Impressions of Disability Awareness in Ukraine

As two special educators, my wife Carrie and I were nervous and excited about our visit to Ukraine. The Fulbright Scholar program afforded me an opportunity to come to this quickly progressing country to train teachers to work with people with disabilities. Fortunately, since my wife is in the same field, she was also able to participate in the trainings. Overall, we are taking back with us as much as we brought. Ukraine taught us many things that we will value and I hope that we brought value to a sector of the population that has historically been overlooked.

Our experiences were varied. In short, my host university had replaced the individuals that initially invited me. We arrived to find new personnel who didn't know I was coming. At first, this was frustrating, but in the end it was a blessing in disguise. I was able to piece together a “create-your-own” Fulbright. This provided me and Carrie with enough freedom to broaden our experience.

It is important to begin with our observation of people with disabilities in public places. The most frequent disability we observed has been a large number (up to 100) of people with mild cerebral palsy. Most of these individuals were ambulatory without the use of canes or a walker. As the severity of cerebral palsy increased, the fewer people we saw. We have also seen several people with a hearing impairment, which was evident by the use of sign language. We saw a total of 6 people in wheelchairs, apart from rehabilitation centers. Since there are minimal, at best, accommodations for wheelchairs, mobility is difficult for these individuals. We saw 2 individuals with Down syndrome, four with obvious visual impairments (i.e., using a walking stick or a person for guidance), two people with Autistic-like behavior, and a few people with other physically evident disabilities. Considering we lived in the capital city, a city of 3 million plus, and are on the lookout for people with disabilities, our observations were minimal. This suggested that many individuals with disabilities remain in their homes, rehabilitation centers, or group homes.

When referring to “school,” I am referring to schools of children without disabilities. It is likely that there are numerous students with learning disabilities, mild intellectual disabilities, mild emotional/behaviors disorders, and other mild disabilities who attend school but are not identified as having a disability; therefore, these individuals receive no additional assistance. Individuals with more obvious disabilities, as a whole, do not attend school with their non-disabled peers. Individuals with mild cerebral palsy may or may not attend school at all. Individuals in wheelchairs often do not attend school. We have been told that individuals with Autism or Autistic-like behaviors may never leave home. Much of this information we gained through observation and conversation with education professionals. Again, this provided evidence of the state of individuals with disabilities in Ukraine.

The most frequent questions we were asked were, “What will students, teachers and parents think about invalids being in school?” and “How will we work with invalids when we don't have the special equipment?” The first question was asked in university courses, presentations, workshops, consultations, and by the majority of professionals with whom we interacted. We heard this so much that we decided to ask a group of secondary students (i.e., ages 14-16) without disabilities what they thought about having students with disabilities in their class. One person shared experiences she had with an individual with a disability and how good it would be to have them in class. Most, however, expressed fear of the unknown because they had never been exposed to an individual with a disability.

The second question we were asked dealt with “special equipment.” An example of this question includes a young boy with cerebral palsy. He is very intelligent, speaks English as well as the English teacher at the school, yet he is not included in classes with his non-disabled peers. Administration and parents consider it to be an accomplishment that he is in the same school building as his non-disabled peers. Teachers noted that they did not have any special equipment with which to teach him, and they noted that he was unable to write because of spasms. It was surprising to see teachers' responses when I suggested the possibility of having the student respond orally rather than written responses. Teachers were surprised to learn many students with disabilities only need a creative teacher with good ideas rather than specialized equipment. Our hope is that this seed will take root and they can attempt to be creative in thinking outside the box to include more students with disabilities.

Our professional travels took us throughout central and western Ukraine. We visited Lubny, Lviv (4 times), Yalta, and Zhytomyr (2 times) to participate in professional activities. These activities included professional presentations to NGO's, presentations at universities, week-long teacher workshops, interviews with students and teachers, and visits to various schools.

One of the greatest successes we experienced was the transformation of attitude toward individuals with disabilities of our friend and translator, Iryna. She was not negative toward people with disabilities; she simply had no prior experiences. As she interacted with students with disabilities, her eyes were opened to individuals with disabilities and all they have to contribute to society. In our time here, if Iryna is the only person whose life has been changed because of the interaction with individuals with disabilities, then our trip was a success.

Change in Ukraine will occur one person at a time….