"But here, in the blind leading the blind, lies a powerful enabling metaphor. Disability can create knowledge, open doors wider, build ramps to awareness that we all essentially have in us anyway. This happens when any body leads anybody" (Brueggemann, 2001, p. 800).

While the idea of the blind leading the blind is often equated with futility, in the quote above, Brenda Brueggemann argues that the insight of disability can lead us to rethink our classrooms in ways that benefit all students and instructors. Disability is already in our lives and in our classrooms, and including disability as diversity in teaching means creating an accessible teaching environment where all students can succeed.

Including disability as diversity begins by reconsidering what disability is:

• Disability has social, political, and historical features, and in this sense is like racial and gendered identities. Disability is not simply a medical trait or something that needs "fixing."

• Disability is about how bodies interact with existing environments. Some people with disabilities consider their major obstacles to be discrimination and being regarded as objects of pity and charity.

• Disability brings attention to the bodies we all live in. With 49.7 million people living with disabilities in the U.S., nearly everyone has some “connection” to disability. It’s a minority group that anyone might join at any time.

• The National Council on Education notes that nearly 10% of college freshmen have a disability. Many such students have "invisible" disabilities, such as learning disabilities.

The relationship of disability and the classroom has often been about what’s "required" – and it is true that if a student enters your class with a letter from Disability Resource Services, you are required to accommodate the student.

However, thinking ahead about all the different sorts of bodies and abilities that will be in your class leads to an inclusive pedagogy that enables all students.

• Plan ahead to make your course accessible. Work to have syllabi and course readers ready before class begins. Also, make sure course websites are accessible. See http://www.washington.edu/computing/accessible/

• Set the tone on the first day and in your syllabus by communicating that all students are welcome in the course and taken seriously as learners.

• Plan assignments so that students can work toward the same goal in different ways. All students don’t need to do the same activity in order to reach a particular learning goal. Having students approach the material or assignment in different ways can lead to productive class discussions where students can teach each other.

• Use multiple formats for instruction. Students learn in different ways, and utilizing oral, verbal, textual, and kinesthetic means is key for stimulating and including all students. Try to overlap approaches; for example, make outlines available for lectures, provide opportunities for electronic interaction, and orally explain all printed assignments. All students will appreciate it.

• Speak at a moderate pace for interpreters. A moderate pace can benefit all students' comprehension.

• Include disability studies in your curriculum. Bringing disability studies into your curriculum is a great way to make disability a natural part of your classroom. See the Disability Studies website (below) for more details!

• Additional resources and implications for teaching:
  http://depts.washington.edu/cidrweb/disabilitystudies.html

• Disability Studies Minor at the UW:
  http://depts.washington.edu/disstud/

• Self-paced web instruction for instructors
  http://www.washington.edu/doit/Faculty/

• Beyond Compliance: An Information Package on the Inclusion of People with Disabilities in Postsecondary Education
  http://soeweb.syr.edu/thechp/bccc_package.html

This issue of the Bulletin was developed by Amy Vidali, doctoral candidate in English at UW.