LETTER: Special-needs students and the school community

Students with special needs were excluded from the Northwest Career and Technical Academy’s most recent yearbook (Review-Journal, June 5). When questioned about this, district officials promised to review the yearbook’s layout policies for future years. This isn’t a solution.

I have cerebral palsy. In 1984, I became the first physically disabled student to graduate from Roslyn High School in New York. My senior yearbook pictures me sitting in my wheelchair smiling at my aide. The page is titled “Special Education” and identifies teachers of classes I never had. I was an honors English student, but my picture wasn’t on the English Department’s page. I belonged to the Political Science Club, but my picture wasn’t on that page either.

Harvard University researchers Tessa Charlesworth and Mahzarin Banaji reported in Psychological Sciences (July 27, 2022) that people with disabilities are more likely to be misjudged and excluded than other minority groups. Ms. Charlesworth predicts it will likely take 200 years for society to accept the disabled unconditionally.

If students with special needs were part of the school’s community, there would be no need to review yearbook policies. True inclusion happens when people of all abilities are valued. School officials should expand their consideration beyond pictures on a page.