In Nova Scotia, more people experience disability than any other province in Canada, with 5,600 students having learning disabilities, and over 1,000 experiencing a physical disability, according to the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development and Communications in Nova Scotia. Statistics Canada reports 7/10 students experiencing bullying in school, with 62% of students saying it directly relates to their disability, with this number increasing the more severe the disability.
Let’s take a minute to digest those numbers.
As a disabled student, those numbers are staggering and surprising to me, especially given the way disability is still treated in both academics, and the world around us. I have always been a strong advocate for statistics and numbers – even though I am not a mathematician! I like them simply because numbers talk. Numbers have the ability to demonstrate how, no matter the context or topic, a concrete amount can be visualized to make an impact.
So, let’s do an experiment. Picture five apples sitting in front of you. Really visualize them, bright red, large and around, a little dent here and there, and a tiny little brown stem. Do you see them?
These five apples represent all of the children in school in Nova Scotia. Imagine we remove one and a half of them from in front of you, leaving the majority of three and a half. Those three and a half apples (students) experience bullying and exclusion in school by their peers. Out of those three and a half, two of them are bullied and excluded because they have a disability. It’s saddening to imagine those apples, isn’t it?
As a researcher who studies disability in children and youth, these numbers are upsetting, and frankly heartbreaking. Schools should be a place for learning, making friends, and developing as you grow. It shouldn’t be a place where bullying and exclusion from your peers is thriving. My research looks to understand why disabled students feel excluded, and to understand from THEIR perspective how others’ actions impact their feelings and emotions.
In my upcoming posts I will dive further into my own research on this topic, and how I plan to execute this research.
Photo by Mareefe via Pexels
