My Privilege in the Disability Space
When I was in second grade, my mom helped me pack for my first summer at sleep-away camp. She asked me if we should pick out some books for my time away. My response? “No, why would I do that? I can’t read.”
My mom looked absolutely shocked. She knew I didn’t like to read, but she sure didn’t know that I felt like I couldn’t read. At this point, I had gotten myself to memorize EVERYTHING; we’re talking full books, cover to cover. I thought that was reading until we started reading chapter books at school, and I realized I didn’t know how to do that.
My mom contacted my school, my teachers, and my former teacher to ask if they ever noticed any signs of learning disabilities. My first-grade teacher said, “if she does, she sure fooled me. Alex was one of the most articulate students I had.” When my mom asked the school district about having me tested, they told her that they didn’t have any students with learning disabilities. Of course “they didn’t.” My school didn’t test their students, but that didn’t mean that they didn’t have students with learning disabilities. The principal eventually told my mom to calm down and that “there is nothing wrong with your daughter. You are just a pushy Jewish mother.”
Because of the lack of help from my school and school district, my mom insisted on exploring this further. My parents ended up paying for outside testing. The results were in, and it turned out that I had A LOT of learning disabilities and ADHD. They soon realized that if I was ever going to succeed, we couldn’t stay in our school district, or even in the same area.
My family packed up and moved to a new town that had exceptional special education services. My new school district had endless resources for children with learning disabilities and ADHD. Without this change, I would have never been able to keep up with my peers, graduate high school or even get into college. I was lucky and very privileged to be able to find the resource that I needed. Not everyone has that opportunity.
Even after moving, I caught myself thinking of the kids in my old town. How many students were flying under the radar with their struggles nowhere in sight? Did the teachers and parents even suspect they had learning disabilities? I would bet that there were plenty of students who didn’t understand that they were different because of the lack of testing. Did those students stay in school? Graduate high school? Go on to college?
I recently checked out the websites for my old school district, and it looks like not much has changed. I had to dig just to find a one-page document about how to help your child at home and eliminate distractions. Needless to say, this one resource is not sufficient at all.
My point is, every person is on a different journey to making peace with their learning disability and privilege plays an ENORMOUS role. There are so many systemic issues that make education harder for low-income families and people of color, and this is a vital part of the conversation. And since the teacher workforce remains 80% white, there is also so much discrimination that takes place when it comes to giving students of color the diagnosis that they need to succeed.
For example, according to one study, “Black students who were in 8th grade in 2003 were 71 percent less likely to be identified for learning disabilities than their white peers, whereas black students who were in the 8th grade in 2015 were 55 percent less likely to be classified with a learning disability.” While these numbers seem to be improving, it’s still a staggering difference and affects many of the young adults in the workforce today.
While I cannot understand what it’s like to navigate the world through this lens, I will always do my best to advocate for anyone who has faced these challenges. I also always use this lens when meeting with my clients and first acknowledge all of the different factors that played into their story. If I don’t first recognize these complicated layers and the systemic inequities in our education system, I wouldn’t be properly doing my job as a learning disabilities and ADHD coach.
And while I can’t claim to be an expert in educational equity, it’s up to me to stay vigilant and committed to learning about it every single day. To me, this includes hearing stories from people of color who have had to handle these obstacles while navigating the education system. It also means doing my research and due diligence to advocate for students of color and students from low-income communities. I always welcome feedback in this department and would love to hear if there are any additional organizations I should get involved with.
If you or someone you know has any personal anecdotes, research, or organizations they would like to share, please comment below or get in touch with me via alex[@]capeableconsulting[dot]com.
