A Call to Action for the Young Leaders with Learning Disabilities

by Kathleen Kosobud

This is especially for the Young Leaders Group of the Learning Disabilities Association of America which held its' launch at the 2011 LDA National Conference—Many congratulations!

This morning (2/28/11) I was listening to The Craig Fahle Show[i] a Detroit local NPR program  and Craig was interviewing some folks in Detroit who are using the web to leverage "micro-investments" in projects. 

Recently the Michigan film industry launched a campaign to retain the Michigan film industry incentive which our Governor has proposed to place on the chopping block. I became a micro-producer in the film industry ad campaign[ii] by clicking a button, checking a box, and sending my $10 via PayPal. The initial ad is a collage of video posts from young people who had been, until now, starting careers in the film industry in Michigan. We, in Michigan, are seeing our young people leave the state as the prospects for jobs seem to be fading away.  These young people sent short video clips, telling the governor how the loss of the incentive would affect them. I love the idea that, at every level of this project, it was done through micro-contributions of money, effort, and collaboration and became a truly empowered process as a result. 

The "faces" of the campaign are Jeff Daniels[iii] (actor, musician, and committed resident of Michigan), Mitch Albom[iv] (Tuesdays with Morrie, The Five People You Meet in Heaven, For One More Day), and Emery King, chair of the Michigan Film Office Advisory Council[v] (see an interview with him about the Michigan Creative Film Alliance at http://vimeo.com/14104906/).

I think that "empowerment" (Nothing About Us Without Us[vi]--the clarion call of the Disability Rights Movement[vii]) is key to activating the enthusiasm and support of young people in LDA causes. I have some ideas about campaigns that would involve social media and participatory activism and would love to implement them at the state level but it would be far better to do it nationally, because of a body of research[viii] showing that young people with learning disabilities often fail to disclose disability in college and on the job. I have had young people (my own children included) tell me that they are afraid to be considered to be less than they are, if they disclose disability.  As a result, they often think that they are the only ones struggling to succeed and may wrongly blame themselves for the failure of the wider system. 

We need a "You are NOT alone" "Proud and LD" kind of campaign--to get in the face of employers, public services, education policymakers, etc. to let them know what they are missing by excluding our numbers from full participation. 

Many of us, despite our talents, have difficulties that would keep us from achieving high school diplomas in the current "high and rigorous standards"[ix] policy environment. We need to be there for our younger brothers and sisters (and their children) who are facing these policy challenges. Why is it still unacceptable for us to "read" with hypertext readers?  Why is it still unacceptable for us to "write" using dictation software? Why does everyone (as opposed to those with a future in engineering or science) have to pass Algebra 2 in order to participate in the 21st Century workforce[x]?  We already know that one size does not fit all.

Let's get ourselves motivated to get this going. I'll help (in between endless days of writing my dissertation), but we need everyone to join in to make our voices heard--loudly!

I'm a person identified with learning disabilities and I don't intend to stay quiet about my right, or anyone else's, to participate.

Kathleen Kosobud is a past president of LDA of Michigan, a National Board Certified Teacher, and a doctoral candidate in the field of Special Education with special interests in family-school policy and practices, teacher quality for children with disabilities, and education policy for persons with disabilities.

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[i] Hook up to Craig Fahle at these links: http://www.facebook.com/CraigFahleShow/ or http://www.wdetfm.org/craigfahle/

[ii] This is a shortened link to the Michigan Film Industry’s campaign: http://bit.ly/e42jPA/

[iii] Read about Daniels at the Internet Movie Database: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001099/

[iv] To buy Albom’s books, go to:  http://www.amazon.com/Mitch-Albom/e/B000AQ79EY/ ref=sr_tc_ep?qid=1298924804

[v] More information about the Michigan Film Office’s Advisory Council:  http://www.michiganfilmoffice.org/The-Film-Office/Advisory-Council/Default.aspx/

[vi] Charlton, James I. (1998). Nothing about us without us: disability oppression and empowerment. Berkeley: University of California Press.

[vii] About the Disability Rights Movement: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disability_rights_movement/

[viii] Link to the 2009 report on the state of Learning Disabilities: http://www.ncld.org/stateofld/

[ix] Link to the national standards adopted by the National Governor’s Association: http://www.corestandards.org/

[x] Link to the U.S. 21^st Century Workforce Commission’s 2000 report: http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1003&context=key_workplace/

What's in a Name? "Highly Qualified" Special Educators

This is my response to the "On Special Education" blog entry Are Teachers in Training Good Enough for Special Ed.?  I've been thinking about this ever since I earned National Board Certification as an Early Adolescence Generalist, while teaching in a resource room.


I am a "career" special educator. I spent 20 years in the classroom, worked for a national non-profit organization on teacher quality issues for 5 years and I have been working on a PhD in special education to continue my work in support of quality special education. 

Picture of student's finger pointing to text on a page
Image: federico stevanin / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

In the past few years, I've heard and responded to proposals that would put students with disabilities in front of computers instead of human beings to provide instruction, I've heard of the increasing use of bright, inadequately prepared TFA recruits in special education settings, I've heard of special education interns (student teachers) being used as substitutes in special education settings, and I've heard about a variety of other "sow's ear into silk purse" solutions. I don't buy it, and neither should the general public.

The logic of these solutions eludes me. If we had a water shortage, we wouldn't drink substandard water; why should we accept the staffing of classrooms of our most needy students with substandard teachers? Ever since the oxymoronic term "highly qualified teacher" was defined, there's been an ever-increasing push to include more and more "non-teachers" under the umbrella of that term. "Highly qualified" implies, at minimum, that the teacher has credentials and has some expertise in the classroom where he/she is placed. 

Since NCLB (No Child Left Behind) requires that the vast majority of students be provided access to the general curriculum, with appropriate accommodations (in the case of students with disabilities), and requires assessment in their mastery of the content of the general curriculum, I'm of the opinion that we need to take a different approach to the staffing of special education positions. I think that special education certification should transition into an added endorsement, only obtainable by general education teachers who have mastery of the content that they teach, and sufficient experience that they are able to teach with some fluency.

If we regarded special education as a specialization in the same way that we regard instructional technology specialists, or reading specialists (most of whom hold advanced certification, beyond their initial credentials), we would likely have the "highly qualified" thing line up better for special educators. IDEIA 2004 (Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act) requires that secondary special educators have both content and special education credentials. Why do we keep expecting that a four to five year initial credential would even approach preparing special educators? 

It's no secret that we have chronic shortages of special educators; we've had that since I was a newly-hatched special educator in the '70s. I think that Alexa Posny's claim of a special educator shortage makes a false connection. It's not retirement that we have to fear, it's the overwhelming attrition rate among special educators that has been the cause of the shortages. So, I would advocate for an intensification of the standard for "highly qualified" special educators, not a loosening of the standards to allow any warm body to staff our special education positions. We need special educators with solid foundations in content and a broad repertoire of skills in building access to that content in multiple ways.

Kathleen Kosobud, National Board Certified Teacher (NBCT)
Doctoral Candidate in Special Education, Michigan State University
Immediate Past President, LDA of Michigan

MITS Freedom Stick--Making Computer Use More Accessible

Ira Socol, a colleague of mine who has been working on his Ph.D. at Michigan State University, has a theory--Toolbelt Theory--which he has been blogging on for several years at SPeEDchange, his blog.  He's currently working with Michigan's Integrated Technology Supports (MITS) on this possibility. The idea, which I am probably oversimplifying, is that people who need to have certain adaptations made in order to access content on a computer, should be able to carry their tools with them. In essence, the tools, stored on a USB flash drive, would allow them to customize any computer to their needs. He's currently working with Michigan's Integrated Technology Supports (MITS).

Picture of 3 flash drives. Source: secretarydpu.wordpress.com

Well, he's finally unveiled The MITS Freedom Stick, adapted and improved from a Scottish suite of applications stored on a flash drive. The MITS Freedom Stick is "designed to provide students with information and communication access on any computer using a Windows or Linux operating system."  The best part about this "toolbelt" is that nothing needs to be installed on any computer, it's all self-contained on a 4 gigabyte (4GB) USB flash drive which you provide (and can be purchased for under $20).  The applications can be downloaded for free, at the MITS website.  There are instructions for customization at the link, and there's room on the flash drive for storing the files created by the user.


This suite of tools became possible through a collaboration between MITS, the Regional Support Center – Scotland North and East, the Mozilla Corporation, and Mozilla Education.
With netbooks available for under $300, this brings basic computer accessibility down to an incredibly affordable range for students in upper elementary and middle school, and beyond.   What impresses me is that this means that there are few excuses for students with learning disabilities to be unfamiliar with the tools housed on the MITS Freedom Stick by the time they enter college. Parents and teachers will need to be prepared to become skilled users of these tools, to help reinforce their learning. The hope that I have for this suite of tools is that it will enable more students to become independent of others' help earlier, so that a less steep learning curve is required of them when they reach post-secondary education.