Dr. Michael Martinez
“I followed the book,” he said. “I gave the test from the book, which was paper and pencil. Students had to read the questions and write their answers.”
Upon grading, he realized that one of his students did not perform as well as expected. So, Martinez consulted with his mentor teacher and created a different assessment. He took the student to another classroom, bringing with him a globe, two balls to represent the sun and the moon, and a flashlight.
“I asked the student to describe, with the props, the moon and sun cycle,” said Martinez. The student did so “to perfection.”
Martinez’s suspicion was confirmed. The student wasn’t failing due to a lack of understanding, Instead, he was struggling with the method of evaluation. This was the first time Martinez learned the flexibility needed to make a pedagogical adjustment on the fly.
Now, Martinez is the director of the Disability and Learning Difference Resource Center at the University of San Diego, where incorporating accommodation into every day instruction is part of his job. He joined other scholars at a panel gathered by the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education (NADOHE) on Thursday, to discuss the imperative of including disability into diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. Experts shared methods to not only shift but broaden the disability narrative, incorporating universal design into all aspects of campus life, and creating a cultural change for an environment accessible to all.
Disability is the largest minority group in the U.S. and is a community that anyone can join at any time. Its civil rights movement coincided and collaborated with the Black Panthers, The United Farm Workers of America, and the Butterfly Brigade. Disability and diversity, experts say, go hand in hand.
