New York, NY, October 10, 2005 … The latest in the Anti-Defamation League's (ADL) series of free online anti-bias lesson plans for students grades K-12 explores the myths and stereotypes surrounding people with disabilities.
Timed to coincide with the 15th anniversary of the passage of the landmark Americans with Disabilities Act, the fall 2005 installment of ADL's Curriculum Connections, "Equal Treatment, Equal Access" is devoted to raising awareness to the challenges faced by people with disabilities and their struggle to gain equal access to society.
ADL's Curriculum Connections is a series of original lesson plans that help K-12 educators integrate multicultural, anti-bias and social justice themes into their curricula.
"The Americans with Disabilities Act was a milestone in finally recognizing the right of people with disabilities to have full participation in society, yet there have been very few efforts to teach young people about who people with disabilities are and why they are so often discriminated against in ways large and small," said Ed Alster, ADL Education Director. "This curriculum challenges students to more fully understand the important recent advances toward the full inclusion of people with disabilities into mainstream schools and society, and to remember the efforts of disability rights advocates to win these legislative victories."
"Equal Treatment, Equal Access" consists of five lesson plans: Getting to Know People With Physical Disabilities (Grades K – 2); Experiencing Hearing Disability Through Music (Grades 2 – 4); Seeing the World Through the Hands of People with a Visual Disability (Grades 4 – 6); Understanding Learning Differences (Grades 6 – 9); and History of the Disability Rights Movement (Grades 10 – 12).
