What students learn in school—the curriculum—shapes their understanding of the world and their place in it. When curriculum excludes disability, students learn that disability isn't part of the human story worth telling. When it includes disability only as tragedy or inspiration, students learn distorted narratives. When teachers with disabilities are absent from schools, students don't see disability represented in positions of authority. Representation in curriculum and teaching staff matters for all students, with and without disabilities.
Curriculum Representation
>Disability is largely absent from school curriculum. History courses rarely mention disability rights movements or disabled historical figures. Literature selections rarely include disability narratives written by disabled authors. Science curricula may cover disability as medical condition but not as identity or culture.
>When disability appears, it often appears in problematic ways. Disability as tragedy to be overcome. Disabled people as inspiration for non-disabled observers. Medical model framings that present disability as deficiency. These representations may do more harm than absence, teaching negative attitudes while appearing to include.
>Authentic disability representation would include disabled people as ordinary participants in human experience—not defined solely by disability but also not erasing it. It would include disability history, culture, and perspectives as legitimate curricular content. It would use resources created by disabled people, not just about them.
>Curriculum development processes often don't include disability perspectives. When curricula are designed, disability communities and scholars are rarely consulted. The absence of disability voice in development produces curricula that don't represent disability well.
Disability Studies in Education
>Disability Studies offers academic framework for understanding disability as social, political, and cultural phenomenon—not just medical condition. This framework informs curriculum that represents disability authentically.
>Disability Studies content can be integrated across subjects. History includes disability rights movements. Literature includes disability narratives. Science considers social construction of disability categories alongside biology. Art explores disability aesthetics. Integration across curriculum is more effective than isolated units.
>Teacher preparation rarely includes Disability Studies. Teachers may graduate without encountering critical disability perspectives. Without this background, they're unprepared to teach about disability or to recognize problematic representations in materials they use.
Teachers With Disabilities
>Teachers with disabilities are underrepresented in schools. While data is limited, available evidence suggests disabled people are less likely than non-disabled people to enter or remain in teaching. The workforce doesn't reflect the disability present in student populations.
>Barriers to teaching careers for people with disabilities include inaccessible teacher education programs, discrimination in hiring, and workplace accommodation challenges. Each stage of the path to teaching presents potential barriers.
>When teachers with disabilities are present, they provide role modeling that absence doesn't. Students see disability in positions of authority and expertise. Students with disabilities see that their futures could include teaching. Non-disabled students see disability associated with competence.
>The experience teachers with disabilities bring informs their teaching. Understanding accessibility from lived experience, recognizing student struggles from personal knowledge, and challenging stereotypes from position of authority—disabled teachers contribute perspectives that non-disabled teachers may lack.
Impact on Students
>Curriculum representation affects how all students understand disability. Non-disabled students learn attitudes toward disability from what school teaches—explicitly and implicitly. Absent or stereotyped representation shapes attitudes that manifest in peer relationships, future professional practice, and civic life.
>Students with disabilities learn about themselves from curriculum representation. Absence sends the message that disability isn't important, that disabled people's contributions don't matter. Negative representation teaches internalized ableism. Authentic representation affirms identity and possibilities.
>Students with disabilities rarely see themselves in curriculum. The experience of never seeing people like you in what you study—or seeing them only as objects of pity or inspiration—affects sense of belonging and possibility. Representation is a matter of educational equity.
Changing Curriculum
>Curriculum change processes vary by jurisdiction but typically involve bureaucratic procedures that disability communities may not have voice in. Changing what gets taught requires engagement with these processes—identifying opportunities, advocating for inclusion, reviewing proposed curricula.
>Teachers have some autonomy in what and how they teach, even within mandated curricula. Teachers who understand disability can supplement curricula, choose inclusive materials, and bring disability perspectives into discussions. Individual teachers can make differences even without systemic curriculum change.
>Materials that support disability-inclusive teaching exist but may not be widely known. Disability studies for K-12, disability-themed children's literature, historical resources on disability—teachers who want to include disability can find materials if they look.
>Professional development on disability representation can build teacher capacity. Learning about disability perspectives, reviewing one's teaching for problematic representations, and developing inclusive approaches all benefit from structured professional learning.
Questions for Reflection
>Should disability be a required topic in school curriculum comparable to other diversity topics? How would this be implemented across subjects and grades?
>What would it take to significantly increase the number of teachers with disabilities? What barriers should be prioritized?
>How should schools balance authentic disability representation with the range of perspectives within disability communities, including those who reject disability identity frameworks?