Equal Access in Education

The struggle for equal access to education continues to be a fundamental characteristic of many social movements. The growing capacity of Humber College in Toronto to support students with a developmental disability is emerging as a model of integrated post-secondary education.

A walk through this large community college on any given day of the term would reveal a noisy, animated and colourful scene. Private conversations compete with aspiring DJs on the student radio station. Leather and denim set the fashion tone. French fries and diet coke provide daily sustenance and the bad news about smoking has not yet arrived. Simulated hospital wards, greenhouses, computer centres, a new technology wing, music practice studios, even a morgue, leave a lasting impression of the opportunities available for formal student learning. The informal learning of course, takes place in the well populated games room, cafeterias, pubs, gyms and all the way along the much leaned against lockers.

The determination that such opportunities be provided for young people not traditionally served by the college system, prompted one father to approach Humber College on behalf of his son. Drawing on the expertise of the local school boards and community agencies serving people with developmental disabilities, the college agreed in the fall of 1984 to an experimental pilot project which would assist students to choose from the array of college courses and to become involved in college life. Support would be provided by Community Integration through Cooperative Education (CICE).

CICE could not have started at a worse time. The program was launched immediately after the community college teachers’ strike in October 1984. The timing could not have been any more inopportune to ask any teacher to take an additional student into an already crowded classroom. Yet the doors began to open. The Chairman of the Hospitality Program, for example, was keen to have a student in his class because he felt it would be valuable for all the students and their future ability to work with people with different backgrounds in their kitchens. He advised all the students that they would be evaluated, in part, on their capacity to support each other.

Other teachers were more matter of fact and agreed to include a student not out of any respect for individual rights but because teaching was what they were paid to do. Many adult educators seem to subscribe to the notion of a continuum incorporating all people who want to learn although there may be a wide variation among individuals. In addition the instructors understand that a combination of different learning strategies must be employed to ensure that students who come with different learning styles have an opportunity to learn.

Watching the process of Humber College becoming more competent as a community in its wider acceptance of difference has been exhilarating. From tentative beginnings and an enrollment of five, there are now 18 students supported by CICE in a wide range of college programs.

New students are asked to indicate their interests so they can be matched with the appropriate generic program. When Lorraine, for example, came to Humber after two years in a segregated school and said she wanted to work with kids when she graduated, it was clear that the two-year Early childhood Education Program would best suit her. Lorraine has the same timetable as everyone else and is assisted in completing assignments and tests, some of which are adapted by her instructors. She is supported in her field placement on the same day that everyone else is out in the field. If working with a group of toddlers is too scary initially, colouring with one at a time will suffice. When she has a two hour break in the middle of the day and wonders what to do, a reminder about the aerobics class will be all that’s needed.

Similar stories could be told of students in other programs such as: Travel and Tourism, Photography, Journalism, Cabinet Making, Theatre, Design Foundation, Horticulture and Nursing. Many students from different parts of the college are reporting their delight in having the opportunity to learn more about people from whom they have been distanced in the past.

While the college cannot guarantee any student a job, it is firmly believed that the personal connections the students make while at college, on field placements or work experience, combined with the resources of the placement office enhance a student’s success once he or she leaves the college.

Far beyond whatever support one teacher or counsellor can provide, is the power of belonging to a valued place in the community. Post-secondary education is a valued activity. Proof that this value is transmitted to the students is frequently conveyed by an entirely new sense of personal bearing and self worth.

The imperative for integrated post-secondary education comes from a value base rooted in a historical and continuing struggle to include people with disabilities in their natural communities with full rights of citizenship. Because people are disadvantaged both by their disability and society’s perceptions, they must have access to the best possible means to address their disadvantages. Post-secondary education provides a chance to enhance personal competencies and to contribute to society. Helping to meet these needs can be to the advantage of everyone.