Inclusion Activities
In the first decade of the Inclusion Project youth leaders developed activities for K-12 students to become more aware of the experiences of people with disabilities and to promote greater inclusion of school peers with disabilities.
Click the title of each section to view the details of the activity.
Elementary School
People Needed to Organize: One-Two (Language Arts teacher)
People Needed to Carry Out: At least six (6) students
Recommended Setting(s): Classroom
Materials Needed: Story books about people with disabilities
Time Needed: 60 minutes
Goal: Students will learn from people with disabilities about their experiences of living with a disability.
Teacher Preparation:
- Review the list of story books from the following links:
- https://iris.peabody.vanderbilt.edu/resources/books/
- https://socialjusticebooks.org/booklists/disabilities/
- Choose two-three story books about people with disabilities. (Relate these books to the disabilities of those who will be on the panel)
- Contact your local Center for Independent Living or your Community Service Board to ask for recommendations of people with disabilities who can participate on the panel.
- Determine who will be invited to serve on the panel. Invite people with disabilities at least two weeks before, to participate on the panel. Explain the assignment to the individuals so they will be prepared to answer questions.
Step-By-Step Description:
- Read two–three storybooks about people with disabilities several days before the panel.
- Explain that the students will ask to have people with disabilities on a panel.
- The day before the panel, ask the students to develop a list of questions about the stories that were read to them to ask the panel.
- Panel of people with a disability will come to the class to tell their story and answer questions from the students.
Reflection Questions:
- What did you enjoy about what the panel shared with you?
- What will you tell your parents that you learned today?
- Authors: Elementary School Work Group
People Needed to Organize: One-Two (Math Teacher)
People Needed to Carry Out: At least six (6) students
Recommended Setting(s): Classroom
Materials needed: N/A
Time Needed: 60 minutes each day for three days
Goal: Students will identify accessibility features in houses.
Teacher Preparation:
- Review pictures of accessible houses and choose ten to show to students
- Search for images of houses on the internet. Select ten houses to show students. (Be sure to choose houses with steps, no ramp, no cut out under sinks, and regular bathtubs.)
- Create a PowerPoint with the selected pictures.
Step By Step Description:
- Discuss architecture and how people build houses.
- Discuss that people require certain designs to live their independent lives (i.e., ramps, roll-in showers, wider doors).
- Show the PowerPoint with examples of accessible homes and rooms to the students.
- Have the students identify the differences between the accessible and non-accessible houses.
Reflection Questions:
- What are differences between the two types of houses?
- What are the accessible features?
- Do you or anyone you know have any accessible features in their home?
- Authors: Elementary School Work Group
People Needed to Organize: One-Two (Language Arts Teacher)
People Needed to Carry Out: At least six (6) students
Recommended Setting(s): Classroom
Materials Needed: List of vocabulary words pertaining to disability field
Time Needed: 60 minutes
Goal: Students will learn new terms related to disabilities.
Teacher Preparation:
- Review disability terminology list of words.
- Develop an age appropriate vocabulary list related to disability.
- Create a handout of the vocabulary list.
Step By Step Description:
- Ask students if they know any words that are appropriate to use when talking about people with disabilities.
- As a class, have a discussion about which of the words are or are not appropriate.
- Give the students the vocabulary list.
- As a class develop sentences using each vocabulary word in a positive manner.
People Needed to Organize: Three-Five (Homeroom Teacher)
People Needed to Carry Out: At least two (2) different classes
Recommended Setting(s): Gym or auditorium
Materials Needed: Posters, Equipment, Projectors, etc
Time Needed: 90 minutes
Goal: Teach students about the technologies that people with disabilities use.
Teacher Preparation:
- Look up a few assistive technologies and videos on how to use them.
- You could also look up local disability advocates that could come in and talk to students about assistive technologies they use.
- Organize the gym/auditorium with at least five tables with each table having information about a device and an activity for students to share what they learned.
- Create “passports” for the students to fill as they go to different stations.
Step By Step Description:
- Give students their passports and ask them to visit a certain number of stations.
- After the event, collect students together to discuss what they learned.
Reflection Questions:
- What was your favorite technology? How do you use it?
- Do you think everybody can use this technology?
- Have you seen this technology used before?
- Can you think of some other inventions that would be helpful to people?
People Needed to Organize: Three-Five (Homeroom Teacher)
People Needed to Carry Out: At least four (4) different classes
Recommended Setting(s): Outdoors, Gym, or Auditorium
Materials Needed: Art supplies, Games, Music, Gym equipment
Time Needed: 150 minutes
Goal: Normalize disability with teaching children social skills.
Teacher Preparation:
- Look up accessible games that have been created by and for people with disabilities.
- Work these games, dances, art making, etc. into your school’s field day.
Step By Step Description:
After students have played in various activities, bring students into a circle, and talk about what activities they liked and how some games were created for people with disabilities.
Reflection Questions:
- What was your favorite game? Why?
- Do you think everybody can play this game?
- Are there games you have played like this before?
People Needed to Organize: One (Homeroom or Arts Teacher)
People Needed to Carry Out: At least four (4) students
Recommended Setting(s): Classroom
Materials Needed: Legos or Building Blocks
Time Needed: 60 minutes
Goal: Teach students about and normalize adaptive technologies while allowing them to use their imaginations and building skills.
Teacher Preparation:
Look up 3-5 examples of adaptive technologies to share with the class.
Step By Step Description:
- Bring students into a circle and begin a discussion about the adaptive technologies you researched.
- After talking about the technologies, ask students to design their own technology.
- Have students share their creations and how they work as a class.
Reflection Questions:
- Have you seen something like this before? How do you think it works?
- How would you use this?
- What problem does this solve? Can you think of other ways to solve this problem?
People Needed to Organize: One (Art Teacher)
People Needed to Carry Out: At least four (4) students
Recommended Setting(s): Classroom or outdoors
Materials Needed: paint, Clay, Paper, Scissors, Glue, Other Art Materials
Time Needed: 45 minutes
Goal: Teach students about artists with disabilities and let them play with making art with things other than their hands to normalize disability.
Teacher Preparation:
- Look up 3-6 artists with disabilities to teach throughout the school year.
- Design activities inspired by each artist and how they make art.
Step By Step Description:
- Bring students into a circle and tell them the story of an artist with a disability.
- Ask them reflection questions to get them thinking about alternative ways of creating art.
- Assign the students to make an art project in a way similar to that of the artist they are learning about, i.e. the history of mouth or foot painting.
Reflection Questions:
- How do you think you could draw a picture without using your hands?
- Can you think of other ways to make art like [the artist mentioned]?
- Do you think it would be hard to create art that way? Why or why not?
- Do you think you would get better with practice?
- Is this a way to make art you would use again?
People Needed to Organize: One (Homeroom Teacher)
People Needed to Carry Out: At least four (4) students
Recommended Setting(s): Classroom
Materials Needed: Optional posters or other learning materials
Time Needed: 30 minutes
Goal: Help students learn how to politely ask and frame questions about disability, the use of pronouns, and name pronunciations through social interaction.
Teacher Preparation:
- Look up guides or make posters about subjects like service dog etiquette, introducing yourself, asking if asking questions is okay, and what to do if you do not understand what a person is saying.
- Prepare a story circle to introduce these topics to students.
- Design some skits for (upper-grade level) students to perform and act out information.
Step By Step Description:
- Get students in a circle.
- Use posters or books to teach students about different social situations while asking them critical thinking questions.
- Have students perform skits in the circle to create examples of different social situations.
Reflection Questions:
- What does “polite” mean? Why is this important?
- How do you start talking to someone if you have questions?
- Can some questions hurt someone’s feelings? Why do you think that is? How do we make sure we do not hurt someone’s feelings if we have a question?
People Needed to Organize: One-Four (Homeroom or Drama Teacher)
People Needed to Carry Out: At least four (4) students
Recommended Setting(s): Classroom
Materials Needed: Projector, Film
Time Needed: 120 minutes
Goal: Teach students about people with disabilities while teaching them to reflect on the ways disability is popularly conceived.
Teacher Preparation:
Look up shows or movies about people with disabilities (Speechless is a good family-friendly option).
Step By Step Description:
- Screen the film or TV episode.
- Arrange students in a circle to talk about what they learned.
Reflection Questions:
- What did you learn from this show/movie?
- What was the character with disabilities like?
- Did you like the character? Why or why not?
Middle School
People Needed to Organize: One-Two (Social Studies Teacher)
People Needed to Carry Out: At least six (6) students
Recommended Setting(s): Classroom
Materials Needed: A computer and projector
Materials Needed: 45 – 60 minutes
Goal: Students will be able to identify at least one key event in the disability rights movement.
Teacher Preparation:
- Review the following disability history timelines:
- Disability History Timeline: https://disabilities.temple.edu/resources/disability-rights-timeline
- https://www.accessibility.com/resources/timeline-of-disability-rights
- Select a timeline of events from Disability History. Write different events from the timeline on pieces of paper.
- Draw the timeline on the board, but do not write the events on the board.
Step By Step Description:
- Teach the students about the timeline of events from Disability History.
- After the lesson, have the students choose partners.
- Give each pair of students one of the pieces of paper with the Disability History events on them.
- Have each pair figure out where on the timeline their event happened, and either put their paper on the board, or stand where they should be on the timeline.
- As a group, have a discussion about some of the events and allow students to talk about how they feel about the events and if they can imagine being involved in the event if they had been around during that time.
Reflection Questions:
- Which event do you think was the most important in Disability History? Why?
- What would you have done if you had been around for one of the events, would you have been an advocate?
- How do you think the people involved in the event felt? Were they angry, happy, sad, passionate or outraged? Why did they feel that way?
Author: Middle School Work Group
People Needed to Organize: One-Two
People Needed to Carry Out: At least five (5) students
Recommended Setting(s): Classroom
Materials Needed: Bingo cards with names of famous people who had disabilities, chips/ markers, cards with information about each famous person.
Time Needed: 45 minutes
Goal: Students will learn about famous people with disabilities.
Teacher Preparation:
- Use your internet search engine to find a list of famous people with disabilities.
- Develop the Bingo cards with a famous person with disabilities (from the Web site) on each square.
- List one fact about each famous person with a disability (from the Web site) on one side of an index card and the name of the person on the other side.
- Prepare a lesson on famous people with disabilities from the Web site.
Step By Step Description:
- Give a lesson about the famous people with disabilities from the Web site.
- Pass out a bingo card to each student with chips or a marker to cover up the squares.
- The teacher or a student will choose from the stack of index cards and call out the fact about the famous person listed on the card. The students will mark on the Bingo card the name of the famous person that they think the fact applies to.
- Continue to call out facts until one of the students calls BINGO!
- Check the student’s card. If they have bingo, the game is over. If not, the game continues until someone has BINGO!
- After the game is over, lead the class in a discussion about famous people with disabilities and have them answer the questions below.
Reflection Questions:
- Who were you most surprised to find out had a disability and why?
- Does this change the way you think about the person?
- How do you think this person copes with their disability?
- Do you think famous people try to hide their disabilities? Why?
- How will you look at famous people differently after this activity?
Author: Middle School Work Group
People Needed to Organize: One (Social Studies or History Teacher)
People Needed to Carry Out: At least four (4) students
Recommended Setting(s): Classroom
Materials Needed: Optional Projector to Screen Documentary
Time Needed: 90 minutes
Goal: Help students learn about the history of disability rights and justice in a way that triggers their critical thinking and empathy.
Teacher Preparation:
- Look up 3-6 events or legislation about disability rights; for example, the section 504 housing sit-in.
- Write the purpose of the protest/legislation on note cards
- Find documentaries that students can view after they learn the verdict of their case.
Step By Step Description:
- Split students into two teams; have one team argue for the prompt and the other team argue against, or have students make up their own solutions after deliberating with their groups.
- Give students 20-30 minutes to discuss their cases.
- Students will present their cases in a 5-10 presentation.
- Play a documentary for the students or facilitate a discussion with them about the real verdicts of their case.
Reflection Questions:
- What did you learn from this event?
- Can you think of some rights that you have that others may not?
- How do we make society equal for all?
- What are our inalienable rights as citizens? Does everyone deserve these rights unconditionally?
People Needed to Organize: One (art teacher)
People Needed to Carry Out: At least four (4) students
Recommended Setting(s): Classroom
Materials Needed: art supplies and paper
Time Needed: 60 minutes
Goal: To normalize adaptive clothing and teach students to critically think and problem-solve.
Teacher Preparation:
- Find examples of adaptive clothing or fashion models with disabilities.
- Create a presentation to share with the class.
Step By Step Description:
- Share a presentation on adaptive fashion and models representing disabilities.
- Facilitate discussion around creating clothing for specific purposes with assistive features in mind.
- Assign students a disability to learn about.
- Have them sketch out clothing with this disability in mind.
- Have the students share their designs.
Reflection Questions:
- Do you see many models with disabilities? Why or why not?
- How can clothing be used to help address issues people with disabilities run into when buying clothes?
- What are some features you can think of that would be helpful to a number of people?
High School
People Needed to Organize: One-Two (Physical Education Teacher)
People Needed to Carry Out: At least four (4) students
Recommended Setting(s): Classroom
Materials Needed: Computer, AV equipment, Internet Access or YouTube Clip
Time Needed: 30 to 60 minutes
Goal: Normalize disability and present it as something that is not a barrier.
Additional Information: Chris Nikic could be a great example as he is seen as a person capable of conquering impressive feats that people without disabilities attempt. Students could also learn about sporting organizations like No Barriers and Sportable.
Teacher Preparation:
Find interview clips of Chris Nikic to share with the class or coordinate with an athlete with disabilities to do a live talk with the students.
Step By Step Description:
- Show students the clips of Chris/No Barriers/Sportable.
- Students will discuss their experiences and answer the following reflection questions.
Reflection Questions:
- What was your favorite part of the video?
- Is it strange to see someone with a disability doing what Chris is capable of? Why or why not?
- Why do you think we do not know more famous athletes with disabilities?
- Will this experience change the way you think about people who have disabilities?
People Needed to Organize: One-Two (History Teacher)
People Needed to Carry Out: At least four (4) students
Recommended Setting(s): Classroom and/or library
Materials Needed: Internet, research tools
Time Needed: Over three or four class periods
Goal: Students will become aware of different disabilities and the role of famous people with disabilities in history.
Teacher Preparation:
- Search for a list of famous people with disabilities
- Create a list of famous people who have disabilities that student can choose from the Web site.
- Determine how many class periods that this assignment will take and what type of report (e.g., written report and/or PowerPoint).
Step By Step Description:
- Introduce the class to the assignment by explaining that people with disabilities lead productive lives in their communities.
- Have each students pick one of the people from your list.
- Students will research the person and what they have accomplished and how the disability played a role in their life.
- Students will write a short report or create a power point on the person that they selected.
- Student will give a presentation to the class about the person they chose.
Reflection Questions:
- What famous person were you most surprised had a disability?
- Are there any people in your communities with disabilities that you know of?
- In-class/Homework: Optional: report if not finished in class
Author: High School Work Group