From segregation to strengths: A personal history of special education

Author Michael Wehmeyer began his career in special education shortly after the passage of the 1975 Education for All Handicapped Children Act (which later became the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, or IDEA). In those early days, he recounts, students with disability were mostly segregated from other children, and many of the adults who worked with them assumed they were uneducable. Since that time, the field has come a long way, and inclusive placements and teaching practices have become widespread. But still, Wehmeyer argues, traces of the old segregationist mindset remain. Perhaps the time has come, he concludes, to rethink the usefulness of “special education” as a category and to focus instead on providing personalized supports and services to all students.