“We All Have Special Needs”?

From Page 130-134, Milton Chen talks about how Assistive technology has actually helped people who don’t even have disabilities.  I am absolutely fine with that being in there, because it is a chapter about technology and the classroom.  But it really offends me the last sentence where he is quoting George Lucas “After all, when you think about it, we all have special needs.”  There were many things in George Lucas’s quote that I disagree with.  But this is the pinnacle of it.

We, people who do not have disabilities, cannot say that we have a disability if we do not have a disability.  That leads to the question of: “What are disabilities and special needs?”  Disability, according to dictionary.com, is “lack of adequate power, strength, or physical or mental ability; incapacity.”  And the definition, also according to dictionary.com, is “The special education requirement of those with learning difficulties, emotional or behavioral problems, or physical disabilities.”  According to Lucas’s quote, he should have said “…we all have disabilities.” not special needs.

I feel that this part of the chapter almost downplays people with disabilities (Person first language was just used there) by saying that the technology that was created for them is now used by us.  And since we are using it, we then try to believe that we have disabilities.  Lucas says “…has a type of disability.  This can include students with learning disabilities [correct], students in remote areas [I didn’t know that was a disability], and students for whom English is a second language [WHAT!? students who are ELL have a disability because they can’t speak English?]”

To mix people with disabilities with people who are from other countries could be looked at as offensive.  The reasoning behind this is that people with disabilities do not have a choice to have a disability or not (they cannot get rid of it).  Students who are ELL are taught to speak English, and if they are equated with students with learning disabilities.  I feel that I am not making any sense, but I just don’t think that it is right to mix students with disabilities with students who just have environmental deficiencies (remote area or brought up in a household that does not speak English).  Deficiencies could also be looked at as offensive, so his quote just seems like a no-win situation.