Keynote: From Accidental Ableism to Intentional Inclusion (1 Class A CE)

We all have good intentions. As human beings, we want to be nice. As educators, we want our students to succeed. And yet, despite our best intentions, accidental ableism might be preventing us from being as successful as we hope.

Ableism is more than the narrow definition: bias and discrimination against people with disabilities. It’s a pervasive and often invisible force woven throughout society that is evident in our values, assumptions, and actions but rarely recognized. It influences the way we think about ourselves and others. Living in an ableist society, of course we’re all going to be ableist sometimes – even disabled and neurodivergent people.

So, what can we do? How do we recognize ableist culture’s influence on us and take steps to promote inclusion instead?

With unguarded honesty, Rebecca shares her adventures in ableism as she grew from that kid who was always a little extra to a compassionate disability activist today. As a nice person who has done plenty of ableist things over the years (including in her classroom), she is a firm believer in Maya Angelou’s famous quote about doing better once we know better.

To that end, Rebecca untangles often-conflated concepts like accessibility and inclusion, identifies a few lightbulb moments that helped her shift to an anti-ableist mindset, and offers practical actions you can take to foster inclusion in the spaces that matter to you.