seen one of my favourite teachers not get a job after working at the school for 5 years and being the perfect person for the job ( and the school not hire anybody and her miss important doctors appointments to get the job) because she is chronically ill and she has sometimes had to take 2 months from work. It makes me so angry because she more than makes up for the time missed and is a wonderful teacher. I hope the system changes and it gets easier for you and for my teacher. Thank you for sharing and for speaking out!!! I hope you have a good day and you know how wonderful and important you are. :)

When i was a kid they used to bully me thats y i dont have my self confidence to face my fear about my hand.my brother accidentally drop a rock on my hand dats y my right hand is not normal as d other.🤗