Many schools proudly embrace diversity, equity, and inclusion as guiding principles. Yet, too often, disability is missing from those conversations.
Even districts that invest heavily in anti-bias training and cultural responsiveness frequently approach disability as a medical issue or a compliance requirement. In doing so, they overlook disability as a vital dimension of identity, belonging, and equity.
That omission carries real consequences. It sends an unspoken message to students with disabilities: you are not part of the inclusion we are talking about.
But true inclusion cannot exist without disability awareness.
Disability Is Part of Every School Community
Disability is not rare. It is not niche. And it is not someone else’s issue.
More than 15 percent of the global population lives with a disability, making it the world’s largest minority group. Unlike many other identity markers, disability can become part of anyone’s life at any moment. It exists in every classroom, every neighborhood, and every school community.
And yet, despite its prevalence, disability is often misunderstood or ignored altogether.
Most students receive little guidance on how to talk about disability. Schools rarely offer frameworks for thinking about access, equity, or inclusion as they relate to disability. Without that guidance, silence fills the gap, along with confusion and discomfort. In some cases, that silence leads to exclusion or harm, even when students have good intentions.
When awareness is absent, inclusion remains incomplete.
The Identity Puzzle: Why Intersectionality Matters
At Changing Perspectives, we often describe identity as a puzzle. Each person carries interconnected pieces such as race, gender, culture, language, family structure, beliefs, socioeconomic status, and more. For some, disability is one of those pieces.
Students with disabilities are not a monolith.
A multilingual student may also be on the autism spectrum.
A child navigating poverty may also live with a chronic illness.
A trans student may also be a wheelchair user.
Disability intersects with every identity.
When disability is treated as an isolated identifier or left out entirely, schools miss opportunities to understand the full complexity of students’ lived experiences. Worse still, they risk reinforcing the very marginalization that equity and inclusion efforts aim to dismantle.
True inclusion means creating intentional opportunities for access and belonging across all pieces of a student’s identity puzzle.
The Political Backdrop: Language, Power, and Belonging
Today, disability awareness does not exist in a neutral landscape.
Across the country, efforts are underway to remove or dilute identity-affirming language in schools. In some states, even the word diversity has become controversial. Other policies attempt to strip disability related language from educational frameworks under the guise of neutrality.
But neutrality is not neutral when it erases lived experience.
When students lose the language to name who they are, they also lose power. The power to tell their stories, to advocate for themselves, and to belong fully and unapologetically. These efforts do not make schools safer or more inclusive. They do the opposite.
At Changing Perspectives, we reject the idea that inclusion requires erasure. We believe language matters. Identity matters. Visibility matters.
Grounded in Lived Experience: Why Our Work Began
Changing Perspectives did not emerge in response to a political moment or a passing trend. It grew out of lived experience.
Our founder and executive director, Sam Drazin, was born with Treacher Collins syndrome, a rare congenital condition that affects facial structure and hearing. As a student, Sam rarely saw himself reflected in classroom conversations or in a curriculum focused on difference and inclusion. Later, as a teacher in inclusive classrooms, he recognized a deeper gap. Schools were not equipping students with the language, awareness, and relationship skills needed to engage meaningfully with difference.
That insight became the foundation of our work.
The Changing Perspectives Disability Awareness Curriculum was created not as a reaction to pressure, but as a proactive investment in belonging. For more than a decade, it has supported educators in facilitating thoughtful, age-appropriate conversations centered on identity, language, and connection.
About the Disability Awareness Curriculum
The K-12th-grade Disability Awareness Curriculum equips educators with developmentally appropriate, standards-aligned tools that help students:
- Understand disability as a natural and valuable part of human diversity
- Explore identity, access, and equity in everyday life
- Use respectful, accurate language when discussing differences
- Challenge stereotypes through dialogue and critical thinking
- Lead inclusive change within their classrooms and communities
The curriculum is flexible by design. Educators can use it as standalone lessons, integrated units, or cross-curricular projects connected to English language arts, social studies, health, and more.
Through the Educator Portal, teachers receive year-round access to all materials, along with resources for planning, implementation, and reflection. This work is not about teaching students about people with disabilities. It is about helping students recognize how disability shows up in their world.
When We Include Disability, We Transform Inclusion and Build Empathy and Belonging
We live in a world where exclusion is often the norm. Students with disabilities face barriers that extend far beyond physical access and into social, emotional, and cultural spaces.
At the same time, we see something powerful. Educators are ready for change.
They want to embed disability into broader conversations about inclusion.
They want tools that foster critical reflection and meaningful dialogue.
They want to raise students who lead with empathy and act on it.
The Changing Perspectives Disability Awareness Curriculum does exactly that.
Take Action: Build a More Inclusive Future, Starting Today
Disability is not a separate conversation. It is central to inclusion because every student benefits from a school culture that affirms identity, builds empathy, and values all learners.
Whether you are just beginning this work or looking to deepen your commitment, here are three ways to take action:
- Explore the Disability Awareness Curriculum
- Invite a Changing Perspectives speaker or facilitator to your school
- Share this post to help reframe how your community understands disability and inclusion
Let’s ensure disability is no longer the overlooked piece of inclusion, but its cornerstone.
