Disability Inclusive Curriculum: Changing Mindsets in Pennsylvania Schools and Nationwide

Lisa Aquila: When disability is missing from normal conversation, it is not looked upon as what it is—a natural part of human diversity. The reason I got involved is because I used to be a home care worker before I became disabled. When I was with consumers, I went to the Center for Independent Living here in Philadelphia. I saw all these conference rooms named after people like Wade Blank, Ed Roberts, and Justin Dart, and I had never heard of them. I thought, “This is something that needs to be taught in school. Why aren’t we doing it?” Kids need that sense of belonging. They need books and lessons that look like them. Non-disabled students also need to learn about the contributions of disabled people. Everything we do, Tim, is based on the social model of disability, which says that society creates the barriers for disabled people, and that’s what we’re looking to change.

Tim Villegas: Hey y’all, it’s Tim. This is Think Inclusive. Who you just heard was Lisa Aquila. Lisa, a resident of Philadelphia, has been a strong advocate for the Independent Living Movement since the early nineties, playing a key role in securing services for a friend following the Supreme Court ruling in Sullivan v. Zebley. She previously ran a home-based business creating personalized books with moral messages for school students. From 2006 to 2016, Lisa worked as a home care attendant until a disability limited her ability to continue. In 2017, she began volunteering for Disability Equality in Education, where she now serves as vice chair of the board and as an education outreach specialist. Lisa lobbied for the passage of Disability Inclusive Curriculum Legislation in 2022 and co-founded the Coalition on Disability Inclusive Curriculum, aiming to build awareness and support for inclusive education policies. Her work is driven by the social model of disability and the principle “nothing about us without us,” advocating for the inclusion of disabled individuals in all diversity, equity, and inclusion discussions and initiatives.

Thanks so much for being here with us today. We appreciate each and every one of you that listens to or watches Think Inclusive’s podcast, which brings you conversations with people doing the work of inclusion in the real world. While you’re here, make sure to hit the follow or subscribe button wherever you are listening or watching so you can keep getting Think Inclusive in your feed.

In this episode of Think Inclusive, Lisa and I discuss the importance of including disability education in K-12 classrooms to combat stigma and promote understanding. DEE, founded in 2016, received a five-year grant from the Pennsylvania Developmental Disabilities Council to develop this curriculum. The curriculum has been successfully piloted in several Pennsylvania school districts and is available for free to educators nationwide. Our conversation also covers DEE’s efforts to support teachers, their collaboration with various organizations, and the goal to bring disability-inclusive curriculum to every school in the U.S.

Before we get into my conversation with Lisa, I want to tell you about our sponsor for this season, IXL. IXL is a fantastic all-in-one platform designed for K-12 education. It helps boost student achievement, empowers teachers, and tracks progress seamlessly. Imagine having a tool that simplifies what usually requires dozens of different resources—well, that’s IXL. As students practice, IXL adapts to their individual needs, ensuring they’re both supported and challenged. Plus, each learner receives a personalized learning plan to effectively address any knowledge gaps. Interested in learning more? Visit ixl.com/inclusive. That’s ixl.com/inclusive.

Alright, after a short break, we’ll get into my conversation with Lisa Aquila. Catch you on the other side.

Tim Villegas: Lisa Aquila, welcome to the Think Inclusive Podcast.

Lisa Aquila: Thank you, Tim, for allowing me to be here. I’m a white woman wearing a black cardigan with a teal scarf, and behind me is a clock and the words “passion fueled.”

Tim Villegas: Thank you for providing that. I don’t always ask our guests to give an image description, and I’m really bad at it. So, I am a brown man wearing glasses. I have a blue zip-up hoodie sweatshirt, and I have white lights in the background and my salt lamp in the back. I’m actually in my daughter’s room, who moved to college, and I affectionately call it my studio, although she doesn’t like me to say that. It’s still her room, which it is.

Lisa Aquila: Mm-hmm.

Tim Villegas: Well, happy to have you here, Lisa. Lisa, you are part of an organization called Disability Equality in Education, also known as DEE. Tell us about DEE and how it started.

Lisa Aquila: DEE is a wonderful nonprofit organization, a 501(c)(3). We are the innovators of disability-inclusive curriculum. Our director, Alan Holdsworth, pioneered the idea that there was something missing in education—disability. He wanted to bring those conversations to classrooms, K-12. Hopefully, the next generation of citizens will have a better perspective on disability, and we can address and eradicate some of the stigma and stereotypes that go along with disability.

Tim Villegas: And how long ago was the organization formed?

Lisa Aquila: In 2016. In 2017, we got a five-year grant from the Pennsylvania Developmental Disabilities Council to create this website of resources and lessons for teachers to use. That was part of the stigma grant from the Pennsylvania Developmental Disabilities Council.

Tim Villegas: I see. What about Pennsylvania? What is unique about this program being in Pennsylvania?

Lisa Aquila: It’s really innovative. It’s never been done before, where disability was introduced in K-12 subjects, all grade levels, and all subjects. When we had success with our Champion program that we introduced to the School District of Philadelphia, after we had an impact assessment done and the results from students and teachers were so wonderful, we decided it was time to pursue legislation. What makes that unique for Pennsylvania is that at first, it was a bill. After I went to my state representative, Joe Hohenstein, he went across the aisle and approached his colleague, Jason Ortitay. It became part of the omnibus budget and was placed into the education code, which meant that the governor allocated grant funding for the pilot schools. Right now, we’re in our second year of a three-year pilot.

Tim Villegas: So, what I’m hearing is that there was a Champion program initially introduced to the School District of Philadelphia. With that success, you decided to pursue the legislation.

Lisa Aquila: Yes, we mentored the teachers in 15 schools to teach our lessons. It was so successful and the impact was so great among the students that we decided to pursue the legislation.

Tim Villegas: Right. Right. Why even have this program? I know it’s important to you, and it made a great impact, but what was the problem you were trying to solve?

Lisa Aquila: Well, when disability is missing from normal conversation, it is not looked upon as what it is—a natural part of human diversity. For me, the reason I got involved is because I used to be a home care worker before I became disabled. When I was with consumers, I went to the Center for Independent Living here in Philadelphia. I saw all these conference rooms named after people like Wade Blank, Ed Roberts, and Justin Dart, and I had never heard of them. I thought, “This is something that needs to be taught in school. Why aren’t we doing it?” I wanted to help Alan pursue this. Kids need that sense of belonging. They need books and lessons that look like them. Non-disabled students also need to learn about the contributions of disabled people and how they made an impact on this world. Often, disability is looked upon as something to be feared or whispered about, or the focus is on impairment. Everything we do, Tim, is based on the social model of disability, which says that society creates the barriers for disabled people, and that’s what we’re looking to change. All of our lessons on the website have been vetted and approved by disabled people. At the heart of our work is the famous phrase, “Nothing about us without us.”

Tim Villegas: So you said the curriculum is vetted by disabled people. Are there people that our audience might know who contributed to the curriculum?

Lisa Aquila: We have a Pennsylvania-wide coalition that has expanded into other states. Organizations like TASK, Vision for Equality, many parents, allies, and professional organizations have joined our coalition. We have a curriculum committee consisting of people with disabilities who review and approve our lessons. We have board members like Theo Braddy from the National Council of Independent Living, Anita Cameron, the famous activist and author, college professors from Millersville University, and students on our board who are part of the curriculum review process.

Tim Villegas: So you have a broad coalition of people working on this.

Lisa Aquila: Yes, and teachers as well.

Tim Villegas: I wanted to make a connection to something you said about being in this space and looking at names and thinking, “Who are these people, and why didn’t I know about this?” A lot of our audience is passionately interested in inclusive education and invested in students with disabilities being included in general education classrooms. A theme that keeps coming up in conversations is that if students with and without disabilities are not in the same space together, they don’t know what they don’t know.

Lisa Aquila: Exactly.

Tim Villegas: So you have children growing up and becoming business owners, teachers, educators, working in government—future employers of the world. If they don’t have people who are different in their classrooms, they won’t even know that they should be looking out for them and know how to interact with people who are different, who are disabled.

Lisa Aquila: Yes, and it really just makes complete sense to me that our lessons and resources are meant to be taught in general education classrooms. This is for all students, not just disabled students. Of course, disabled students will learn empowering stories, like the one of an 8-year-old girl who climbed the Capitol steps, got out of her wheelchair, and crawled up the steps as part of the Capitol Crawl. Every child should know this story and know that they can change a law at a young age. Non-disabled students will also begin to frame disability as just another social identity. When it is talked about frequently and often, and in the right lens, they will accept differences and embrace them. I just shared a photo of the signing of the ADA. In that photo, you’ll see President Bush seated in the Rose Garden on July 26, 1990, with two men in wheelchairs on either side of him. Nobody knows their names, and I think that’s a disservice. These people helped pass a law that’s a thread of our nation, and it’s missing from the books we read in school. Their names are Justin Dart and Evan Kemp.

Tim Villegas: Are you sharing it right now? There you see it. I can see it. That is really interesting, and I am almost ashamed to say that I don’t know the names of those gentlemen.

Lisa Aquila: Anytime you Google a search of the signing, you will see this picture.

Tim Villegas: Wow. So, who were these men?

Lisa Aquila: Justin Dart, the gentleman with the cowboy hat, was instrumental in the passage and was often called the grandfather of the ADA. Evan Kemp was also instrumental in the passage and made other laws that opened doors for people with disabilities, including employment laws. Our director, Alan Holdsworth, is an activist who was part of the DAN Network in the United Kingdom. He got buses to become accessible and have folks ride the bus along with everyone else.

Tim Villegas: Wow. Thank you for that. I’m surrounded by history makers. It’s really impressive.

Lisa Aquila: Yes, absolutely.

Tim Villegas: I’m interested to know, this disability education curriculum is so unique and one of a kind in the country. Why don’t we already have this in our standards? You would think that core standards, history standards, would include this. I was a teacher for 16 years. Did I ever teach a lesson on the disability rights movement? That’s an interesting question. I don’t think I ever did specifically. We talked about disability in some of my classrooms and about different famous people who were disabled, but it wasn’t from standards or curriculum. I’m just thinking of how nice it would have been to go, “This is not just something I think is interesting, but this is part of what’s laid out.”

Lisa Aquila: We try to infuse disability into what teachers are already teaching. We have applied the national standards for the core curriculum to every one of our lessons. We make it easy and have found a way to include disability in all subjects—art, history, even figurative language. We have a lesson that infuses disability while teaching about figurative language.

Tim Villegas: Right, right. So I’m imagining people listening, going, “Okay, this sounds really great. I’m getting excited about it.” Is this only for educators and schools in Philadelphia or Pennsylvania?

Lisa Aquila: No, any teacher anywhere can access our website and use the lessons and resources for free. We also have a recommended book list vetted and approved by disabled people, a video list, and a calendar of events that incorporate disability into every month of the year, into things they’re already teaching. For example, Black History Month, Women’s History Month, Hispanic Heritage Month, even Dr. Seuss’s birthday.

Tim Villegas: Well, you’ve done all the work on the front end for us, I guess, right?

Lisa Aquila: We try.

Tim Villegas: That’s amazing. Okay, so if anyone is interested in that, where can they go to find the information?

Lisa Aquila: They can go to our Facebook page, Disability Equality in Education’s website. I have a slide to share. Here we go. You can visit us on our coalition social media page at Support Disability Inclusive Curriculum. You can check us out on YouTube and Instagram.

Tim Villegas: Okay, we’ll make sure to put all those links in the show notes for this episode. What were you going to say?

Lisa Aquila: I’d like all your listeners to join our growing movement on the Coalition of Disability Inclusive Curriculum. They can email me or call 724-726-1155.

Tim Villegas: Great, thank you. We talked about this before, offline, about inclusion in general, like families who are pursuing full inclusion for their children. I know that this curriculum doesn’t necessarily address that. Is that something that is top of mind for the families you’re aware of in Philadelphia and Pennsylvania?

Lisa Aquila: We’re trying to let them know that we exist and that all of the lessons are meant to be taught in general education classrooms. Something that everybody needs to keep in mind is that Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is not just for students with disabilities because everybody learns differently.

Tim Villegas: Mm-hmm.

Lisa Aquila: It’s for everybody. I think the missing part of inclusion is that missing piece in education.

Tim Villegas: Yes. When you change mindsets, you change a lot.

Lisa Aquila: Exactly.

Tim Villegas: It’s an interesting parallel because, as an organization, MCIE partners with school districts, and a lot of times we are working with educators to change mindsets. A lot of what we do is kind of what you’re talking about here—disability education, disability studies, disability rights education. A lot of educators, just like everyone else, don’t know this information. They don’t know the history of disability rights or who the people are that made change. It’s the same thing for our students. If our educators don’t know, our students don’t know either. Who is going to tell them? That’s why I think this curriculum exists.

Lisa Aquila: One of the key areas of success is that we don’t just give this curriculum to the teachers and say, “Off you go.” We offer them support so they can feel comfortable with it, understand the social model, and why that’s important. In fact, part of the legislation requires teachers to introduce this in the pilot, and they must have professional development training from a disabled-led organization.

Tim Villegas: Help me understand, as far as it being the law, is there a timeline for implementation?

Lisa Aquila: We had the kickoff in November, and we’re now in year two. It’s a three-year pilot, and then it will roll out throughout the state. We have 10 school districts in Pennsylvania participating in this pilot—rural, suburban, public, private, and charter schools.

Tim Villegas: What are your measures for success after the pilot is done? What would be success for this?

Lisa Aquila: We’re grabbing a lot of attention and pursuing something that was done in Minnesota. To complement this pilot, we want legislation requiring teacher candidates to be certified in training on how to talk about disability and recognize ableism before they enter the classroom. Minnesota passed a bill like that, and we would like to pursue that in Pennsylvania. It would be a nice companion to what we are already doing before the rollout.

Tim Villegas: That is very interesting. When did Minnesota pass that law?

Lisa Aquila: Just this year. I’ll send you the information.

Tim Villegas: That would be great, and we can include that in the show notes. While the curriculum is fantastic, I know that people who listen are also interested in action—what they can do to advocate for disability rights in their state. We have a lot of different states represented.

Lisa Aquila: People think that once a bill is passed, the work is done. It’s actually just begun.

Tim Villegas: Right.

Lisa Aquila: We want to mandate this in every state. Wouldn’t that be great?

Tim Villegas: Yes, of course. The added part about our teacher education programs is also part of our discussion on inclusive education. Wouldn’t it be nice if we had educators who were not only equipped to serve all learners, no matter their ability, but also knew about disability rights as part of their teacher training? When they get to schools and experience a district moving towards inclusive practices, they’re not like, “Wait a minute, I don’t know anything about this. I’m not qualified.”

Lisa Aquila: After you teach a lesson, kids will have questions, and you want to answer them respectfully and accurately. That’s why we offer them support.

Tim Villegas: Can you describe the support? What does that support look like?

Lisa Aquila: Well, we have a membership area on our website where teachers can join Google Classroom and collaborate with their peers, talk about their work practices, and invite guest speakers to share their experiences. This is a service we provide at a very low cost to educators. It’s available under the services tab on our website. We also provide professional development and workshops. Teachers can even call us if they have a question when teaching our lessons. We’re open to supporting them along this journey.

Tim Villegas: Fantastic. Is there anything else you want to make sure educators know about DEE?

Lisa Aquila: The resources and lessons are free, so please use them. When you do, give us a couple of seconds of your time to fill out the evaluation at the end of our lessons. Let us know how it went and if you have any suggestions. We are open to that. Several of our champion teachers have written lessons for us that are now in our new and noteworthy section on the website. For example, a lesson on Greek mythology was written by a teacher after participating in our champion program, and we now have it on our website. We want to double our lessons by the end of the year and are looking to hire teachers for their lesson ideas. We are not done; we’re expanding every day across all subjects and grade levels. We also need funding. Right now, we have been working with the Department of Education and made a video for their training platform in PA called Schoology. If anyone is passionate about this and wants to help us, every dollar counts.

Tim Villegas: And you are a 501(c)(3)?

Lisa Aquila: Yes.

Tim Villegas: Great. So, if that sounds interesting to you, we have a lot of educators who listen. If you are interested in contributing lessons or helping to expand this curriculum, please get ahold of Lisa. We’ll make sure to have all the contact information and how you can sign up for updates and access the website in our show notes. We have a newsletter, right?

Lisa Aquila: Yes, we do.

Tim Villegas: Great. Before we get to the end, our mystery question, I wanted to share a trailer for your video on demand course, “Introduction to Disability Inclusive Curriculum.” For those of you watching on YouTube, you can watch the video here. If you’re listening on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, you can listen. Anytime, you can follow the links and find this trailer and the video course on demand. Here we go.

Lisa Aquila: Presented by Disability Equality in Education. “Introduction to Disability Inclusive Curriculum,” a course for educators. Are you ready for the next step towards inclusion? Are you ready to learn from the wisdom of disabled people? Are you ready to create a better society for all? This course will help you do all that and more. It will help you ensure that the next generation will have a future more inclusive than ever before. Are you ready to embark on a groundbreaking journey to introduce disability-inclusive curriculum into your general education classroom and introduce the missing component to your diversity initiatives—disability? Find out how you can be part of ending the stigma towards disability. This video course introduces the concepts, resources, and supports that you need to begin these conversations towards a better and more inclusive mindset for students in K-12. Hear from educators, disability advocates and activists, inclusion specialists, disability studies professors, and more. Are you ready to go boldly? The conversation starts here. For more information and to rent the course, visit www.disabilityequalityeducation.org/videocourse or email us at info@disabilityequalityeducation.org.

Tim Villegas: Oh, that looks fantastic.

Lisa Aquila: Every time I see it, I get the chills. It was really something great.

Tim Villegas: Yes, and a couple of things I love that you call out in the video trailer are that this is for your general education classroom. I love that. I also love seeing the people who will be in the video courses, and I recognize a few of them. Kate Small is one of the people, right?

Lisa Aquila: Oh, yeah. She’s wonderful. She gave testimony at one of our hearings to get the bill passed.

Tim Villegas: That’s fantastic. She’s from Pennsylvania, right?

Lisa Aquila: Yes, and so is Jenna Ruo. She works with Kate.

Tim Villegas: Wonderful. Well, that is fantastic. Everyone, make sure to sign up for the newsletter and use the curriculum. Once you do, I would love to know how you use that curriculum, and I’m sure Lisa would love to know as well. It is a free resource. We make this podcast, and I don’t know if it has impacted you unless you tell us. Same with our website. If you use the resource or find something impactful from DEE, make sure to let Lisa know how you used it in your classroom or community.

Before I let you go, Lisa, I like to end our conversations with a mystery question. Are you ready?

Lisa Aquila: Okay. I hope it’s not too hard.

Tim Villegas: I can’t make any promises, but they’re typically fine. Here we go. The mystery question is: Where do you go when you need to blow off some steam?

Lisa Aquila: Really, Tim, I go to music. I think music is relaxing and empowering. I’m doing a presentation this Saturday and tomorrow, and I’m using one of the songs to motivate people. It’s called “Man in the Mirror.”

Tim Villegas: Oh, yeah.

Lisa Aquila: I want everybody to understand that they can be a change maker. All I did was go to my state representative and ask him to pass this bill. I feel like I was a pebble in the water and started a ripple, but collectively, we made a wave.

Tim Villegas: I love that. Thank you for sharing that. That’s “Man in the Mirror” by Michael Jackson, right?

Lisa Aquila: Yes.

Tim Villegas: Did I answer the question right?

Lisa Aquila: Yes, you did. There’s no right answer.

Tim Villegas: I love music. Music is my escape.

Lisa Aquila: Yes.

Tim Villegas: How do you listen to music? Do you stream music? Do you have CDs?

Lisa Aquila: All different ways.

Tim Villegas: Okay. I’m so used to streaming music these days. I do have records. I still have vinyl records.

Lisa Aquila: My husband does as well.

Tim Villegas: I don’t listen to them as often because it’s like, you know, it’s a whole thing.

Lisa Aquila: A hassle.

Tim Villegas: Yes, it is. You have to have time to actually go and pick out the music and all that stuff. So I have Spotify playlists. How I like to blow off steam is running. I’m struggling right now because I’m getting over a knee injury, so I haven’t been able to run as much as I like to. I used to run fairly long distances, like six miles. Just in the last year, it’s been more difficult to do that. Even though running is still part of my life, it may be more diminished. I think how I blow off steam is exercise. Any sort of exercise—I’ve been playing pickleball, using a VR headset exercise program called Supernatural, walking a lot, hiking. Getting outside and doing something like that.

Lisa Aquila: Nature’s a wonderful escape.

Tim Villegas: Yes, exactly. Thank you for sharing. I would love to know how everyone else likes to blow off steam. If you want to let us know on social media when we post this, or you can always email me at tvillegas@mcie.org. You can also email Lisa at info@disabilityequalityeducation.org.

Lisa Aquila: That’s correct.

Tim Villegas: Lisa Aquila, thank you so much for being on the Think Inclusive Podcast. We really appreciate it.

Lisa Aquila: Thanks for having me.

Tim Villegas: That’s the bell for this episode of Think Inclusive. Now, let’s head to homeroom for the credits. Think Inclusive is brought to you by me, Tim Villegas. I handle the writing, editing, design, mixing, and mastering. This podcast is a proud production of the Maryland Coalition for Inclusive Education. Our original music is by Miles Reich, with additional tunes from Melody. A big shout out to our sponsor, IXL. Check them out at ixl.com/inclusive. We truly appreciate each and every one of you who tunes in. We’d love to hear how you’re using these episodes. Are they part of your teaching toolkit? Are you sharing them with school administrators? Drop me a line at tvillegas@mcie.org and let me know.

And hey, if you are still around with us this far into the episode, it probably means that you love Think Inclusive and the work MCIE is doing. So can I ask a small favor? Help us to keep the momentum going by donating at our website mcie.org. Just click the button at the top of the site and chip in $5, $10, $20. It would mean the world to us and the children and the schools and districts we partner with. Thanks for your time and attention. And remember, inclusion always works.

Download the complete and unedited transcript here.