Disability Futures

Looking back, scholars have found a small number of cases suggestive of autism. The best known is the Wild Boy of Aveyron, later given the name Victor, who walked naked out of a French forest in 1799, unspeaking and uncivilized, giving birth to fantastic tales of a child raised by wolves; in recent decades experts have tended to believe that Victor was born autistic and abandoned by his parents. The behavior of the so-called Holy Fools of Russia, who went about nearly naked in winter, seemingly oblivious to the cold, speaking strangely and appearing uninterested in normal human interaction, has also been reinterpreted as autistic. And today’s neurodiversity movement, which argues that autism is not essentially a disability, but, rather, a variant of human brain wiring that merits respect, and even celebration, has led to posthumous claims of autistic identity for the likes of Leonardo da Vinci, Isaac Newton and Thomas Jefferson.

As far as we can determine, we are the first to suggest the diagnosis for Howe’s numerous cases, who appear to constitute the earliest known collection of systematically observed people with probable autism in the United States. We came across them during the fourth year of research for our new book, In a Different Key: The Story of Autism, by which time our “radar” for autistic tendencies was fairly well-advanced. Granted, retrospective diagnosis of any sort of psychological state or developmental disability can never be anything but speculation. But Howe’s “Report Made to the Legislature of Massachusetts upon Idiocy,” which he presented in February of 1848, includes signals of classic autistic behavior so breathtakingly recognizable to anyone familiar with the condition’s manifestations that they cannot be ignored. Plus, his quantitative approach vouches for his credibility as an observer, despite the fact that he believed in phrenology, which purported to study the mind by mapping the cranium, long since relegated to the list of pseudosciences. Howe’s final report contained 45 pages of tabulated data, drawn from a sample of 574 people who were thoroughly examined by him or his colleagues in nearly 63 towns. The tables cover a wide range of measurements as well as intellectual and verbal capacities. Howe, extrapolating, estimated that Massachusetts had 1,200 “idiots.”

Among those who are crippled but don’t always look like they’re crippled are folks with stuff like fibromyalgia and the kind of chemical sensitivity where a whiff of perfume can knock you on your ass. One day you’re running a marathon and the next day you’re flat in bed. It must suck constantly having to prove you’re crippled when you know damn well you are. It must especially suck when it’s time to cash in on the few good things that come with being crippled, like Social Security and legal pot. But hey, the uncrippled majority demands hard evidence! They’ve reached the cripple saturation point. There are so many different kinds of cripples and new breeds are popping up all the time. To keep track of them all requires a scorecard a mile long.

Violet was born at 25 weeks and five days—more than three months ahead of her due date. This is a story about becoming parents in the face of uncertainty.

Bauman points out the wide entryways that allow signers more room to gesture and the automatic doors that don’t require anyone to stop mid-phrase to grab a handle. In the common room, a large, horseshoe-shaped bench fosters the kind of “conversation circles” in which deaf people feel comfortable. Diffuse natural light makes it easy to follow friends’ and teachers’ signing.

Bauman and Gallaudet have a name for this kind of architecture: DeafSpace.

DeafSpace has made Gallaudet stand out even in a local university scene undergoing a remarkable real-estate boom: George Washington University has been expanding south and east from its Foggy Bottom neighborhood. Georgetown built a sleek new School of Continuing Studies on Massachusetts Avenue near Gallery Place. None, though, is doing as much creative thinking about urban design as Gallaudet.

Education has come a long way since just a few decades ago. And today it is changing even more rapidly as advances in neuroscience, social psychology, and technology combine to reshape the educational landscape. As we begin the new year, here are five recent trends in special education, and five more in general education that educators should be aware of in 2016.

The Role of Technology in Promoting Social Connectedness

In the CAST video, Alma uses a computer with video conferencing capability and an Internet connection to remotely participate in the activities of a Virtual Senior Center. Alma can enjoy exercise and painting classes, and stay connected with friends, even after a stroke limits her ability to leave her apartment. 

Other technologies can also help reduce the social isolation that could lead to, or be caused by, depression. They include:

• Phones: Amplified, captioned and easy-to-use memory phones give older people an easy way to keep in touch with loved ones. Phones with enhanced caller ID help users with memory loss identify their callers in advance. These phones display a picture of the caller and information about the relationship between the caller and the call recipient. Some cell phones offer basic phone service and have simple designs and features. Smart phones may provide video reminders, multimedia messaging and simplified interfaces for social networking applications. 

• Internet access: Older adults can stay in touch with family and friends by using senior-friendly computers and simplified computer interfaces for e-mail and the Internet. These computers can connect older adults with friends, entertainment and information about topics of interest. Internet-based social networks can also help alleviate feelings of loneliness and alienation among older people. Vibrant and growing communities for older adults now exist, and future technologies promise to expand these social networks. This type of Internet access has been shown to relieve isolation and reduce depression.

• Video games: Electronic games could help reduce depression in old age, especially when they encourage users to be physically active. Some video technologies let players interact through gaming communities that reduce social isolation among players. 

• Video phones and video conferencing applications: These technologies relieve social isolation and loneliness by facilitating interactions between depressed individuals and their friends and family. Videoconferencing can also minimize guilt and worry on the part of family members who are unable to visit isolated relatives on a regular basis. 

• Telemental health applications: Personal computers, video conferencing applications and videophones can also connect older adults with health care providers, who use them to assess, diagnose and treat depression remotely. 

In a different time, Estabrook, with his neatly parted hair and defined features, could have become a well-known character actor, a face “in all those movies.” But Estabrook was employee at the Eugenics Record Office in Cold Spring Harbor, New York, and he was more than prepared to testify to the inferiority of Carrie and her bloodline. Most of his life had been devoted to diagnosing and describing “defective bloodlines” that, in his view, held humanity back. At the urging of Aubrey Strode, the lawyer for Dr. Priddy and the Virginia State Colony, Estabrook rushed down to Lynchburg to testify against Carrie. Strode believed that the testimony of a true expert in eugenics would be crucial to developing an unassailable legal record proving that Carrie, Emma, and Vivian all carried defective genes and, therefore, that the state had both the authority and the right to sterilize Carrie to prevent any further “feeble-minded” offspring. He needed such expert testimony if the appellate courts, and possibly even the U.S. Supreme Court, were going to uphold Carrie’s sterilization and thus ratify not only Dr. Priddy’s plans for the mass sterilization of “genetic defectives,” but also the plans of thousands of similar eugenicists around the country. Eugenics was Estabrook’s life work, so of course he came as quickly as he could.

"The new regulation guide and letter to school districts address problematic policies which have required students and their families to undergo repeated costly testing for documentation of dyslexia, dysgraphia,dyscalculia, and other LDs,” says DyslexicAdvantage.org. The guide also attempts to fix the problem of students with learning disabilities not being supported until they repeatedly fail; test accommodations should be made to reflect aptitude and achievement levels.

 This covers high school equivalency exams, high school and college entrance exams, graduate school admissions exams, and licensing exams for trade purposes/ professional purposes. The new guidelines also help students with disabilities circumvent the difficult process of being asked to provide extensive documentation for testing accommodations by defining limits.

About one in every five Americans reports having a disability, according to results from a new nationwide survey.

About one in eight adults say they have mobility limitations, such as difficulty walking or climbing stairs, making this the most common type of disability, according to the report. The next most common disability is in thinking and/or memory, followed by problems with independent living (such as difficulty running errands and visiting the doctor without help), vision and self-care (such as self-bathing or dressing), according to the report.