Teaching Methods and Disabilities

This article comes from something that I am now experiencing in my own graduate work. Part of a current assignment that I have is to pick a topic concerning the counseling profession and educate your peers. Since I am interested in the disabled community and how mental helath professionals can better serve this population, I chose to research teaching psychology students the multicultural aspect of disability issues. I found the information I found very interesting and enlightening. I hope that you will as well. As students of psychology, my peers and myself are being educated in muliculturalism and sensitivity to a diverse society. However, disabilities and individual with disabilities are often not thought of as being part of a any other group but that which characterizes the disability. Most classroom experiences do not stress that individuals with the same disability are within culturally rich group. Languages such as American Sign Language or braille are shared. History is shared such as the fight for the American Disabilities Act. Even traditions are shared such as specific celebrations of pride in the community. Due to this lack of knowledge, teachers and educators often struggle with how to enlighten students to the idea of disability as diversity. The following are some examples of activities that can be utilized: Health psychology: Teachers of health psychology should speak about the raltionship between a disability and psychological health. Factors such as age of onset, duration need to be considered. The APA makes the suggestion that educators invite individuals with disabilities into the classroom to share experiences. Research Methods: Research studies on indviduals with disabilites are few and far between. Most professors do not even cover this when teaching a research methods course. Bringing up the difficulties in designing a study for individuals with disabilities opens discussions about how social barriers prevent people from participating in research. Disability Lifestyle: Group differences are always a part of any experimental research design course. However, most do not delve into group differences of the disabled community. Talking about health problems, communication difficulties, mobility complications, pschological consequences will aid in bringing about understanding. Social Issues: The disabled community can be utilized in order to bring forth understanding about social stigma, discrimmination, prejudice etc. When discussing minority groups, most people do not think of the disabled community. Bringing out these topics are necessary in order to educate and enlighten the mental health professionals of tomorrow.

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