Help Teach

Help Teach: Episode 1 (Pilot)

Mihai Covaser: [00:00:00] Welcome, learners and learned alike, to Help Teach.

Mihai Covaser: Hello and welcome to the pilot episode of this community audio project. I am your host, editor, producer, and project co-lead: Mihai Covaser. I would like to begin by offering a big thank you to Every Canadian Counts. To quote from their site, “Every Canadian Counts is a coalition committed to improving services for over 20% of Canadians living with long-term chronic disabilities.” As part of their #RisingYouth initiative, they are offering grants to young leaders looking to make change in their community. So big thank you to them for funding this project.

Mihai Covaser: As mentioned, my name is Mihai Covaser, and I am a public speaker, advocate, ambassador, musician and politics, philosophy, and law enthusiast. I am also a youth living with a physical disability. My most formative experiences living with a disability [00:01:00] have come in the Canadian public education system. Many students like me with physical, emotional, or mental challenges go through their years of schooling lacking the supports and accommodations they need to partake of the same opportunities offered to their peers. The vision of this project is to provide educators in Canadian classrooms, students with disabilities, and members of the general public with the tools, knowledge, and skills that they need to make our institutions more accessible and inclusive for all. Join me and a diverse cast of guests as we explore perspectives on disabilities and education in this podcast series. One last message for you teachers tuning in: Listen in each episode for our key takeaway that you can implement in your classroom today to help us further this vision.

Mihai Covaser: Without further ado, I’d love to introduce our first guest and one of my other co-leads on this project, Payton Given. Hello, Payton. Nice to have you here today. [00:02:00]

Payton Given: Hi. My name is Payton, and I am in grade eight. I have, um, dystonia spastic cerebral palsy and it affects all four of my limbs. I live in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Mihai Covaser: Thank you for that introduction, Payton. It’s great to have you here today. So I’d just love to start then and have a little conversation with you. You know, we share… Payton and I share this condition called cerebral palsy. I also have it, though for me, it only affects my legs. And, so it’s a less severe case, if you will, of the same condition, and, well, I’d love to start this conversation with you on, because I know we share a lot of similar experiences through education. A lot of our formative experiences have been in education, [00:03:00] so why don’t you just start and tell me a little bit about your experience? How’s it been in the public education system as a student with a disability?

Payton Given: Well, it’s definitely been difficult to get my needs across to staff. They tend not to be open to new opportunities and even if I need different adaptations that are written down, sometimes my needs are not met.

Mihai Covaser: Mhm. And so you say that even if you have your needs, you know, written down officially, sort of, compiled for you and for educators to read and to implement, they still won’t do it for you?

Payton Given: Not–Well, some of the time they do, but not a lot, no.

Mihai Covaser: Mhm, mhm. That must be difficult, you know, to feel as if you have [00:04:00] the support of a–of the system and of a properly, you know, formally written down system of accommodations, and not to be able to have that support, right?

Payton Given: Yes, it is very hard to get my needs and for me to feel–for them to not validate my emotions and needs is very hard and I find it’s like that for almost everybody with a disability, physical or not; getting their needs across is difficult.

Mihai Covaser: Yeah. Yeah, you brought up that really key sort of word for us, which is ‘validation’, you know. It–I know exactly what you mean in that it can be difficult as a student with a disability to feel like you have the same position as your peers sometimes in the classroom, isn’t it? [00:05:00] It’s like you’re not always recognized for who you are when your disability comes first.

Payton Given: Yes, it’s very difficult to have people recognize, because of me and my wheelchair, than of me personally. I like when people use people-first language and not say, “Oh, your wheelchair is cool,” or “Oh, what kind of disability do you have?” and they don’t even say hi first. I think that’s definitely difficult.

Mihai Covaser: Mhm, mhm. I’m sure we’ll come back around to that subject of language in this episode, but… You know, what you just mentioned about being in a wheelchair, I’d love to begin and talk a little bit about that for our guests who maybe don’t know what cerebral palsy is, [00:06:00] what it’s like to live with a physical disability. Maybe we can talk about that for a little bit. Do you mind if I introduce for our audience before I turn it back to you?

Payton Given: You can totally do that.

Mihai Covaser: Yeah, so for our guests listening, regardless of who you are, if you haven’t heard before, so cerebral palsy is a physical disability that comes in many different forms or cases and affects people in different ways. Cerebral, meaning it comes from the brain or from a trauma to the brain, and palsy means literally a weakness or some problem with your muscles. So there’s a few different kinds of cerebral palsy, but without getting into too much jargon, Payton and I both share what’s called spastic cerebral palsy, meaning that some muscles in our body are basically wound or strung tighter than they should be, which makes it difficult to use those muscles and we compensate in different ways. [00:07:00] So Payton, why don’t you talk a little bit about your specific case and if you would reiterate the name for us?

Payton Given: Okay. I am–Well, I have a more severe case than Mihai. I’m a manual wheelchair user mostly, and I use a powered wheelchair when I am physically not able to push myself around. I have spastic, which means tightness of the muscles like Mihai mentioned. I have also…I have more of a rare diagnosis called dystonia that increases muscle spasms in my back and in my legs.

Mihai Covaser: Mhm, mhm. Well, thank you for that. That was really clear. [00:08:00] Yeah, as mentioned, for me it’s a little bit less severe. I have what’s called spastic diplegia, which is something–Diplegia, which means it affects two limbs, which are my legs. So it’s hard to know where conditions like this come from, but it’s likely some kind of brain trauma before birth that’s caused those muscles to be strung that way. And so for me, I don’t use a wheelchair; I can walk independently, though for a number of years, I used a walker, and then I used canes to help me get around, and now I don’t use any aids, but… As you can see, there are already–from the exact same condition, you can have quite a wide variety of severity and therefore a wide variety of needs. So why don’t we talk about those needs for a little bit, Payton? What kind of things do you face issue with in school, in terms of obstacles to [00:09:00] your accessibility?

Payton Given: Well, physical obstacles are like opening doors, sidewalks not being paved properly. That’s a huge issue. And in the winter, my school lacks on plowing and salting; the elevator breaks down–Well, it’s broken down four or five times this year so far. Equipment in classrooms not being accessible…Things like, I can’t really use my hands properly like everybody else can, so I need help with writing, and sometimes I don’t have somebody like an EA or an EPA sitting there helping me because of the shortage that they have.

Mihai Covaser: [00:10:00] Mhm, mhm. Yeah, I mean, that’s quite the list already. Yeah, I mean, I have some similar concerns to yours, especially talking about wintertime, right? I know you live out in–out east, in Nova Scotia. I live on the opposite side of the country, in British Columbia, and so we get, you know, quite heavy winters out here sometimes and even for someone like me, who, you know, is able to walk around independently… I mean, for people who don’t have a disability, the fact that sidewalks aren’t salted or paved, right, it can be really difficult. People slip and fall all the time; I see them coming into school and it just makes it all the more dangerous for when you add this sort of physical obstacle to it, but… No, you’re right, there’s a lot of things that people maybe don’t consider, right, when it comes to our obstacles that we face.

Payton Given: Yes.

Mihai Covaser: [00:11:00] You know, a funny story that I like to tell is the idea of using washrooms, right? The fact that if people are misusing a washroom at break time in a large high school with two stories, right, big school; if someone’s misusing the bottom floor washroom, I might have to… Other students might just be annoyed and walk to the other side of the school, but that’s not something that we can really do as easily, right, so… You know, little things like that people don’t think about can be quite difficult sometimes.

Payton Given: Yes. I agree with you because, at my school, there is only one bathroom that is big enough for me to actually properly use safely, and a lot of kids misuse that and go in there to do not-so-great things.

Mihai Covaser: Mhm, mhm. You know, [00:12:00] and this is always a difficulty in the public education system because, you know, a lot of these are not up to the teachers, right, and we’re not talking to teachers, saying, “Plow your school,” and, “Salt the sidewalks,” and “Fix your elevators,”; that’s not the teachers’ job, but… So it can be difficult to sort of get across to the people who are actually responsible for these things because it’s institutional to sort of get them to fix it, right?

Payton Given: Yes.

Mihai Covaser: But, you know–There are things that–as we’ll get to in our second half–there are things that teachers can do, and we’ll make sure to highlight that. You know, to move forward here, I heard that you have a–We were talking before, and I heard that you have a motto that you like to use and to uphold in your life, is that right?

Payton Given: Yes.

Mihai Covaser: Some words to live by?

Payton Given: Well, I learned in life that [00:13:00] this motto doesn’t normally happen, but I like to live by it anyway: Treating everybody equally. It’s not upheld in schools very much, because in a case where a child or student may need adaptions, sometimes they are not supplied or supported, and the student is missing their adaptions, and it just makes it harder on the student. Students are often left to do extra work on their own time just to be included in the classroom environment, which really should not be a thing because it’s not like it’s homework. Just because student’s adaptions are not being made in schools.

Mihai Covaser: [00:14:00] Yeah. You have a good point there. It’s that when we–It’s not that teachers or staff are solely responsible for giving us everything that we need in every scenario, like there’s such a wide variety and I know it’s difficult to do but when it’s all put on us, it just becomes… As you say, it just becomes extra work, right, and it becomes difficult to bring that home and fix all that for ourselves in the school setting. And not everyone has the opportunity to do that or the capability.

Payton Given: Yeah, and that has a difficult, like a snowball effect. If one day, they don’t have any person to help a student that has a disability, and then another day, the work starts snowballing. And there’s like a snowball effect. It gets bigger and bigger and bigger and then you can’t do all the work that they’re asking you to do because your adaptions are not made.

Mihai Covaser: [00:15:00] Yeah. No, that’s a really good way of putting that. And you know, if people–If you fall behind like that, it can be difficult to catch up again, right?

Payton Given: Yes.

Mihai Covaser: Do you have any personal examples of this kind of “homework” you’ve been having to do?

Payton Given: I have had to do it pretty much all of my schooling since grade three, but I do a lot of English homework at home because I cannot write a three or four page essay. Which is not a lot for those who can write easily, but I have issues with my hands, like I said before, and I find writing one page takes about an hour and a half to two hours. As an a.k.a. “normal” person, it would probably take [00:16:00] them thirty minutes to fifteen minutes, maybe?

Mihai Covaser: Mhm, mhm. Yeah. No, that’s a good example and that just goes to show, right, that there can be real issues like that. I am lucky enough, like I said, to not have this affect my academic performance so much, because it’s a strictly sort of mobility-based issue, but you know, even things like going on walking field trips when they’re scheduled, and there’s like a homework assignment attached to that, and they don’t tell me in advance, right? Like what am I supposed to do? You know, when they’re going on a half-hour walk one way or both ways to go and do something in town, that’s just not feasible, right, for someone like me all the time, so…

Payton Given: Yes, I understand your point, because physical and emotional needs don’t often get met in the public school system.

Mihai Covaser: [00:17:00] Mhm, mhm. So what have you been doing so far in your life–bit of a shameless plug here, you can feel free. What have you been doing to uphold that motto and to help out?

Payton Given: I have talked to my classmates and teachers about what needs to exist; I have gotten a person from the Rick Hansen Foundation, Casey Perrin, to do a valedictorian speech to my school; I have accomplished wheelchair racing to improve and show that people with disabilities can do sports; I’ve made a video to teach people about disabilities and cerebral palsy, specifically when I was in elementary; [00:18:00] and I answer any question that anybody asks me and I’m very open, because when people don’t know, people assume, and that’s a real issue. If people assume things because they don’t know, because they don’t have the option to know, and that’s a lot of the issues that I face as a person with a physical disability, in my opinion.

Mihai Covaser: And that’s a great segue. Don’t go anywhere, audience members, we’re gonna take just a short break here, and then when we come back, we’re going to be talking about exactly that: what it’s like to have a peer support at work, what it means for people to use language properly, and stick around for the key takeaway for you teachers out there that you can implement in the classroom today to make it more accessible. We’ll be right back.

Mihai Covaser: Welcome back to Hey Teach. [00:19:00] My name is Mihai Covaser, I am your host, and I have here with me Payton Given, talking about disabilities in the classroom and the perspective of students with disabilities in public education here in Canada. So Payton, before we left, you mentioned something about language, language assumptions, and that’s something that you brought up earlier in our last half, and I’d love to get on that subject with you. So why don’t you talk a little bit about what you think, whether or not students like us have enough support in the classroom, when it comes to sharing our stories. When it comes to being asked the right questions and, you know, really having people understand us before they try to do anything for or with us. Do you think we get enough support there?

Payton Given: No, definitely not. I find staff don’t talk to students about disabilities enough [00:20:00] or sometimes ask questions. It’s a very big issue in my school and I find we teach the younger generation of students that are in elementary; I think it would make it a more–It would make it better for people in their older years to know what to do when they encounter someone with a disability because it’s going to happen, one way or another. In schools, other schools, anywhere and like, they’re going to encounter someone with a disability. It’s not supposed to be scary. We’re just like you, we just have one or two things different that we might have to adapt.

Mihai Covaser: Yeah. No, you know, I think that’s a really great way of putting it, [00:21:00] the fact that it can be scary or uncomfortable, right, for kids who have never encountered this kind of difference, you know, before. It can be difficult to grow up with people without disabilities and all of a sudden face that, you know, and I mean, that’s totally normal and natural, but like you say, knowing how to approach us as people with differences, really, as opposed to people who are somehow, you know, incapable. Or people that are threatening, or, you know, just to approach us as other people with our own differences is really important. So why don’t you tell me a little bit more–What do you think students and staff should be asking us? How should they be approaching us? What’s appropriate to you, because I know there’s a lot of debate, even in the disability community, about what’s more comfortable and what’s not any changes from person to person. But personally to you, what does that look like?

Payton Given: [00:22:00] In my opinion, in my scenario, I have a couple examples that I would like to share. Instead of saying, “Are your legs broken?”, saying, “Why are you in a wheelchair?” or say, “Why are you allowed to get extra help and time or attention?” Something more like, because people say to me all the time, “You’re crippled!” or–Sorry. “You’re crippled!” or something like that, and that’s not appropriate. And I’ve heard a lot of kids say, “Payton’s crippled, she needs help writing!” or, “Payton’s retarded!” or, “She needs to go into a spec-ed class!” [00:23:00] And those things are not even a thing in public school systems anymore! A spec-ed class, I think, was eliminated in like, the 1990s, I think.

Mihai Covaser: Yeah, for those audience members that don’t know, “spec-ed” means special education, right, so we’re talking–As you say, it’s gotten much better, but before, there was often a lot of segregation in the school system for people with disabilities. They were put in their own special classrooms and, you know, exactly. Terms like these that are outdated and, frankly, you know, quite offensive, students are just–They learn them without learning what they mean, right, or without learning the impact that they could have, so that’s… “Are your legs broken?” That’s a common one for me, too. I remember back in elementary school, early middle school, you know… “Why are your legs broken?” “Why do you walk like that?” [00:24:00] So it can be interesting to talk to people about the fact that nothing’s broken; it’s just–Or even if you wanna think of it as something is wrong, that doesn’t mean that we can’t push past it and do what we wanna do, right?

Payton Given: Yes. I like to also say my cerebral palsy or my disability doesn’t define me. It doesn’t make me incapable, it doesn’t unstop my reasoning to learn or appreciate the fact that what an able-bodied person would think was fun. Like going to movies, or going to an escape room. Accessibility defines me but my disability doesn’t.

Mihai Covaser: [00:25:00] That’s a really good way of putting that. What a wonderful way to phrase that. Accessibility or adaptability defines us, not our disability. That’s awesome. I’m gonna use that from now on, actually. So, you know, how does it help you? How do you feel when students and staff respectfully engage you and ask you how they can support you, because we talked a lot about emotional needs that are paired with our physical needs, because we have emotional needs, just like everyone else, so how does that make you feel? How does that help you?

Payton Given: It helps me because when people respect what I need, when people respect not to use “retarded” and “crippled” and other words that underline that, and say, “Oh, she’s just disabled,” or, “Oh, she’s in a wheelchair.” [00:26:00] That’s way better, and that improves my mental health and my physical health because I feel like I’m included, and that is a big issue that a lot of disabled people or people that have disabilities find. It’s because a lot of times, it’s a lot of segregation and a lot of negativity around disabilities, and it’s not always negative. There’s a lot of positivity in having a disability. It makes you more resilient and it makes you have confidence, even when you don’t want to, and it helps you have a more–it helps you have a better understanding on a deeper level of what other people have to deal with in their day-to-day life. That’s my opinion.

Mihai Covaser: Mhm. [00:27:00] Yeah, you know, a vision for a lot of people in the disability community, I think, is to break down those prejudices or those biases regarding what it’s like to live with a disability, and I think that the more we can spread the word, as this project is meant to do, the more we can do that and spread inclusion. I think we’re moving sorta towards the end of our time here, but I’d love to turn it finally to what teachers can take away from this episode and implement right now in their classrooms. So what can teachers do, knowing all of this about what language is appropriate or, you know, how people have different opinions on what language is appropriate, how different people have different needs. It can be difficult for teachers to know how to help and how to approach them, so how do you think? What can teachers do to help in the classroom?

Payton Given: [00:28:00] Teachers, well, they can have a short conversation with the student that might have a disability at the beginning of the year to take to their needs and see what they’d prefer, and then maybe have a short lesson with the class to share knowledge about disabilities and answer any questions that come up ahead to show the other students that it’s not scary, that disabilities aren’t scary, that the person that’s in the classroom might be in a wheelchair or might be blind or might have to use crutches or something, or might have a guide dog or a service dog. They’re still a person inside their disability and their disability’s only a part of them.

Mihai Covaser: [00:29:00] Mhm. You heard that. All you educators out there, really it just takes fifteen minutes to sit down with each of your students in the classroom that have a disability and even if you’ve been given their IEP or if you’ve been told by administration what they theoretically need, just sit down and have a conversation with them. Fifteen minutes is all it takes. Ask them what is it that they need from you as a teacher, how is it that they should be addressed or how comfortable are they being approached with questions, all that kind of thing, just as you would with any other student that you care about teaching. And then, if you are willing to spend another–Again, fifteen minutes is all it takes to just talk to the class a little bit about the importance of inclusion and accessibility in the classroom. It’ll really save you a year’s worth of headaches in terms of just thinking ahead and making sure that the classroom is as accessible of a place as possible for all those students there. [00:30:00] Well, thank you very much for your time, Payton, it was a wonderful conversation. I think you really brought some great insight into it and I look forward to talking to you again.

Payton Given: Thank you, Mihai. I really appreciate it.

Mihai Covaser: This has been the pilot episode of our community audio project, Help Teach. I’d like to give a huge thank you to the other co-leads on this project, Payton Given, who was also our first guest, Alexis Holmgren, Elise Doucet, and Maggie Manning. All the youth leaders at the Rick Hansen Foundation, who I’d also like to thank for their continued support in this initiative and others. Another big thank you to Every Canadian Counts and their #RisingYouth initiative for funding this project and for helping to make this vision a reality. I’d like to give a huge shoutout to our community mentor for this project, Charl Coetzee, and to our professional contact helping in the editing process for both scripts and audio, Chester Hull. My name is Mihai Covaser. [00:31:00] I am your producer, editor, and host for this podcast series, and you can look forward to finding us on Spotify and Apple Podcasts in the next while. In the next episodes, you can look forward to more great conversations with other youth leaders, educators, and members of the general public, and more key takeaways that you educators can implement in the classroom today to make it a more accessible and inclusive place for all. Thank you very much for listening, and I’ll see you next time.