Introduction
Literature portraying characters with disabilities provides teachers with rich opportunities to teach their students about human diversity and tolerance (Adomat, 2014). Literature has been suggested as a means for teaching about mild, learning disabilities (Prater, Dyches, & Johnstun, 2006), as well more severe, developmental disabilities (Dyches & Prater, 2000). Because of its wide-ranging applications to teach about disability, educators should carefully evaluate and select literature that they can used to design lessons that teach about disability in ways that increase awareness, understanding, and competency. The Teacher’s Guide to Using Literature to Promote Inclusion of People with Disabilities has been designed to assist teachers who wish to use literature to promote inclusion of people with disabilities in all aspects of life.
Historically, people with disabilities have been inaccurately and negatively portrayed in literary works such as short stories, books, TV programs, and movies. For example, in an analysis of Caldecott Medal and Honor books, Dyches, Prater, and Jenson (2006) found that individuals with disabilities were underrepresented in children’s picture books, and even when included in these books, individuals with disabilities tended to be portrayed in ways that were negative and inaccurate. Dyches et al. (2006) suggested that teachers expose and correct stereotypes in books portraying characters with disabilities to promote normalization and inclusion of this diverse population in society. This guide can help teachers identify works that portray characters with disabilities in inaccurate and negative ways and design lessons to expose and correct those stereotypes.
Fortunately, recent works of literature have begun to provide more accurate information about, and more positive images of, people with disabilities (McGrail & Rieger, 2013; Prater, 2003). No matter how accurate the information presented or how positive the characterization, all works that include characters with disabilities have potential to teach not only disability facts, but also critical thinking, deep reflection, respect, and tolerance for all forms of human diversity (Rieger & McGrail, 2015). Price, Ostrosky, and Mouzourou (2016) have suggested that professionals carefully review books using evaluative criteria to examine how literature portrays characters with disabilities. Price et al. (2016) used criteria developed by Nasatir & Horn, 2003 to critically examine 102 children’s library books. Criteria examined included age appropriateness for intended audience, use of stereotypes, type of role played by character with disabilities, and others. This guide employs criteria from a number of sources to evaluate literary works. No matter how characters are portrayed, this guide will help teachers design lessons that increase awareness, understanding, and inclusion of children and adults with disability.
Previous Research
The Teacher’s Guide to Using Literature to Promote Inclusion of People with Disabilities is based on an earlier work examining the impact of adolescent literature on perceptions of developmental disability (Menchetti, Plattos, & Carroll, 2011). This version of the teacher’s guide has been expanded to address all types and levels of disability. The rubric has been revised to yield two types of quantitative evaluation scores assessing how a literary work portrays characters with disability. Finally, a curriculum guide has been added to provide teachers with lesson ideas based upon the scores obtained by rating the work of literature using the evaluation rubric.
Overview
The Teacher’s Guide to Using Literature to Promote Inclusion of People with Disabilities consists of two parts. Part 1 consists of a rubric for evaluating how short stories, books, poems, TV programs, movies, digital media, and other forms of literature portray characters with disabilities. The rubric yields two types of scores.
First, literary feature scores allow rater(s) to critically analyze each of the eight literary features separately. Second the final rubric score assesses the overall portrayal of disability in the work being rated. After completing the rubric to critically analyze how characters with disabilities are depicted in a work of literature, a teacher can consult the accompanying curriculum guide to find instructional planning resources to teach their students lessons about human diversity and tolerance.
Part 2 of the Teacher’s Guide to Using Literature to Promote Inclusion of People with Disabilities is a curriculum guide with learning objectives, lesson activities, strategies for outcome evaluation. The curriculum guide is a resource for teachers who wish to design lessons using literature to teach about disabilities.
