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Students with Disabilities
Students with Disabilities Safe Routes to School
Diverse Community Roundtable Meeting Notes
Hosted by the Safe Routes to School National Partnership
January 24, 2007
This national discussion on SRTS programs for Students with Disabilities was organized through the Safe Routes to School National Partnership’s Diverse Communities Committee, which is chaired by Melody Geraci of the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation. The call was attended by nearly 20 participants working for government agencies, non-profit organizations, universities, and consulting firms throughout the United States. Parents of students with disabilities and advocates with disabilities also participated in the call.
These notes are divided into the following sections:
1. Background Information
2. Existing Resources and Resources under Development
3. Gaps in Resources
4. Next Steps - How to Stay Involved
1. Background Information
Melody Geraci reported that the Diverse Communities Committee formed to address concerns that some communities and schools do not understand the importance of making active transportation safer. The committee identified three broad groups to research—students living in urban areas, students living in rural areas, and students with disabilities. While these are not groups or individuals that can be stereotyped, we want to bring together people in common to find resources and identify gaps in resources.
The group provided the following background information:
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We have a lot of different opinions about what disability means. Many students who experience physical, mental, and/or physiological disabilities receive special education.
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Mobility of students with disabilities is critical for their inclusion in a full and fair society because of the challenges they face in taking advantage of what our society has to offer.
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Active transportation is somewhat uncommon among students with disabilities. Sometimes skills-training is needed.
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Routinely, kids with disabilities tend to receive busing services, which was mandated by federal legislation.
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People with disabilities are generally less fit than the general population. Parents of students with disabilities indicate that that the ability to walk or bike to school is a major milestone for social interaction, and for being part of the community.
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Improved infrastructure helps students with disabilities and all students to walk to school. Active walking helps to stimulate growth in the leg bones, and a sense of balance. When kids have to take the bus, it makes them more sedentary. Being able to walk to school fulfills growth and social needs for students with disabilities.
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It’s important for many students with disabilities to learn to use their neighborhood and streets so they are not dependent on someone with a vehicle throughout their lives. Active transportation to and from school can play a big part in how students with disabilities evolve into adults, and how independent they become.
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The National Center for Physical Activity and Disabilities notes that people with disabilities comment on "walking programs" and feel that they are not part of it. They don’t know how they can be involved. Some communities have "Walk and Wheel" programs. It’s important to keep our language as inclusive as possible.
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The Americans with Disabilities Act was discussed as a vehicle for improving infrastructure. A participant commented that this law is enforceable only by private lawsuits. The other possibility is to try to negotiate in advance with departments that install infrastructure.
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Students with disabilities have IEPs (individual education plans). Parents should be encouraged to include physical activity in their children’s IEPs.
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It’s important to design SRTS programs for everyone, including students with disabilities. Addressing students with disabilities is identified in the federal legislation as a necessary component of SRTS efforts.
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Advocates should create pilot programs in states to explore techniques for working with students with disabilities. This can help develop interventions that work and can be replicated.
2. Existing Resources and Resources under Development
Program to Educate all Cyclists: John Waterman from Program to Educate all Cyclists in Michigan reported on his program, which is funded in part by federal Transportation Enhancements funds. This program is working to adapt SRTS to students who receive special education services. They set up a formal assessment and established a coalition of advocates for people with disabilities in the state to review programs to make sure students with disabilities are included. They are exploring how to work with schools’ special education staff. They will be doing training at schools, and by the end of the year, will have a four-hour SRTS training for people who help students with special needs.
Special Equipment: Several people mentioned success with cycling products such as:
National Center of Physical Activity and Disabilities has many resources including:
Promotional flyers asking schools to include students with disabilities in their W2SD plans can also be a valuable resource.
National Center for SRTS: Has many SRTS resources at www.saferoutesinfo.org.
Parent Tool Kit on Teaching and Assessing Students with Disabilities: This resource was produced by the U.S. Department of Education and is aimed at helping parents and states work together to raise the achievement of all students with disabilities. Materials included in the new Parent Tool Kit provide information that will help them become active and informed participants in IEP discussions and other decision-making meetings that support students with disabilities and their families. To encourage broad dissemination of these materials, the U.S. Department of Education launched a new website, www.osepideasthatwork.org, which includes the materials in the Parent Tool Kit. The website will continue to be updated with additional materials as they become available.
Easter Seals’ Project Action program: www.projectaction.org.
3. Gaps in Resources
Making Adaptive Cycling Equipment Affordable: We need to show how parents can afford to purchase adaptive cycling equipment for students with disabilities. Sometimes parents can work with a physical therapist or an occupational therapist to incorporate a treatment plan in the IEP indicating that the student needs more physical development. That could be a basis for the school to purchase the equipment. The equipment may have to remain at the school, but you could make a case that the student might regress if they don’t have access to the equipment during summers or on vacations. The parents have to be persistent and get documentation from a recognized and credentialed therapist.
Prescriptions for Activity: Ask your health providers to write a prescription for physical activity. From the ADA act, travel training is part of the IEP along with transportation. These can be listed as goals in the IEP.
Social Workers: Look at state associations for school social workers as potential partners.
Case Studies: Case studies for various different types of disabilities and how students have participated in SRTS could inspire others to participate.
Infrastructure: Increasing the number of audible or accessible pedestrian count-down signals would help, as well as other infrastructure (sidewalks, pathways, etc.). For kids with low or no vision, an audible signal is important. This makes more sense in denser urban areas. In San Francisco, it has substantially reduced pedestrian injuries in crosswalks.
Making SRTS inclusive: One reason students with disabilities must continually advocate for themselves and their inclusion in SRTS is because they are not routinely considered in SRTS planning efforts. They are always the second consideration. If we can integrate students with disabilities into SRTS planning at the outset, then every aspect of SRTS will benefit. If anyone is considering the development of curricula or guidelines for SRTS, there should always be an intention to include all students. We should start from the standpoint that SRTS is an inclusive program.
Trainings for Decision Makers: We need to bring more resources to communities. It would be helpful to have training materials for road engineering, commissioners, etc. (the people most likely to bring solutions to meetings). We should reach out to specific audiences, especially decision-makers.
Training People Working with Students with Disabilities: Currently, many educators and people hesitate to approach students with disabilities because they feel they don’t know the correct techniques to use. To not further segregate this population, we need more training information.
Reaching out to National Organizations: We should create a list of national organizations that can be a part of SRTS and incorporating students with disabilities such as:
If these organizations embrace SRTS, their participation could help accomplish a lot of this work. We should identify all groups and what sort of role they may like to play.
PowerPoint Presentation: One practitioner mentioned that it would be helpful to have a PowerPoint presentation and on-line course to teach educators what they need to know about working with students with disabilities.
National Training Center: Another participant indicated that you can’t learn enough through a PowerPoint and that he would like to develop a national training center to provide a three-day course for educators who work with students with disabilities.
Common Language: We should provide people with the common language of accessible infrastructure so people can feel confident in surveying a landscape to say "that is not accessible." Proper training can make people effective advocates.
Website: A participant commented that it would be good for the saferoutesinfo.org website to include resources (trainings, curricula, adaptive products, etc.) specifically aimed at working with students with disabilities.
4. Next Steps - How to Stay Involved
Conference Calls: There was an interest in future conference calls.
Students with Disabilities and SRTS: Put this topic on the agenda for conferences.
State Trainings: Reach DOTs that are now developing training materials to make sure they include students with disabilities.
Meeting with National Disability Organizations: We should have a small group distill an "ask" and meet with national organizations to encourage them to adopt our SRTS platform. There is momentum now that there is funding available.
Case Studies: It would be good to develop case studies for how students with disabilities participate in SRTS, and have these promoted by national organizations that advocate for students with disabilities.
Volunteer Group: to continue to discuss ideas and take action:
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Bob Plathold
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John Waterman
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Shelia Swann-Guerrero
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Jason Agar
List-serve: Participants were encouraged to utilize the Partnership’s existing list-serve. To sign-up, simply send an e-mail message to: saferoutestoschool@saferoutes.listserve.us leaving the subject heading and the body of the message blank. After you send the message, you will receive a verification e-mail. After you reply to the verification e-mail, you will receive a welcome message saying that you have successfully subscribed to the list. Through management of your lists at the web interface, you can choose to receive each message, a daily "digest," or to review messages through the web.
Notes submitted by,
Deb Hubsmith, Director
Safe Routes to School National Partnership
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