This is a personal story about how IDEA – the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act – has affected our family. And the nation.
by Meriah Nichols, Unpacking Disability, and DREDF Board Member
My youngest son loves to play a game called, “would you rather.” In it, he presents a couple of contrasting items and invites me to choose which I like best, or which situation I “would rather.”
A lot of it is just silly 8-year old humorous fun, but the other day, he asked me if I would rather have been born 100 years ago or have born now. I sat him down and as I gestured towards my hearing aids and glasses I said, “well, you know if I had been born in any time other than now, I would not have the technology to hear or see?” He nodded and I went on, “hearing aids like mine were not around then, nor were glasses as strong as the ones I need.” He nodded again, so I went on, “not only that, but I would not be able to go to school, because there were no accommodations back then.”
He looked up, startled. “You mean Moxie would not be able to go to school either?” He was referring to his older sister who has Down syndrome, and I nodded, yes. “She wouldn’t be able to go to school, and you know how you are getting your hearing tested at school and figuring out if it’s your attention or your hearing that causes you to miss stuff? Well, you wouldn’t be able to do that either if you were born 100 years ago!” He looked impressed, so I added that the testing that we are currently doing to see where his brother is on the Autism spectrum would also be impossible.
He was done with the conversation at this point and wandered off while I sat back and thought about the impact that the IDEA, the Individuals with Disabilities in Education Act, has had on my myself and my family.
All four of us actively utilize the IDEA, either through our respective IEP’s (Individual Education Plan), graduate school accommodations, or active assessments to better craft an effective and stimulating educational journey. The IDEA has such an active role in our lives – in the lives of most families with disability present – but most people aren’t even sure of what it is!
Here is a short video explaining it:
The IDEA Changes Our Lives
The IDEA is 45 years on November 29, 2020. In those 45 years, it has provided the path upon which all of us with a disability can access an education. “Prior to its passage in 1975, at least one million children with disabilities in the United States were denied any public education, and at least four million more were segregated from their non-disabled peers…the IDEA guarantees children with disabilities a free, appropriate public education (FAPE) in the least restrictive environment (LRE).” (DREDF)
The IDEA protects and provides for people with disabilities, and that means accommodations for all disabilities: from reading to writing, hearing to seeing, mobility to intellectual and everything in between and on the sides. It covers us all. It opens the door to us all and prepares a place at the table for every one of us.
DREDF is an integral part of the ongoing mission to help (non-disabled) parents and all of us who have disabilities to better understand and advocate for our children, for ourselves. There are some exciting initiatives from DREDF, education programs and partnerships. Stay tuned to them here.
Thinking back to the game that my son loves to play, “would you rather?”
I think about the world before the Education for All Handicapped Children Act was enacted by the United States Congress in 1975, before it was signed into law by President Gerald Ford on November 29 of that same year, before it evolved into what we now call IDEA in 1990: the lack of educational access, the restrictive environments for the few spaces that did welcome us. I think about the advances we have made in the past 45 years, the advances we have yet to make. I think about the fact that every member of my own family has benefitted from the passage and implementation of the IDEA, and I think about the organizations like DREDF that work hard and long to make sure that the IDEA is able to do its job. I’m grateful to live in this here and now and be able to turn to my son and honestly, happily say, “I would rather live now!”
Happy birthday, IDEA! Thank you for opening the world for us
Meriah Hudson Nichols is originally from a sheep ranch in Cloverdale, California, but grew up in countries around the Pacific Basin. She studied education, human resource development, training, and project management and spent over twenty years in careers with connections with her degrees. As a deaf woman, mother of a child with Down syndrome and daughter of a woman with fibromyalgia, she is passionate about disability rights, education and employment. In her spare time she writes, takes photos, paints and travels.