The Leader's Role in Disrupting Ableism as a Form of Bias

The Leader's Role in Disrupting Ableism as a Form of Bias

Vanessa Maanao-French: Welcome to our webinar, and I am excited to have you all join us today because it is an extraordinarily important topic. And I have my friend and colleague here, Dr. Jenn Fung, joining us for the conversation. Our topic today is the leader's role in disrupting ableism as a form of bias. You know me, you've seen me before, but I want to give a little bit of space for Jenn to introduce herself.

Jennifer Fung: Hi everybody. My name is Jenn Fung. I am a middle - aged white woman. I have blonde hair. I'm wearing a striped shirt, and I'm sitting in my home office in Seattle. And I am thrilled to be here with Vanessa today and all the learning leaders joining us from Head Start programs across the country and territory. I am the disability inclusion lead at DTL, and I'm thrilled to be here today. Thanks for inviting me, Vanessa.

Vanessa: Of course. And look at me, assuming everybody knows who I am, because I'm famous. My name is Vanessa Maanao - French, and my pronouns are she, her. I'm a Pacific Islander, and I am seated in my home office, also in Seattle, where it is raining outside.

Jennifer: Drenching rain.

Vanessa: It is drenching. We were just talking about that it - each of us went for different walks or a little bit of time outside and came back in, our socks are wet, but we're here and ready to go. This will be our time together. We have about 60 minutes, and we're going to pack in a lot. Please kind of settle in, get comfortable. We're going to be - I'm doing some reflection together about ableism as a form of bias. 

We're going to really think about what that means to center ability as part of our identities when I talk about ableism as a form of bias and ways that we can use the 5Rs strategies to disrupt it. Because as we'll talk about, this disrupts actually children's ability to engage in their learning environment and to make the most of their time in our Head Start programs. 

We want to conclude our time together with some ideas that you can take next steps with, because we know we're not going to solve all the problems in this one webinar, but we want to be able to encourage you, inspire you to take some next steps. We have some great ideas in the viewer's guide. That's my nice little hint. You want it? Click that button, you know where it is. Click the button on the resources to grab your viewer's guide. 

It's a fillable PDF you can actually write down your reflections in real time as we move through the webinar. And maybe even more importantly, are those links to resources that you will want to revisit during the webinar perhaps, but also after, there's some great after steps that you can do both for yourself as a lifelong learner, but also ways to support your staff. Grab your viewer's guide because you're going to need it right now. 

The first reflection that's in the viewer's guide is, can I work - we'll pause a little bit of time for you to think about these three important questions. What do I believe about disability? How did I come to think this way? And how does it impact the children, families, and staff I serve? We'll pause just for a moment, and that space on your viewer's guide is available to you throughout. You may have additional thoughts as we move through the content. Please feel free to revisit that space in your viewer's guide. 

If you're using some notes on the side, that's also OK. If it's something you're holding in your mind, that's also OK. But we think these are some important questions, not only for you as a leader, but would be really important questions to bring to your team as well. It would be the beginning of a really fruitful conversation. Pause just for an extra second as you're wrapping up your writing. Please don't let me keep talking, keep you from your reflections because this may be review for many of you. 

Because as you know in these webinars, we like to use the 5Rs as our frame for all things. Because these are these practices that support leaders to be effective. We talk about the 5Rs being responsive relationships. How do we create that unified culture within the workplace that exists through trusting, nurturing, and collaborative relationships that focus on belonging of all members? How do we use reason or the why to build staff's commitment to practices, policies and procedures? 

Understanding what typically kind of propels us, motivates and inspires us to do the work in a different way. Resources, we often think about resources as those tangible physical things, and it absolutely is that. We need our computers, we need our physical space, we need our equipment. But for me, resources has to include thinking about how we use each other as resources. We say often in the spaces that we're in to provide in - person training, the wisdom is in the room, and the wisdom is certainly in the virtual space. How can we use each other during this hour to see each other as resources? 

Reflective dialogues that our fourth R is probably one of my favorite. This is a way for us to think differently about our data, to have it be less about it being evaluative and more about a place to springboard some learning, some curiosity to think about how we might do things differently now that we have data showing us a gap or a place where we can strengthen our practice. 

And then finally, recognition is how do we keep our staff engaged and joyful in their workplace? Because we recognize the small and big wins that happen along the way, and we also see who they are as people and all of the wonderful things that they bring, including the multiple identities that they carry. During today's webinar, we're going to focus on three of the Rs in particular, although I think all of the Rs absolutely fit. 

We do want to focus in on reason. Really finding that propel, what will propel us, what is the why behind why inclusion matters? And Jenn is going to help us pull that apart. We want to talk about relationships and how do we help staff as leaders to engage in this conversation in a space that feels welcoming and inclusive, that as leaders we're able to be transparent about when we've made mistakes, when considering inclusion because we've all made the mistakes. And also knowing when we don't know so that we can learn to use each other as valued resources.

We're going to go out and find the answers together. We'll be co - explorers as we figure out how to do this. I do want to emphasize that we think about relationships, it's not just in our building. It has to extend to our community partners, especially those who are providing services to our children and families. 

And then the last are, but certainly not least, and not just because it's my favorite, we definitely want to think about reflective dialogues and how are we critically using our data, our observations, our conversations with families and our community partners to do better, that we truly are centering inclusion as such an important part of our overall commitment to equity. Those 3Rs you'll kind of see come shining through the webinar, but we will still absolutely be holding recognition. We'll still absolutely be holding resources. We'll actually be giving you some resources. In a way we're kind of covering them all anyway. Let me turn it to Jenn to kind of get us started about ability as an identity.

Jennifer: Perfect, thank you Vanessa, and for grounding us in the 5Rs. Like you said, when we are really thinking about, in particular the reason, and, of course, relationships, thinking about all the different identity characteristics that are children, our families, our community partners, but also our colleagues and our coworkers bring to our spaces. When we're thinking about creating spaces of inclusion that really do result in a sense of belonging for all people, we do need to really recognize center and elevate ability or disability as an identity characteristic. 

And in turn, just like when you're saying, when we're thinking about all this important equity work that's happening, when we're centering and recognizing ability as an identity characteristic, also in turn recognizing ableism as a form of bias that can impact - certainly impact and potentially oppress individuals who have disability as a component of their identity. Thinking about ability as an identity, we're really talking about an identity characteristic that includes a diverse array of differences in physical, mental, cognitive, developmental, learning and or emotional makeup that people may hold. 

And I think it's also important to recognize and call out that ability as an identity characteristic can also include mental health and potentially the impact of social experiences such as trauma or surviving abuse. When we talk about ableism, we'll talk a bit more about ableism and go a little more deeply into the definition of ableism in the next few slides. But simply ableism is bias against individuals with disabilities. 

It includes practices that are based on dominant attitudes that are really pervasive in our society currently that really devalue people with disabilities and limit the potential of individuals with disabilities. Just to build on what you said Vanessa. As we're doing this work, as we're doing this important equity work, and as we're centering inclusion, disability inclusion is a critical component of equity and really working to position individuals with disabilities as having equal status. It's important for us, and I'm excited for our time here today to really focus in on identifying ableism as a form of bias, finding it, that we're all as you talked about. Let's talk a little bit about definitions of ableism. 

There are many definitions of ableism, and we'll talk about a few today. When I do work in ableism, anything to do with disability identity and disability inclusion, I really look to the voices of individuals with disabilities. Myself I don't identify as having a disability. To me, looking to the people who have these lived experiences that I can learn from them and examine my own biases, that's a really important value that I hold. As we work through our time today, you'll see many examples of instances where we've pulled definitions, pulled from resources. 

We have some videos, but we think that as we're doing this work together, it's really important to look to and center the voices of individuals with disabilities. This definition that you hear on the screen is a working definition of ableism from a disabled advocate named TL Lewis. This is just a snippet of the most recently updated. TL's most recently updated definition of ableism. And I'm just going to read it because this has so much. I look at this all the time, I think I try to unpack it all the time. 

But certainly as you're listening or reading this definition, if anything comes to mind for you, please feel free to reflect on that or share it with us in the chat. But ableism is a system that places value on people's bodies and minds based on societally constructed ideas of normality, intelligence, excellence, desirability, and productivity. This form of systemic oppression leads to people and society determining who is valuable and worthy based on a person's language, appearance, religion and or their ability to satisfactory. There's a lot in there.

And as I mentioned this isn't the only definition. There are other components of different definitions that we wanted to elevate. Thinking about how we're defining ableism. Ableism  - definitions of ableism include the intentional or unintentional discrimination against people with disabilities. The process of fostering and acting on negative attitudes about people with disabilities and discrimination in favor of people without disabilities, non - disabled people.

Vanessa: Thanks, Jenn. That really does help get us grounded in our topic today. And to do that just a little bit more, we're going to kind of start to lean into another reflection activity. But before we get there, we want to really emphasize that ableism is more than negative stereotypes. And attitudes. It's this leveling up. The typical abilities are superior, which then in turn means that disability - having a disability means that you are inferior. And that is not the message we want to be saying, or believing, or living through. 

And that devaluing of disability stems from a belief that it isn't - it just is a negative state of being. Which is not true. We want to kind of take you through a reflection about ability privilege, that we together as a community living in this virtual space right now, can understand the barriers that naturally exist and the barriers that don't exist for those without disabilities. And when we talk about privilege, we want to start with some words that do not come from me. 

And I want to acknowledge that these messages come from Bev Harp, who is an autistic and disability specialist at the University of Kentucky with their Human Development Institute. And through her words to really emphasize to you all that privilege is not your fault. It is an artifact of the systems that have been created around us in which we operate our lives within, but that have naturally favored the majority and fail to adequately provide accommodations for anybody who lives outside of that bubble. 

That privilege in itself it is not a terrible thing, nor does it make you a bad person. And we all have different forms of privilege. And you can see that kind of play out in our lives and may see some of them as we work through the exercise. For example, a person can have white privilege, male privilege, class privilege, heterosexual privilege, but still be lacking in neurotypical privilege. Likewise, not autistic people have the same experiences.

We want to also emphasize that this is not an accusation or an attempt to blame those who hold privilege in different spaces, but it's more of an invitation for you to experience the - what others have in a new light. And it's a tool for us to kind of begin considering those what ifs and what are some changes that we can do that will be worth working toward together. With that deep breath, and we will take you on a little journey reflecting on privilege. 

What will happen in this activity is that Jenn and I will go back and forth kind of seeing these messages of privilege, and we want you to just take some time to consider how that may play out for you in your own life. I will - actually, oops, let me go back one. Oh, nope, I'm in the right space, I'll have the first one. But I also want to acknowledge where this comes from. These weren't made up by Jenn nor I and in fact, if you've downloaded your viewers guide, you'll have access to all 100 statements. We're not going to do 100, we're going to do four of the statements. 

But Lydia X. Z. Brown developed these statements and partnerships with many others to create this the voices of many who live with disabilities are reflected in this document. And I found it to be just an amazing tool to sit and reflect and to understand both where I have privilege and also where I have made many a misstep unintentionally. Let's get started with our first one, which is I can choose to sit anywhere I want, whenever I go out for an event, to a restaurant, I go to a movie, or a religious service.

Jennifer: Next privilege, the ways that I communicate, move, express my emotions, react to stress, and just get through my day in general are considered normal.

Vanessa: I don't have to worry about job interviewer's reaction to the way I naturally talk, or move, or to my adaptive equipment, or service animal.

Jennifer: My type of body or brain is not used as a metaphor for brokenness, awfulness, mediocrity, or ignorance. And you can see a couple of examples here of phrases that are commonly used, that was lame, they turned a blind eye. Again, not to rush folks, reflections. We definitely encourage folks to continue to reflect on that. Also, as Vanessa said, use your viewer's guide to access the full tool that's called the abled - sorry, autistic Hoya's brief abled privilege checklist that, as Vanessa said, was authored by Lydia X. Z. Brown in collaboration with others. 

And Lydia is an autistic self - advocate who's got many incredible resources. If you're not aware of Lydia or their work, definitely check them out. An important part of recognizing, disrupting ableism and creating anti - ableist spaces is to be aware of the language that we use, and we could spend a whole hour and then some talking about language. And talking about language and some of the examples we use here might cause a little discomfort, as Vanessa said, as she's been reflecting. Certainly, as I've been reflecting. 

A lot of the reflection I've been doing has been some realization of times when I've unintentionally caused harm. But language is critical. Language is important. We wanted to spend a little bit of time here talking about how we can use anti - ableist that's - or language that's respectful and then also acknowledge that language is anti - ableist language can be subtle. We might not know we're using it, but recognize the impact that that might have that can still be hurtful. 

Here are a couple of examples. And you can find lots more checklists like this, say this, not this on by doing a quick Google search. A lot of these checklists have been created by disabled self - advocate. If you're unsure, look to the voices of disabled individuals. One really important use this, not this is instead of saying that somebody suffers with or is from a certain disability that is pretty widely considered an example of ableist language. The word suffering what's negative to a life of misery. 

Which we'll talk a bit in about kind of common misconceptions, common stereotypes about individuals with disabilities. And that's a leading stereotype that disability is negatively - inherently negative which it is not. Another area of language that we wanted to draw folks' attention to is the use of euphemisms. Using words like special needs, handy capable, or differently abled. This is generally considered ableist as well. 

And I saw - I scrolled down to the chat and I saw that Elizabeth said please don't shy away from centering disability as an identity characteristic. Disability is not a bad word. And Elizabeth, thank you for saying that. And that's really where this recommendation of please eliminate these words from your vocabulary. The use of euphemisms really is considered condescending. 

And it's coming from a place of wanting to avoid the word disability, which again, is kind of rooted in this notion and in this attitude, this false attitude that having a disability that being disabled is somehow negative. Or shameful. Disability is normal. It's a part of the human condition and disability - people with disabilities have existed forever, and it exists everywhere. And what we hear really strongly are from the disability community, is don't be afraid to use the word disabled. OK. 

And then the last thing we wanted to point out in terms of language you see here on the screen, actually this is an example of the use of language that you can either use person - first language or identity - first language. What you see here on the screen is that the recommendation, instead of saying he is disabled to say he is a person with a disability. That's the recommendation to use person - first language over identity - first language. And that's actually kind of our mistake. 

What it should say here is to honor and recognize individual preferences. The recommendation to use person - first language goes way back and is rooted in the disability rights movement. That goes back to about the '60s and '70s, and comes from individuals with disabilities, in particular individuals with intellectual disabilities who really wanted to be recognized and say, I'm a person I'm not just my disability. I'm multifaceted, I'm complex, I'm a person, I have a lot to offer, and I'm not just my disability.

However, language changes. And evolves. And now when we look at disability rights advocates, disability justice advocates we also recognize that there are individuals with disabilities who say, no, my disability is an important part of who I am. It's central to who I am. And by using person - first language and feeling the need to kind of put my disability as secondary through the language that's used, that's erasing my disability. Which again, if I view my disability as an important part of my identity, that's erasing part of my identity. OK?

When we're doing this work, we're all going to make mistakes. And there isn't a one size fits all approach. The most important thing that we can do is look to individuals and individual preferences and ask folks. And if we use language, if I use person - first language and somebody says, actually, I prefer identity - first language, say, great, thank you for letting me know. We wanted to kind of center this and elevate that that language is critical and is often for many people, kind of where they start this journey of learning about anti - ableism.

Vanessa: Thanks, Jenn. I was just like moved by your words, I forgot it was my turn.

Jennifer: No problem.

Vanessa: It's going to be a quick toss right back to you. Because when we do talk about reason within the 5Rs, we really try to center the why. Why are we doing this? And within reason, we talk about centering the perspectives of children and families, and oftentimes our staff as well. Jenn, I'm just going to turn it right back to you. Why must we disrupt ableism in the early childhood spaces?

Jennifer: Absolutely. When we're learning about ableism, and again, many of us are learning about ableism. This isn't a get on the train, I arrive at being anti - ableist. This is like with all of their equity work and ongoing process where a lot of mistakes are made. And as we learn, we do better. An important part of learning about ableism and the reason, the why is that we can understand the outcomes of ableist attitudes, of ableist practices, and ableist systems. 

We talked about ableism as a form of bias, and like any other bias that can be implicit or it can be explicit, but biases influence our perceptions. They influence our judgments. They influence our decisions, influence our actions and our behaviors. Even implicit biases can lead to actions that are discriminatory or ableist. We wanted to start this. I wanted to talk a little bit about some of those kind of false assumptions and stereotypes that we know are prevalent in our society about people with disabilities. 

Here are just a few. And this certainly isn't an exhaustive list. But the stereotype or the assumption that individuals with disabilities are incapable of learning. That individuals with disabilities are helpless, that individuals with disabilities are limited or less than, or other than people without disabilities. That a disability is some sort of abnormality or some sort of condition that needs to be fixed that someone can participate in society. 

There is a pervasive attitude that individuals with disabilities are a burden and need to be taken care of by normal people. And I'm using normal in quotations. But not that individuals with disabilities have agency and are independent people with feelings, and aspirations, and dreams, and strengths, and that they have things to lend and contribute to our society.

Those are just a few, but again, we know that this is really important to recognize and call out that we're able to start examining our own biases and looking at the systems and the spaces where we're participating and where we exist to be able to start recognizing when we see some of these ableist attitudes and stereotypes. And of course, in turn what those outcomes are for individuals with disabilities. And this is really important to recognize because we know that stereotypes, stigma and discrimination against individuals with disabilities is prevalent. 

A study from 2007 found that preference for people without disabilities compared to preferences for individuals with disabilities was among the strongest both implicit and explicit biases across social characteristics. And in fact, in this study, it found that the only stronger association, the only social characteristic or identity characteristic that showed more bias towards it was - those biases against disability towards individuals without disabilities is strong. 

This study, 70 showed an implicit preference for people without disabilities. Compared to only 9% of people who showed a preference for individuals without disabilities. And in this study, even participants who had disabilities showed a preference for people without disabilities. This work really requires intentionality. Creating spaces of true inclusion that result in a meaningful sense of belonging requires - explicit as an identity characteristic and on ableism as a form of bias. And again, thinking about equity work and anti-ableism as an important part of equity work. 

There's a lot of research that shows even within diversity, equity, and inclusion or DEI, as we often refer to it. Even within DEI work and other social justice focused efforts, there is a really distinct lack of focus on ability and ableism. In a recent study, groups - and this was - I believe that this was from looking at the professional sector. Looking at businesses, organizations that are doing DEI work, of all of the groups that were surveyed, only 68% mentioned disability as an area of focus in their DEI work when compared to 98% that focused on race as an identity characteristic and racism as a form of bias. 

Again, we just can't understate the importance of really explicitly and intentionally focusing on ability and ableism in our equity focused work. And of course, we need to talk about and recognize the impacts of ableism on young children because that's our work here in our Head Start and Early Head Start programs. The ableist attitudes, the ableist stereotypes that we just talked about. The stigma, this can show up in many different ways. 

And we know can have significant impacts for individuals with disabilities of all ages, including young children. Here are just a couple of significant outcomes that we know can be a result of ableism for young children with disabilities. Social isolation. Children with disabilities are often included - or I'm sorry, excluded from social activities. Based on their physical or intellectual impairments or characteristics. And this can really lead to feelings of loneliness or isolation. Which, of course, has negative impacts on children's mental health, social - emotional development, and well - being. 

We know that there are also - that ableism and ableist attitudes, ableist practices, ableist systems can have a negative impact on children's access and opportunity. Children with disabilities face many different barriers to accessing essential services and supports. Such as health care, early intervention, and inclusive early learning experiences and environments. We know that being fully included requires full participation. Not just simply being in a space. 

And not being able to fully access, and participate, and benefit from a program's services and supports can really impact a child's learning and development. And likewise, ableism and lack of access can really lead to reduced opportunities for children with disabilities. We know that there can be a tendency, again, based on those implicit attitudes, those implicit biases towards individuals with disabilities. There might be a tendency for educators and peers, other children, to kind of infantilize children with disabilities. 

To assume they need help when they don't or they might not. Really rather than seeing children with disabilities as equal, as competent, and independent playmates and classmates. We know that tendency can really impact a child's opportunity to learn, to participate. But to have others learn from them. To be a good friend and an important part of a community. Certainly, an impact and a negative outcome of ableism are negative attitudes. And we just talked a lot about that. 

But ableism can really perpetuate negative attitudes, negative stereotypes. Which - impacts how they're treated by - but also we see - maybe not much in early childhood. But an outcome we see for adults with disabilities is blaming. Being blamed for their disability. Or blamed for using their disability to gain some sort of advantage, or unfair benefits. One thing I think is really important - and this actually showed up in the - but internalization, internalized ableism. 

And internalizing these negative stereotypes, and these negative attitudes, and thoughts and beliefs about individuals with disabilities. Individuals with disabilities who grow up and are raised in an ableist society can start to take on those own ableist perspectives about themselves and about others with disabilities. And then, of course, it's important to mention in our early learning spaces that for children with disabilities - children with disabilities still experience disproportionate rates of suspension and expulsion when compared to their non-disabled peers. 

Before we move on, I do want to recognize like I said, it's important, it's critical to center and to elevate the impacts and experiences as a result of ableism. To really center the experiences of those who are most impacted by ableism, individuals with disabilities. But ableist attitudes, ableist beliefs, and ableist practices can also have negative impacts on children and individuals who don't have disabilities. And I think that this is really important to recognize. 

When children with disabilities are not equally represented in our early learning spaces, when children don't have equal access to these early learning spaces. Children without disabilities miss out on the opportunity to make friends with, learn alongside, and really importantly, learn from individuals with disabilities. Learn from children with disabilities. We know that diverse environments, diverse early learning environments foster deeper learning and have many long - lasting benefits for all children, including children without disabilities. 

These are learning and developmental outcomes. Such as improved cognitive skills, including critical thinking, problem solving, and creativity. And also increased opportunity for social - emotional development. Combating, disrupting - sorry, that was a really violent word. But disrupting ableist practices and attitudes is beneficial for everyone.

Vanessa: Thanks, Jenn. Do you see now why Jenn is the voice we needed to be in this space with us? Let's connect it to our own experiences, either as a leader within your program or personally. And feel free to please reflect and add your thoughts into chat. But if this is something you want to hold to yourself, that also makes sense. That's why your viewer's guide is there for you. Think about the impacts you may have observed or experienced yourself personally. 

These impacts on those with disabilities. That social - why can't I talk? Social isolation, lack of access, limited opportunities, negative attitudes or internalization. Those impacts that Jenn just unpacked. Have you observed these or experienced these impacting adults or children with disabilities? We'll pause for a moment to give you some time to reflect and write down or reflect and keep. It's totally up to you. Negative attitudes. Thanks, Misty. There's a lot there to reflect on. Social isolation. As often that happens for the comfort of the adults and has nothing to do with what the children want. 

Jennifer: Right. Yeah.

Vanessa: OK. Well, thank you. Continue to add your ideas. I see Susan's just put in something. I see bias all the time.

Jennifer: Against her granddaughter who's autistic, yeah.

Vanessa: Mm - hmm. And Christy says all of these. All of these. That's powerful just to say that. Well, let's talk about some resources, Jenn, that will help us kind of disrupt those impacts that you just mentioned. And we'll think about them through the lens of responsive relationships. Because it really is about having those identity affirming practices. And these are things we would want for all children. 

Especially now with our topic, to think about how we do this for children with disabilities. We want to have those high expectations. And you talked about having positive representation. How can we be inclusive in the conversations that we have as adults and with children? And how do we support belonging? And I think you might have a resource for us for each of these, which is exciting.

Jennifer: Absolutely. We have a lot to cover. I will go kind of quickly for me through these. But like Vanessa said, we have lots of great resources in your viewer's guide that you can look to for more information to explore these more deeply. Having high expectations, as we just said, really pervasive and negative - really pervasive stereotype and negative attitude, is that there's something inherently needing to be fixed about - individuals with disabilities. 

Having high expectations and flipping that and coming to our work, and the development of our relationships with children and families from a strengths – based. Thinking about what a person with a disability can do, rather than what a person with a disability cannot do. And this is really difficult to do for many reasons. One is because our society, when we think about models and approaches to disability, our society is really built on what we call the medical model of disability. 

Which focuses on what a person can't do. What their deficits are, what needs to be remedied. And what needs to happen in order to do that. But from a strengths - based perspective, we're really thinking about what can this person do right now? What can this person do with support? And think about what will this person - what can this person do one day. Something else that's important to think about is thinking about creating environments that have positive representation of disability culture, of individuals with disabilities. 

Positive representation has many positive outcomes. But we know that it's key when we're thinking about identity - affirming practices. Positive representation is key to forming positive identity. And of promoting awareness, acceptance - and appreciation of the disability community and the lived experiences of people with disabilities. Positive representation can be so many things. It can be role models. Thinking about our staff and the importance of having staff that's reflective of the population that we're serving. 

Do we have adults with disabilities? Do we have positive representation in terms of the staff who are partnering with and educating young children and their families. But when we're thinking about positive representation and early childhood, we know that media and in particular children's literature, is a useful and important positive representation. Again, for all identity characteristics. 

But within the context of our conversation today, around positive disability identity. When we're thinking about finding and selecting books - if anybody has any favorite books, please feel free to share those in the chat. This is one of my favorite things to talk about. But a couple key things to think about when we're seeking out and really evaluating, critically evaluating the media and the books that we're putting in early learning environments. 

Some things to think about when we're thinking about, is this something that's going to promote positive representation and positive identity development for young children with disabilities? Are the books, are the stories that we're putting in our environments featuring people with disabilities who have agency and who are self - empowered, and competent. This teaches children, all children, that people with disabilities are complex, and they're human. And that they exist beyond the stereotypes that we've been talking about. 

And really reinforcing the messages that disability does not make you bad, broken or worthless. We're wanting to look for and provide representation through books that are empowering. That are accurate and respectful. That help children learn about and understand the lived experiences of people with disabilities. That help people understand what it means to accept disabilities, not just be aware of disabilities. There's a difference between disability awareness and disability acceptance, and that's important. 

Books that normalize diverse experiences, including a disability and how people move. How people communicate. How people think. How they process their emotions. Books that normalize disability. And then again, if we're thinking about identity development for young children, self - acceptance and pride in all aspects of a young child's identity. But certainly their ability as an aspect of their identity. And this one's important. Books that center children with disabilities as main characters and equals, not just sidekicks. Which is a really common stereotype in our popular media around individuals with disabilities. 

Thinking about another way to really interrupt ableism and create spaces that are disability positive and that result in a sense of belonging, are conversations with children about ability and about disability is really important. You see this quote here on the screen. It says, when a young child, when a four - year - old was asked about disability, what does this mean? This child said, "It means they can't do stuff, but they can still do stuff you can do. But they can't do all the stuff you can, but they can almost do all the stuff you can." 

Something that's really important about this is that when we don't talk about - when we don't have proactive, positive, respectful, and accurate conversations about disability, children are left to form their own conclusions. Certainly, when children get inaccurate information about disability, when they hear ableist language being used, that can impact their own conclusions about disability. But also when we're silent about ability as an identity characteristic. Or when children make observations, when children ask questions. 

When children make comments about how someone moves. Adaptive equipment that somebody might be using. Communicative supports lots of things. When we don't respond to those in a positive, and proactive, and factual way, or when we as adults are uncomfortable with those types of observation and questions and shush children, we're sending messages through our silence. 

There's a great resource in your - linked in your viewer's guide, about - some tips about how to respond when children have those honest and developmentally appropriate observations and - about disability enough. And again, avoid shushing children's remarks, their observations. And really use that curiosity as an opportunity to learn about and talk about disability. OK.

Vanessa: Let's reflect one more time. Like we take a collective deep breath and process and internalize what you've just shared. Thank you. And just as a reminder, if you didn't see my little note in chat, each of the resources that Jenn spoke to are linked in your viewer's guide. There are many resources in your viewer's guide that are worth downloading. The Barton resources in particular are just a couple of pages. These are things that are the springboard for conversation with your team. 

With this chat, and we'll do - maybe just spend a little, just like touch on this one. And these may be questions you bring back to your team. But feel free to use chat if you feel compelled. What can learning leaders do to build a sense of belonging for staff or family members? How do adults with disabilities experience belonging in your program? Either in the workplace as a staff person, or as a family member who is a part of their Head Start child's experience, right, as they're with you? 

And how do your program goals and practices meet or fail to meet the needs of children, families, and staff with disabilities? Hold on to those questions. And these are also in your viewer's guide if you want to bring these back to your team. But we also welcome you to respond to any or all, right, of these as you're thinking about all of the valuable information and resource that Jenn has just shared with us. I think it really starts with that first one. How do we build that sense of belonging for staff, family members, and children? I'm going to move us to our next slide. And kind of thinking, Jenn, about how do we create those spaces of belonging?

Jennifer: Yeah. And before we move on, Vanessa, and again, I know we're limited on time. But there was a question that came through the Q&A. A question or a comment that spoke to being concerned about the term special education or special ed. And recognizing that while this isn't a Head Start term, it's something that's prevalent in our society and is ableist. And I think this is a really great point. And I wish I could remember the full quote. I'll have to find it and pop it into your - come by your MyPeers community. 

But Thomas Heyer, who is or was a longtime scholar, advocate in this field of disability studies. He said something to the effect of, when we get down to it, what's special about the desire to belong? The desire to be included. Speaking to that, this terminology referring to individuals with disabilities, supports, services, as special. Just can contribute to that othering. Thank you for raising that. 

OK. Thinking about creating spaces of belonging. Certainly, this is our goal, right for children and for - families and experiences a sense of belonging is really going to be different for every person. Belonging - physical environment, a social environment, or interpersonal relationships. But when we think about steps that learning leaders can take to create spaces of belonging, a really critical first step is the commitment and the will to identify barriers of inclusion and belonging. 

But also to identify facilitators of inclusion and belonging. And to be really be willing to try new strategies to really promote that full access, full inclusion, and again, that sense of belonging. There's an incredible disability advocate named Haben Girma, who has had this really lovely quote in a talk that I listened to. She said, "Inclusion happens when people take affirmative steps to make it possible. Any activity you imagine can be made accessible. It's about communities choosing to do the work, to choose inclusion." 

Thinking about our spaces and steps, maybe a first step that our learning leaders can take. That critical first step is recognizing that creating these spaces of inclusion and belonging is a value. And that it's seen as a collective responsibility and a collective privilege. That it's not just one person's job. When we think about identifying and eliminating barriers, and helping create environments that are accessible, that are flexible and supportive. Our learning leaders, we really want to think about the physical environment, the social environment. 

But also thinking about the institutional environment and the systemic environment. Thinking about those values and expectations. Hiring policies, how we set up our spaces. But also thinking about and reflecting on as an organization, how do we seek out and value the expertise of disabled individuals? I have a lot more to say about this. I think what I'll actually do is, again, come on to your - creep into your MyPeers community and leave a few notes about some specific actions that learning leaders can take in some considerations.

Vanessa: I would love that, Jenn. Yes, please. As Jenn and I were getting ready to do this webinar, we talked a lot about how important it is for us as women who do not identify with a disability, to elevate the voices of those that do. We're going to do things a little bit backwards for you all. And we're going to let these amazing women who are advocates for those in the disability community have the last word, so to speak, on the webinar. 

We'll kind of end - the ending of this webinar would have been some next steps that you can take. But those are outlined in your viewer's guide. And you have access to all of the amazing resources. How you might want to use the multicultural principles to think about your curriculum and the ways that you design your systems, your policies, your procedures, etc. Jenn, do you have any intro language that you'd like to give for this video and then you can launch it for us?

Jennifer: Yup, absolutely. As Vanessa said, as we're doing this work, particularly if you're a person who doesn't identify as being disabled or having a disability. It's really critical that we look to the disability community and our disability rights, our disability justice advocates. What we're going to see here are two disability justice advocates. 

Their names are Patty Berne and Stacey Milbern. And they're going to talk about what actually disables them. They're going to talk about whether that's their impairments, or whether that's society's preparedness or willingness to create spaces that are accessible. This is what's known as the social model of disability, OK? Let's hear from Stacey and Patty about how their bodies don't oppress them, but society does.

[Video begins]

Stacey Milbern: If you and I go to a building and there's no ramp, typically people think the problem is that we use wheelchairs. Where a social model of disability would say the problem is that the building's not accessible. And it doesn't seem like a radical concept, but it changes the fundamental way we think about disability and the work that we need to do to include people with disabilities.

Patty Berne: People often don't understand ability to be within this context and access to adaptive devices, and where we are located economically. When I have my access needs met, I'm functionally not disabled. But when places have stairs and everything is built for people that stand, I can't see anything. And it's a really dark environment, I can't see anything. Because, as you get older, your vision changes. Now I need a lot of light to see things. In an environment like that, of course, I'm disabled.

Stacey: I really like separating out impairment from disability. Impairment as, like physical or neurological manifestation, like what's real. I have a physical impairment. And then disability is like what society creates as barriers because of the impairment. Like, as you were saying, if we're in a place where my access needs are getting met, then my impairment isn't significant. But when it's not, because society doesn't want to, then that's a problem. 

I think it's important to really think about, disability and the context of what is disabling, like the environment. The last building I worked in, it was really cool because it was universally designed. All the doors had push buttons, or they were like magically open as you walk up. Or everything is like, automatically at my height. And in that place, I didn't need a lot of accommodations. But then in an environment where it's not universally accessible, where people with disabilities, and parents, and all types of folks weren't thought of in the design process, that's when there's problems.

Patty: And I'm not saying, like, it's easy to live with an impairment. It's not easy to live when you have like, four kids. It's not easy to live when it's like, 20 degrees outside. I mean, for those of us in the Bay Area, 55 is freezing. But, I mean, there are times when it's just not convenient to have a body. But that's not what oppresses us. What oppresses us is living in a system which disregards us, is violent toward us. Essentially wants to subjugate our bodies or kill us. That's oppressive. My body doesn't oppress me. My body's fine. But society, that can be incredibly oppressive.

Stacey: I think when we focus on a person's individual impairment or diagnoses, as you said, it kind of like lets society off the hook. It makes all the focus on that individual circumstance. When really ableism, and exclusion, and violence happen because of systems of oppression. We know it's not like an individual person with a disability that's the issue. 

But we can look at the way, for example, with policing, victims of violence are 50% people with disabilities, if not more. Or if we look at the special education system, it's not the individual special education student. But we can see how special education becomes continued segregation for many black and brown students. When we focus on like, the individual impairment, it kind of takes away from that bigger picture.

Patty: We're seen as disposable because for those of us that are not going to have like a treatment or a cure with our bodies. and we kind of fly in the face of this idea of medicine as God, we're seen as less than. And you're awesome. You're fabulous and you are beautiful. And I - how could - the idea that someone would think that you're less than is just absurd. And yet that's like, the framework that we're in. Yeah? And it's incredibly painful. There are always going to be crips. There are always going to be people in pain. It's just the nature of being in a body. But the social body we can change. And that's - I think it requires a power analysis.

[Video ends]

Vanessa: That was an incredibly powerful video. And thank you for those who are staying on a little bit beyond the hour. But Jenn, I wanted to be sure to give you the last word. But for those who are interested in the video, this is another resource in your viewer's guide that you can bring to your staff. And again, begin these really powerful and important conversations. You want to take us out, Jenn?

Jennifer: Absolutely. Thank you to everybody who joined us. Thank you. The comments in the chat, the questions in the chat are encouraging to think that, yes, we're all recognizing the importance of this. That we may not know, but we're willing to show up and ask questions, and do the work. And learn from one another to really support, again, that positive identity development and support a sense of belonging for all children. For all families. For all of our colleagues, which we know is important. 

But thinking about what we heard Stacey and Patty say, I feel disposable. That is not a sense of belonging. And we're here to intentionally do that work. Because belonging is in a universal human need that's fundamentally linked to learning and well - being. Thanks to everybody for being here. Just a little plug, our inclusion team next week, we're doing a webinar on including young children with autism. That's on Tuesday, the May 28th at 3:00 pm Eastern. And I hope folks will join us there. Thanks for having me, Vanessa.

Vanessa: Of course. Thank you for being here, Jenn. You're the best. Thank you all. Enjoy the rest of your day.

Jennifer: Thanks, everybody.