No Progress?...No Problem

We are presumed incompetent our entire lives. We are shoved into classes for the profoundly cognitively disabled, and/or ABA programs where we fail to make any meaningful progress, with speech thrown in as a related service. We make no meaningful progress there either. Year after year after year our IEPs have the same goals. “Alex will respond to one word commands with 80% accuracy.”  “Alex will say his name when asked with 80% accuracy.” When we fail to meet these goals, nothing happens:  no one is actually held responsible. In any other profession, there are standards that must be met.  (Well…almost any profession!)  The investment banker who does no deals won’t last long. The chef who doesn't cook will be on unemployment faster than I can type c-h-e-f. 


But no one cares if we learn nothing from our school teachers or our speech pathologists. No one cares if Alex Gorman spends years unsuccessfully learning to say his name. In fact, we applaud ineptitude by actively fighting against progress. 

I spent years putting pennies into a coffee can as a “play activity” in school. Years. I spent years trying to use my mouth to speak, but can still only approximate maybe 10 words.  And every one of my teachers not only kept their jobs, but they have the combined weight of New York State and ASHA protecting them. I can’t write a more scathing review of what others call education for the disabled.  During all my school years, I displayed zero progress (because I physically could not do what they were asking me to do)…and it was torture. 

Someday we will actually be accepted as the human beings we are. I look forward to that day.